Show up when it matters: BIG

Peaking in the quarterfinals of their very first Major in Krakow in 2017, BIG came down to history as the team which abused a bug on Inferno and gained an unfair advantage due to that. Few years later the German unit became the world number one and despite not peaking as high as in 2020, still comes to the Swedish event as a top-10 team on the planet but with only “tabseN” and “gade” having any experience of playing at the Majors.

Due to their solid performance in RMR last year and in the beginning of this season, BIG only needed some points to solidify themselves among the Major participants. Despite starting their campaign at IEM Fall Europe with a pair of losses to mousesports and G2 Esports, the German team still ended up in tiebreakers with FunPlus Phoenix and mousesports, outlasted both and then swept Heroic, booking themselves the tickets to Sweden. 

It remains to be seen if BIG are going to return to their beloved Dust2 at the Major, especially in the best of ones, but for now their best choice is definitely Vertigo. Map they’ve mastered even with their previous lineup, featuring “XANTARES”, gives them a shot of winning on both sides of the map, which is important considering a knife round deciding the starting side for one of the teams. Vertigo, however, is very likely going to be their choice in best of threes, while bo1s might come down to Nuke, another map, where BIG are ready to take on anyone.

As per usual, BIG performance in the big moments comes down to “tabseN”. The in-game leader and the soul of the unit, “tabseN” covers big parts of the map due to his changing roles and an ability to clutch the impossible rounds - against a well-rounded Entropiq lineup this is going to be the key. It is even more important considering a lack of preparation, as BIG found out that they are facing a different team but the Virtus.pro very late into the process.

BIG are a 17:1 long shot to win the title at PGL Major Stockholm 2021, but playoffs are very achievable. Their map pool allows them to abuse different teams weaknesses and if “syrsoN” and “k1to” come to play, BIG are one of the last squads anyone wants to face in an elimination game. If they can cut the losses against a low economy rushes and executes, BIG can go far, but it remains to be seen if they actually can.