Year in review: Firepower upgrades for BIG

We're coming to the end of 2024 now, so we thought it would be a good idea to turn back the clock and look back on the years of all the BLAST Premier teams.

Next up is BIG, the German organisation have had an up and down year in 2024, but they ended the year in a far more promising light than it began.

They made a few roster changes during the year, so let's take a look at how BIG have set themselves up for a potentially big (pun intended) 2025.

The first season

BIG's year began in disastrous fashion, they failed to even qualify for the RMR for the PGL Major Copenhagen, the first Major in CS2 history.

On top of that, they also didn't manage to secure a place at BLAST Premier Spring Final and crashed out of IEM Katowice without even making it through the Play-in stage.

With so much early disappoint, plenty needed to change, and both s1n and mantuu were benched as syrsoN returned to BIG and JDC also arrived. Both players came from 00NATION, where JDC had announced himself as a player with star potential after previously being a more supportive element with MOUZ.

The newcomers enjoyed an instant impact, BIG finished in the top four of the Thunderpick World Championship European Series #1 and also reached the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 19.

Also narrowly missing out on the playoffs of IEM Dallas, BIG were clearly on the up, but that was as good as it got in the first season of 2024 for the German team.

Photo: Michal Konkol

The second season

BIG headed into the second half of the year with yet another change, prosus stepped aside for the arrival of former Guild Eagles player, rigoN.

Another change designed to bring more firepower into the team, rigoN was also tasked with adding an unpredictable element to their system, something he had made a name for himself for doing alongside his former teammates at Guild Eagles and Bad News Eagles.

Despite the change, BIG remained in a similar place to in the previous season. they exited IEM Cologne in the same place as they had Katowice, and also failed to make it out of BLAST Premier Fall Groups.

At further LANs throughout the year, truly deep runs were hard to come by, but they did get their best result in 2024 as they finished in second place at ESL Challenger Atlanta.

A tournament they will still feel like they should have won, they lost 2-1 to Australian team FlyQuest in the final.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

BIG's year came to a close with qualification to the Perfect World Shanghai Major after an incredible 3-0 run in RMR A.

A result to be proud of, they were later denied an automatic place in the Elimination Stage due to a ruling change, but they made it regardless following a 3-2 record in the Opening Stage with wins over Passion UA, Virtus.pro, and Complexity.

Unfortunately, their successful run ended there. BIG exited the Elimination Stage with a 0-3 record, losing to HEROIC, G2, and then Brazilian team paiN in their final game.

A tough result to take, they will be able to take some solace in the fact that they were unlucky to have a second round pick as difficult as G2.

Although they didn't go as far in big tournaments as they would have liked, BIG's year showed a clear growth in the team. Starting off the year by entirely missing the Major was unacceptable, but smart moves since then have put them in a place where they now look to be a consistent tier one presence in 2025.