Sebastian "xenn" Hoch, head coach of BIG, shared his thoughts following his team's disappointing last-place finish at a recent tournament in China, where they suffered defeats to BETBOOM and G2.
Speaking after the narrow 1-2 loss to G2, xenn identified CT-side performance as the primary issue. "Our CT sides were not on point today. Communication wasn't good enough," he explained. Despite having correct reads on opponent strategies and frequently stacking the right bombsites, the team struggled to convert those advantages into round wins. Their T-side play, particularly on Cache and Ancient, showed promise with a strong comeback attempt.
The elimination hits hard as BIG currently sits 10th in the European VRS rankings with a 100-point buffer above the cut-off line for Major qualification. Earlier this summer, they placed 5-8th at XSE Pro League and qualified through the challenging EWC play-in, though they fell to G2 and Spirit at the main event.
Looking ahead, xenn outlined the team's path forward. "We only play the Stake Ranked tournaments coming up - two or three events. Those are our main chances for the Major," he stated. Despite several teams trailing them in points, BIG faces a tight race with multiple squads still having LAN opportunities available.
The coach acknowledged the team's start to the season as "okay-ish," noting they had only six or seven practice days after the player break before competition resumed. "Now we have a few days off, then two weeks of practice," xenn concluded. "We can improve a lot of what we did wrong here and keep fighting for the Major like we did earlier this year."
