Against Heroic, BIG in the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” tournament Blast Premier Spring Groups missed out on qualifying for the final tournament for the time being.
“We played against the best team in the world. They know exactly how to punish weaker teams,” said BIG announcer Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz in an interview after the game. “The year has just started. We will do our best in the next event.”
After a false start with two losses, BIG showed improvement in the play-in phase. A clear 2:0 was achieved against the weak Team Liquid, which was in fourth place in the unofficial world rankings of “HLTV.org”. In the decisive series against Heroic, the team took the second map, but conceded defeat on the third map despite a comeback attempt.
The other places in the final tournament went to Natus Vincere, who narrowly averted a sensational defeat against Complexity, and to Astralis. The two-time Danish Major winner was in improved form but only prevailed against OG in overtime in a hard-fought third map.