Esports

BIG Complete Thier Counter-Strike Roster with a German Duo

By Tit Krajnik

11 Jan 2025

Tit Krajnik 11 Jan 2025

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BIG have completed thier Counter-Strike roster with the arrival of two players
Can "kyuubii" Ali and academy player Marcel "hyped" Köhn join the lineup
BIG will debut their lineup at BLAST Bounty Season 1, set to start on January 14

Counter-Strike (Getty Images)

BIG have announced a new Counter-Strike 2 roster, which features two new signings, ex-Fnatic player Can "kyuubii" Ali and Marcel "hyped" Köhn, who got promoted from the BIG Academy team.

The German duo join BIG's CS lineup as replacements for the recently departed Florian "syrsoN" Rische and Rigon "rigoN" Gashi, who were cut from the team at the end of 2024.

Hyped joins BIG as an academy graduate. The 23-year-old started his esports career in 2019 with DIVIZION and has since enjoyed a short stint on BIG's main lineup in February-June 2023 before returning to BIG Academy midway through the year.

After getting benched from BIG Academy in February 2024, the AWPer joined ALTERNATE aTTaX as a loanee and spent 10 months playing for the German squad with who he won two tournaments in 2024, DACH CS Masters Season 1 and CCT Season 2 European Series #9.

Besides the two titles, Hyped also led ALTERNATE aTTaX to Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024 and, in November, participated at IESF World Esports Championship 2024.

His new teammate, kyuubii joins BIG from Fnatic, where he has spent almost eight months on the bench. The 19-year-old signed for the Black & Orange in November 2023 but was moved from the active lineup six months later, having struggled with his form, averaging a 1.01 performance rating.

The roster changes follow a very turbulent season in which BIG failed to perform up to par with the expectations. While the German outfit have had their moments, consistency was not BIG's strong suit, nor have they managed to perform in bigger events.

Their most notable tournament runs included a fourth-place finish at Skyesports Masters 2024 and a runner-up finish at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024 in October.

At the end of the year, BIG surprised the world with a perfect run through Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, where they beat Passion UA, HEROIC, and Sashi Esports. However, they failed to perform at the Major, exiting the Elimination Stage with three defeats against paiN Gaming, HEROIC, and G2 Esports.

BIG's new roster will debut at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier, where the German squad will hope to get off to a strong start to the season.