XANTARES released from BIG contract

The player has been let out of his contract early, allowing him to pursue the option of competing in a Turkish lineup.

BIG have announced that they have released Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş from his contract, making the rifler eligible to join a new project ahead of the start of the season. The announcement comes two weeks after XANTARES stepped down from BIG active roster, following Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade's addition to the team during the tournament break.

The German organization confirmed that XANTARES will continue his playing career in a Turkish lineup, adding more fuel to the talk of a domestic superteam headlined by Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and XANTARES coming together soon.

"Today we are saying thank you and goodbye to XANTARES. We made the decision to fulfill XANTARES' wish and to prematurely dissolve his still-active player contract. Thereby, we would like to contribute to helping XANTARES continue his playing career with a Turkish team," said the organization's CEO Daniel Finkler about the player that spent three years donning the BIG jersey. XANTARES was due to spend the rest of 2021 with BIG as well, having signed a one-year extension in 2020.

"From the bottom of our hearts, we wish him all the best and much success with his new team and would like to thank him on behalf of everyone for his achievements and successes with BIG. The same goes for our outstanding Turkish community. Thank you for your fantastic support throughout the years," Finkler concluded.

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woxic set to return to competition

XANTARES leaves BIG with an MVP medal from DreamHack Open Summer 2020 Europe, titles from highly competitive events such as cs_summit 6 and DreamHack Masters Spring 2020, and an eight-week stint as a part of the No. 1 team in the world.

With woxic and Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın out of a contract for over six months and XANTARES entering free agency, the core trio of a rumored Turkish superteam is now free to join forces. The project has seemingly been in the works since June when the 22-year-old AWPer announced his return to competition with a five-man squad "ready to compete and grind", but the specifics about woxic's new team remain uncertain.