syrsoN cleared to compete in Katowice, optimistic about recovery: "It should be fine in two more weeks"

Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische gave insight into his post-surgery recovery which nearly sidelined him for the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.

Had the information not been revealed through BLAST's broadcast, it would be hard to imagine that syrsoN was facing any difficulties during the two-week group stage. BIG's AWPer dropped a 1.42 rating in the first game against Ninjas in Pyjamas and went on to average a 1.31 rating in his team's successful qualification for the Spring Finals. Only two players outperformed him in the groups: Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut.

But syrsoN was in fact supposed to miss out on the opening matches as he was recovering from a medical procedure, and barely played any CS outside of the official matches. For the same reason, it wasn't certain that he would be able to travel to Poland for IEM Katowice, but with the recovery going according to plan, he has been cleared to compete at the first big LAN event of the year.

HLTV.org spoke to syrsoN to get insight into his situation, with the 25-year-old explaining that on the day of the surgery, he was told that he wouldn't be allowed to walk or sit for at least three days. "The day after that I went for a follow-up check and I asked the doctor if it was possible to sit for three hours." He got the green light and BIG avoided fielding Niclas "⁠enkay J⁠" Krumhorn as a stand-in for the initial games.

"I was really happy after that because my mates didn't have to play with a stand-in. I took some painkillers, turned on my PC, played, and after the game, I went directly to bed again. For the other BLAST games, I did analysis from bed via Discord. then before the game I turned on my PC and just played with a little warmup session."

Since the BLAST groups wrapped up, his condition improved, syrsoN continues. "I can sit up to six hours now. Our schedule looks as follows: two hours of theory, which I do from bed via Discord — so someone is streaming everything for me. Then I turn on my PC and play four scrims. Individually I don't play that much at the moment."

While the duration of recovery from the surgery he underwent can vary, syrsoN is optimistic about the process."The doctor said it will take at least two weeks until everything is ok, but if I walk or sit more it can also take 4-6 weeks. But to be honest, I'm really careful with everything and it should be fine in two more weeks."

For the fans of the German outfit, the most important information is that syrsoN will be able to travel and compete at IEM Katowice. Despite his difficulties, the sniper hopes to maintain his strong form.

"I hope that I can be at the same level I showed at BLAST, or even better, but I don't stress myself about it. My goal for sure is to play in front of a crowd again and I think that's the goal for all of us but we will take everything step by step — first we need to go through the play-ins."

BIG start their journey at IEM Katowice on February 15th, in the play-in stage with a BO1 match against Complexity.