How BIG and Movistar Riders struck an unexpected friendship

Going up against FaZe's star power in the IEM Cologne semi-finals, the Spaniards will be able to count on at least one corner of the arena to cheer the underdogs on.

During their arena debut at the IEM Cologne quarter-finals, Movistar Riders’ supporters were overwhelmed by those cheering for Liquid. Spaniards, coming from a country not known to have a deep Counter-Strike culture, were few and far between in the crowd, and thus relied on the esteem of BIG's fans.

BIG’s Roaring Bears rallied behind Riders after Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz put out a tweet asking them to cheer for his "brothers from another mothers." As in sports, where fans of teams from different cities or countries end up showing affinity for each other for myriad reasons, BIG and Movistar Riders strengthened their ties at the event in Germany as Alejandro "⁠mopoz⁠" Fernández-Quejo Cano replied to tabseN's tweet by walking out on stage draped in a BIG flag so that a little piece of the hometown heroes would be displayed on stage.

Movistar Riders and BIG have a long history of playing each other, battling it out since 2018 in ESEA MDL Europe Season 27, DreamHack Open Sevilla, WESG Central Europe & Iberia Closed Qualifier, ESL One Rio Europe Minor Closed Qualifier, two IEM Katowice Play-Ins and ESL Pro League Season 15. Both teams changed players many times throughout the years, even going international and returning to roots — with Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield even playing this same match-up on either side —, but the cores and spirit remained.

A lot of these matches were painful defeats for the loser. Movistar Riders’ victories in DreamHack Open Sevilla, WESG Central Europe & Iberia Closed Qualifier and the ESL One Rio Europe Minor Closed Qualifier all ended up with BIG eliminated from competition, while both of BIG’s IEM Katowice Play-In victories were the first step in Riders not reaching the next stage.

The rivalry always stayed on the server, however, and the two teams became fast friends. "There's a friendly rivalry, most definitely," Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch says. "They play really good, structured, slow CS. They have outstanding players like SunPayus or mopoz, but they don't rely on these players to make plays, they really rely on their system and that's why we like to play them so much, because we really play some good CS against each other and I think that's what it should come down to in a professional environment."

Outside of the rivalry on the server, the two teams have also been a good support system for each other, sharing tips when traveling or just hanging out when there’s downtime. "I don't really know how it happened, to be honest," tiziaN says, "we just became really close friends. We always played tournaments, we also played some PUGs together, and they're just really nice guys. They're really forthcoming, they really like to talk and stuff. So we exchange with each other in tournaments, like ‘Hey, what are you guys gonna go eat? Do you wanna maybe give us an idea of what we can order?’ So we're in good contact with them. When they're out of the groups early or something at tournaments we go to them, hug them, say that everything will be fine. They're just really cool guys and we're really happy to be at tournaments with them."

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mopoz: "Playing [in the arena] was incredible, maybe the best experience in my life"

mopoz, who took some time after beating Liquid, agreed with the sentiment when asked about the Roaring Bears cheering for them. "It's because at every single tier one event [we go to] we're talking to BIG, we're like brothers inside the game and we think of them as friends," the Spaniard says. "We're just hanging out together after events, when we have any issue we talk to each other about the game. When we're at events we spend a lot of time [together], so it was really good to play here in Cologne and watch how they support us and how the Roaring Bears keep cheering for us and screaming. It was super good, we feel really, really good."

The relationship between Movistar Riders and BIG also works on a more institutional level, as both teams have followed similar paths by becoming Spain and Germany’s flag bearers on the world stage, one that has been moving away from national rosters. "They're one of the few national teams left in the top 20," BIG’s CGO Christian Lenz says. "There are more international teams now, so it's good to support the regional teams."

The Berlin-based organization also won the hearts of many Spaniards recently by picking up the best women's team in Iberia, BIG EQUIPA. "The Spanish fans gave us a lot of compliments for picking up BIG EQUIPA," Lenz says. "Even if I wondered why no Spanish organization picked them up, they at least gave us their support. That's something we honor and we hope they go even further here. We hope they can top our performance from 2018."

BIG had a dream run at the LANXESS Arena in 2018, reaching the grand final on home soil, and for Movistar Riders, winning their first Big Event arena match here is a similar thrill. But this time around, for tiziaN and company, the experience of being in the arena among the fans is now a different one as they went out in the group stage and it's Movistar Riders' turn to try and console their German friends.

"I have to say that I kind of get a bit emotional in the arena when I'm not playing myself," tiziaN says. "I see all of these fans, I get approached by so many people and everybody knows my face. Sitting in the arena, looking at the screens and hearing the sound of the crowd, it really gets to us. We need somebody that we're close to, so our fans can cheer for someone that also makes us happy as well, and Movistar Riders is the perfect pick — I'm happy that they made it this far. I'm very confident that they can win tonight against FaZe."

Movistar Riders may not have the flashiness or the star power of teams like Liquid or FaZe, and odds are that the hordes of Counter-Strike fans that have traveled the world to gather at the LANXESS Arena will be cheering for the best players in the world over a team that has made it to the semi-finals against the odds. It's a story reminiscent of the Sportpaleis in Antwerp not siding with Spirit during the Major and instead siding with the heavy hitters of the game, the Russians earning hard won cheers with each spectacular round played. In Cologne, one corner of the arena will be counted on to try and fuel the Spanish team as they keep living in the glow of their first arena run. Not just for themselves, but also for their friends from BIG.