gob b explains changes: "We thought that we need a second voice to help tabseN out"

Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik delves into reasons why BIG brought back Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne to replace Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch during the off-season.

Playing their debut with the new lineup, BIG have placed third in Group C after two narrow losses to HEROIC and a win over Evil Geniuses, and head into the second phase of BLAST Premier Fall Groups with sights set on an elimination matchup against the new G2 squad.

After the first phase ended for the German squad, we interviewed gob b to delve into the change BIG underwent during the off-season, removing tiziaN to allow for the return of k1to from the academy team to the main lineup.

The veteran coach was impressed with k1to's evolution during his time leading BIG Academy, saying the 23-year-old "learned a lot about the game and the overview of the game" and that it was a key factor in why BIG brought him back into the main roster to become a second voice in the team.

You can watch the interview in full above, or read it in a transcript below.

gob b, I wanted to go back to the change you underwent during the off-season - a little bit of a surprise for a lot of people to see you change after the difficult period you had going into the break. Can you talk me through how you came to that decision?

We were feeling like that this could help us to get to the next step, because we sometimes need a second voice in the team. After the period of time when k1to was playing for the academy team and also was IGLing, he learned a lot about the game and the overview of the game. This impressed us and that's why we were making the decision that we could maybe play better with him. At the moment, we tried to get every role working, but still need to have some work to do there. But that's why we changed, because we thought that we might need a second voice a little bit to help tabseN out. That's why he's in again.

Is that also something that he was doing while he was standing in in those stints for Krimbo and faveN for a few tournaments? Was he already showing those signs at that point?

Yeah, exactly, that's why we were very impressed with what he was suggesting, what kind of ideas he had, and all the stuff that impressed us, to be honest. That made a really huge part of the decision to pick him up again.

As I said, at first k1to replaced Krimbo, then it was faveN, and now he's coming in for a third player in tiziaN. Is he just that versatile? Does he just slot in different positions like this?

Yeah, it was sometimes easier when he was standing in for faveN, he had similar positions to him. It was harder for us when he needed to stand in for Krimbo, because it was just a position thing. Sometimes it wasn't that big of a deal in terms of positions, but still we couldn't all of our playbook, of course, and timings were a little bit different, we changed up some stuff so that everyone was feeling more comfortable. In the end, it was harder for him, but now we tried to make it work when we can really practice with him as well.

tabseN was doing an interview on the stream and he was saying that you've been missing something to become a consistent title contender. How do you think this will help you do that?

It's like that we get more consistent and focus in tabseN's in-eye, because sometimes he needs to talk so much for the team and micro-manage, and then he's of course not as focused as he can be. Now, when k1to is in again and giving ideas on the other side and suggesting stuff, seeing things, underlining things, what we can play and what is missing, helping with this kind of stuff, that helps him a bit more and - or at least that's what we think - the team is more stable. Of course, the firepower from k1to is also not to be underestimated, and that's why I think we can now be more of a contender than before.

You got to play a few officials here and I'm sure a bit of practice time in the leadup to BLAST Premier. How has it felt so far?

So far it felt like we still need some time, to be honest, even though the games were pretty good, I would say. Losing very close against a strong Heroic is not the worst thing in the world, I would say, and we just lost against them two times on the same map, also very, very close, as I said, and that's why it's not that big of a deal.

Now we have three days to evaluate stuff a little bit, maybe think about what we can do in the future to help players more and their positions, and we will see if this will help us. But I think we will learn from this more than from the practice before. The practice before would not have revealed everything that we saw today, so I'm kinda happy, but now the best-of-threes will be really important for us. We don't want to go to the Showdown or something like this, and we take it very serious, and I hope that we can manage to do that.

We were just talking that you were going to meet G2 first. What do you think about their changes and the team that they have now and facing off against them in the next stage?

Their changes make sense, right, but I was one of the only ones of the pros - because we got asked this in Cologne by the media staff - who said I wouldn't have changed. I felt like they had very good chemistry, but they need to build that chemistry up with the new team. I also know that now for us it's like we're also not as strong as maybe we were before, because we need to take some time so that everything is working, the engine is well oiled.

I know what they're going through right now as well, and they even changed their IGL, so they need maybe even more time. But I can see why they were changing, because they also want to achieve more than they are doing right now. I hope that they are not as ready as they can be in one month, so that's why I think it's not the worst matchup for us.