tabseN on hyped: "He knows what he wants, which was not the case before"

"I'm glad that he also said yes to us," tabseN said about bringing back the AWPer.

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz has long been the face of German CS as the IGL of the nation's best squad, BIG, but the organization struggled to put together the right blend of players in recent times.

In the winter break, BIG opted to remove Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische and Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi in favor of Marcel "⁠hyped⁠" Köhn and Can "⁠kyuubii⁠" Ali, with the former grabbing headlines after a couple of superstar performances in his early days.

After BIG beat FlyQuest at PGL Cluj-Napoca to enter the 1-1 pool, tabseN spoke to HLTV about their new additions, BIG's start to the year, and why rigoN's signing failed to work out.

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That was quite a contrasting series. The first map definitely didn't go to plan, but then you reset for the next two and won quite dominantly in the end. What helped you stay in the game after Inferno?

We were just laughing it off of our shoulders. It felt good to be back on the two last maps, but Inferno was kind of rough. I would say calling-wise was not the best by my side, and also from the team timings, we didn't use them perfectly, and I was also stressing that we needed to go B more often.

They had a really good plan with countering nades and stuff, and I figured out too late what we needed to do. And on top of that, I think Inferno was like we were not really awake, we were a little bit sleepy. It's a little bit early for us. Inferno was shaky, but really happy and proud that we managed to come back.

You guys seem to be one of the teams that are more together outside the server as well, maybe because you speak the same language. Do you think that helped you reset after losing 1-13?

I wouldn't say it's mandatory to have all players from the same nationality to be on the same page or to be on the same level. But I feel like we are, at the moment, just a team. Everyone believes in each other, helps each other, gives good feedback, and gives criticism on a really nice level. It feels really amazing to be in this team, I'm happy to be part of it. I'm looking forward to having more time as well and also more games. It's a really early stage for this team and it feels amazing, I'm really happy.

You beat FlyQuest today, who beat you in the Challenger Atlanta final. They beat you at the Major as well. So you must be happy now that you finally got the W today?

Yeah, of course. Easy game.

You said it's very early for the team. The team had up-and-down results during the first few events, so how do you rate the start? Is this what you expected after bringing in two new players?

To be fair, I expected it to be a bit worse. We were doing a good job playing BLAST against really good teams. Also in Katowice, we showed a really good face, and now I'm really happy. My expectations were really low, I would say, but I knew if we are going to have a honeymoon phase, it's going to go away.

I want to work with the team. I want to get levels on levels, you know, always feel that we improve, this is how I feel personally. That's the most consistent way. That we don't have the honeymoon phase, that we just learn, improve, and keep going.

One of the new players is hyped, who was on the team previously, but you removed him. What changed in him this time around that you decided to take him back?

I'm glad that he also said yes to us, there are always two sides of the story. I would say the biggest difference is he grew up as a person. He now knows what he wants, he's giving good criticism and feedback, which was not the case beforehand. He came to us as a really young player, academy player, and he just said 'Yes, yes, yes.'

Now, he's just giving good information, and I'm really happy that he is playing with us again. He's so, so individually skilled, and he's a really good team player team-wise. I love to be around him, he has a really good mood, good vibes, and he's a good pickup.

As you said, he's got very high individual skill. He pops off on some maps and just peeks and repeeks everything, and that's not what we're used to from the BIG methodical style. Is hyped now the playmaker of the team, the guy who can just make his plays whenever he wants?

Definitely, he can do whatever he wants, but that was also the case with our AWPers back in the days, it's more that we try to synchronize everything. And also, we now have JDC who's giving us a lot of room to do something as well, and hyped is taking the initiative when JDC is doing something. He picks up the ball and is doing a really good job in noticing what he needs to do in that case.

This is something I'm really happy and proud about, that he managed to get into this spot as well. It's really hard to play in a team where maybe he doesn't have the most say, but when he says something, it has a lot of weight, and it's also often correct. And as you mentioned, he has a high individual skill, he can repeek, he can destroy teams. This is something I tell him every day. He needs to keep doing it, he needs to feel comfortable, especially against the better teams. He's doing an amazing job.

I also wanted to ask about the previous roster that you guys had with rigoN, which never really got going. Why do you think that was? Was he just not the right fit?

I would say rigoN is individually skilled, he's not afraid to do plays or whatever. But it's hard to synchronize the play style. If you know BNE, they have a really high-pressure [style], try to go through smokes, and this is not always how we want to approach the game. This is something that was maybe lacking from his side, but no offense to him, of course.

If you play for years in this style… It's the same for FURIA, for example. If the players of FURIA join a different team, they join VP, where they play really slow, I don't think it will match. So rigoN is definitely a really highly skilled player, but unfortunately, it didn't work out.

Do you think now kyuubii adds that element of synchronization that rigoN didn't?

Definitely, he's giving good information and feedback. He also says something if he doesn't like it, if he doesn't feel good in this position or whatever. And on top of that, he's also really calm. He's someone we can rely the most on. He's playing well individually, even though I know he's not satisfied with his own performance.

He can do much better, I know it as well, but he's getting into it. Today was a really, really good showing from him. I'm really proud that he can do it, and of course, he can do it way more often. That is something I can hopefully help him with.