tabseN: "It's possible for anyone to be removed, including myself"

The German captain says the team will evaluate their future at the end of the year.

BIG are aiming to save their season at Birch Cup despite an almost zero-chance to make it to the Budapest Major, but Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz says that the team is simply focusing on getting some consistency in their performances.

"It's about getting consistency, hopefully getting some good games going, and then we will see what happens at the end of the year," he told HLTV after his team made it through to Stage 2.

tabseN also spoke about the future of the team, saying that the team will evaluate whether it is still a good fit for everyone, his experiences in online competition, and his favorite Polish dish.

Listen to the interview here.

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What can you tell us after the first day? What do you think about the tournament and your opponents?

About the tournament, I think it's a little bit too messy. There are way too many teams, it's a little bit delayed and stuff. But we didn't expect anything better to be honest, because it's a new tournament organizer and we never heard about them. For this stage, they are actually doing well.

For the first game, I think it was just more about getting confidence in the game. It was the debut for them, a new team on HLTV, so we didn't expect them to be so good, no offense of course. For us, it was more about getting in the groove to play the game and get the communication going.

Fortunately we also won our second game against 500. It was good for us for sure, we played really well and should have won some more CT rounds. In the end it was just a matter of winning the game.

As we know, even if you win the tournament, you still won't qualify for the Major. How would you evaluate this season so far, and what do you think you were missing the most?

Missing the most was for sure consistency. There were a lot of ups and downs, more downs of course for this year. Even if we win this tournament, we all know that it's not about winning this tournament, it's about being more consistent. Making it the Major would of course be a dream. It's a reality, a really harsh reality and the chances are really low, but for us, it's not only the Major, it's also about playing even better, because we played really bad this year.

Therefore it's about getting consistency, hopefully getting some good games going, and then we will see what happens at the end of the year or next year. For us at the moment, it's of course about getting as many points as we can and trying to make the best out of it. If it doesn't work, then we have the results.

Are you planning to stick with the current roster, or should we expect a lineup change after the Major?

This is something I cannot comment about, it's not my job to make these decisions. What I can say is that we are not satisfied with the results within the team. We all know that we can be better but the reality is we are not better, we are worse than we have been before. What is important for us is of course just maintain some consistency, still be motivated, still be grateful that we are part of this journey, and after that we will see what the management will do.

I don't think anyone is secure, it's possible for anyone to be removed, including myself. I told management that it's really important for me that I also get this treatment. I have been here many times, I try to make the best out of it for the community, for myself, and at some point we need to see if it's still a [good] fit or not. This is something we will evaluate at the end of the year.

Compared to last year you have been playing more online matches. What's your take on the current state of tier-two and tier-three CS? Do you find online games more difficult than LAN events?

Yeah for sure. I think tier-two, tier-three, which we have been at the moment, is a mess. I think tournament organizers don't really pay attention to their own rules, they don't make the cameras how they should be. On top of that, I think the integrity of the game, cheating and everything, is the worst it has ever been, and it's getting worse because all the tier-three, tier-four teams are getting into tier-two nowadays, there are many online tournaments.

Also for us, we play against teams that play every day, maybe two or three officials. For us, it was like we go to this tournament, we play one or two officials in two or three weeks, so it's definitely a huge difference between us and them. Teams have in the last three months 110 maps played, and we have maybe 80 maps played, it's a huge comparison against them.

I think they also feel confident at home, they have their environment and stuff, so I think tier-two is a mess. I also think this type of tournament is mandatory in the future, to make sure teams are not cheating. It's a different feeling for teams who are never on LAN, they come here and they enjoy this, they see other players, they have the feeling of being on LAN. Hopefully it will be better in the future.

Lastly, can you tell us what your favorite Polish dish is?

Of course. [laughs] My favorite Polish dish is bigos. It's really good!