BIG have revamped their roster for 2020 with the rumored additions of Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische and Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne, while Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik has replaced Nikola "⁠LEGIJA⁠" Ninić as Head of CS:GO.

The former Sprout duo's addition sees Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield and Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget leave the active lineup, while LEGIJA departs the Berlin-based organization altogether as a result of gob b taking over his former role.

Update: In a Twitlonger post smooya has revealed that his contract with BIG had been terminated.

BIG have stressed that the move is a result of analysis and discussions between team captain Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and the coaching staff, Tobias "⁠tow b⁠" Herberhold and the new Head of CS:GO, gob b, who has returned to a more active position after hanging up his mouse in August.

BIG confirm the rumors with the signings of syrsoN and k1to

syrsoN and k1to were heavily linked with this move as 2019 was drawing to a close, although they were originally believed to create an all-German lineup as replacements for the Brit and Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, who retained his spot in the team, after all. In December, both players left Sprout after year and seven-months-long tenures, respectively, and now rejoin their former coach, tow b, under the new banner.

smooya had been playing for BIG since April 2018, sitting half of 2019 on the bench before returning late in the year with little success. nex has been a part of the organization since its creation at the beginning of 2017 as one of the original members, but in 2019 he was in and out of the active roster due to wrist problems.

"It's our ambitious goal to strengthen our team and build a consistent and steadily improving roster, which is able to attack the top ranks in 2020," BIG's CEO, Daniel Finkler, said in a statement.

"Based on the experiences from the past periods, Tobias "tow b" Herberhold, Fatih "gob b" Dayik as well as team captain Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz analyzed all results and performances and decided to change our existing roster to have a fresh start into the new year. We fully support their choices and I am more than happy that we were able to convince syrsoN and acquire k1to. Both players showed their tremendous potential during the last tournament season and kept improving continuously. Welcome to BIG!"

BIG's new lineup looks as follows: