BIG's roster has been depleted to just three players as Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić has decided to step down from the team, while Kevin "keev" Bartholomäus has been moved to the bench, the German organisation has announced.

The announcement comes in response to the team's disappointing campaign at the ELEAGUE Major, where they went out in the New Legends Stage with just one victory from four matches.

Nikola "⁠LEGIJA⁠" Ninić will remain involved with the squad as BIG's new Head of CS:GO, assisting Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik and coach Alexander "⁠kakafu⁠" Szymanczyk with his "great experience and leadership", the German organisation noted, while Kevin "⁠keev⁠" Bartholomäus will continue to support the team from a backup position.

LEGIJA and keev are no longer on BIG's starting roster

These are the first roster moves made by BIG since the creation of the team, at the beginning of 2017, when the organisation paired the three former German players of NRG with Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget and keev, who were signed from mousesports and ALTERNATE aTTaX, respectively.

BIG made waves in the scene later that year after winning the Europe Minor and finishing top eight at PGL Major Krakow. But since then the team have been through a rough patch, which culminated with elimination from the ESL Pro League and a 12th-14th place at ELEAGUE Major Boston.

"Although we finished 2nd at DreamHack Denver and ESWC Paris in October and November, we weren’t completely satisfied with our performance since August 2017 and started to work on possible solutions before the ELEAGUE Major preparation started," a BIG statement read. "The practise results were promising, the team worked extremely hard and we also regained confidence. Unfortunately, the results in Atlanta didn’t show all those efforts and we didn’t reach the playoffs in Boston. "After intense evaluations of the current situation and under consideration of all possible alternatives, we came to the joint conclusion that a roster change will help our team in the upcoming leagues, qualifiers and tournaments."

Regarding the future of the team, BIG revealed that they are currently "testing possible candidates" to fill the two vacancies, with more news expected soon.

BIG's roster now looks as follows: