Smooya steps down from BIG, to be replaced by Nex

Photo: HLTV

BIG have announced that Owen “smooya” Butterfield will be replaced on the active roster by Johannes “nex” Maget, who is set to return to return to the active roster after a month.

In a statement, BIG’s Head of CS, Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić, explained that the difference in plays style was the reason for his departure.

“Its not always easy if you are the only foreigner in a team. We had some different opinions on how to approach the game and team development and it turned out that his and the teams not align. I’m sure that he is a great addition to any top team and I personally and the whole BIG family wishes him all the best in his future endeavors,” he said.

Nex, who has been out of the active roster since December owing to a wrist injury that could have potentially sidelined him for a while, was replaced by Turkish ace Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş.

The 26-year-old, however, did not require surgery for his procedure, and keeping this in mind the German Organisation registered him as a player/coach for the IEM Katowice Major, making him eligible for the tournament, as a swap between a coach and player is allowed once.

Smooya will be remembered in his 10-month tenure as giving a new vigor and hope to German CS, after having helped BIG reach the Finals of ESL One Cologne and a Legends Status at the FACEIT Major, as well as maintain a consistent top 10 ranking in the world.

“I had a long think about not wanting to hold this team back, I think they already have an insane system that just needs a little bit more work and they will become a standout top five team in the world, but, sadly, I don’t think I’ll ever fit into this system simply because of playstyles. There is no bad blood between anybody in the team, I just think personally they would be better with another player to do my role, as I’ve never really had the MAIN AWP role since being here. I had different visions of the environment that would be here for me at BIG in-game,” Smooya said.

BIG now have:

[flag=de] Fatih “gob b” Dayik

[flag=de] Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz

[flag=de] Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch

[flag=tr]Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş

[flag=de] Johannes “nex” Maget

[flag=at] Alexander “kakafu” Szymanczyk (coach)

[flag=gb] Owen “smooya” Butterfield (benched)

 

Photo: HLTV.org