BIG defeat 500 to square up with Sprout in Elisa Masters semi

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz continued his streak of great performances at the Finnish LAN.

BIG secured a Elisa Masters Espoo semi-finals after taking down 500 2-0 in the first round of playoffs. The German squad barely came out ahead on Nuke (16-13) thanks to a couple of crucial rounds from Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa, before closing the series with a fantastic offensive half on Inferno (16-9).

tabseN's men came into the event without their star AWPer Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische, who is out with a COVID-19 infection, but still managed to claim a top-four finish without a dedicated marksman. BIG will challenge Sprout for a spot in the final on Saturday at 15:30 .

The defeat puts an end to 500's adventure in Espoo, but the Bulgarians can look back at a successful run in the group stage, in which they took best-of-one victories over Astralis, Complexity, Bad News Eagles, and SAW.

tabseN ended the series with a fantastic 1.43 rating

tabseN has been the standout performer for BIG at Elisa Masters, and the in-game leader carried his form into the T side of Nuke as he propelled his team to a 6-3 lead over 500 with a 16-11 K-D and a 1.53 rating in the first half. The Bulgarians struggled to maintain a healthy economy and were forced to approach many rounds with just Deagles or SMGs, but a force buy victory on the twelfth round allowed 500 to retake control of the game and string four consecutive wins to close the half with a slight 8-7 lead.

500 stole the second pistol round and briefly extended their lead to 10-7 before BIG found their mark on the CT side. It was a closely contested half as the Bulgarians were never far behind in terms of score, and it took two Krimbo triple kills in the late stages of the half to gift BIG a narrow 16-13 victory.

500 kicked off their T side on Inferno in great form and claimed an early 5-0 lead on their map pick courtesy of Georgi "⁠SHiPZ⁠" Grigorov's opening frags. It took a few rounds for BIG to find their footing, but a retake on the B site kickstarted an uncontested nine-round winning streak, which secured the half win for the Germans. Krimbo was a joy to watch, but it was Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann and Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein who topped the scoreboard before switching sides.

The Bulgarians earned their fourth pistol round of the series to claim a perfect record across the two maps, but BIG were quick to respond with a force buy to retake the momentum. Nikolay "⁠niki1⁠" Pantaleev's team struggled to mount an effective defense and only stole three rounds as the Germans cruised to a 16-9 victory.

BIG's next clash is slated for Saturday at 15:30 , when they will face Sprout in a best-of-three semi-final for a spot in the title bout. The two teams have clashed twice in the past two weeks, at the IEM Rio Major and in the Elisa Masters' group stage, and both times it was tabseN and company who came out ahead, 16-11, in best-of-ones on Vertigo.

Elisa Masters Espoo 2022Best of 3 BIGMatchpage 2 0 18th November 2022 500 16Nuke 13 16Inferno 9

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	50 - 29	+21	94.1	1.43
Josef 'faveN' BaumannfaveN	40 - 30	+10	75.6	1.24
Karim 'Krimbo' MoussaKrimbo	37 - 28	+9	79.5	1.16
Elias 's1n' Steins1n	37 - 34	+3	74.0	1.13
Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to	37 - 41	-4	73.1	1.06

500	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikolay 'niki1' Pantaleevniki1	38 - 41	-3	72.0	0.97
Aleks 'Rainwaker' PetrovRainwaker	32 - 39	-7	75.6	0.92
Georgi 'SHiPZ' GrigorovSHiPZ	34 - 43	-9	73.5	0.91
Denislav 'dennyslaw' Dimitrovdennyslaw	30 - 39	-9	63.6	0.87
Ivan 'Patrick' IvanovPatrick	28 - 40	-12	53.7	0.78

Florian 'syrsoN' Rische Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1771 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 27 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1996 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.70 Complexity #24 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliMichael 'Grim' WinceJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Elias 's1n' Stein Age: 20 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 269 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.64 BIG #14 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Bad News Eagles #16 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Georgi 'SHiPZ' Grigorov Age: 22 Team: 500 Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1792 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.69 Sprout #21 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea 500 #50 Nikolay 'niki1' PantaleevGeorgi 'SHiPZ' GrigorovDenislav 'dennyslaw' DimitrovIvan 'Patrick' IvanovAleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov Josef 'faveN' Baumann Age: 22 Team: BIGB Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1372 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Nikolay 'niki1' Pantaleev Age: 31 Team: 500 Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1088 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.68 SAW #37 Christopher 'MUTiRiS' FernandesRicardo 'roman' OliveiraTiago 'JUST' MouraJoão 'story' VieiraMichel 'ewjerkz' Pinto Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa Age: 20 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 404 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64 Astralis #18 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzBenjamin 'blameF' BremerMikkel 'MistR' Thomsen Time is adjusted to your selected timezone