It's Graduation Time For BIG Academy
BIG Academy has just released their graduates who are now moving on to successful careers in competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). They can finally move their tassels to the left and continue down a path to their new organisations. The official attendance list includes Markus "Anhuin" Paeseler, Max "PANIX" Hangebruch, Karim "Krimbo" Moussa, Lukas "HadeZ" Meier, David "prosus" Hesse, and their substitute Marvin “mvN” Labenz.
All six graduates have shown a lot of potential within the past few years, which is why some have already received team offers. Unicorns of Love and ALTERNATE aTTaX were at the top of the list when it came to scouting these amateur pros. Hopefully, their time with BIG Academy will pay off and lead to a team with a spot in the Majors.
BIG ACADEMY TIMELINE
The first players to join the program were Anhuin and PANIX back in 2018. Both Anthuin and PANIX played alongside a handful of unknown competitors who had the same dreams to play on a main roster. They started out competing in the 99Liga Season against WiseWizards, Private Esports, CPLAY, and Entropy Gaming. Their second-place finish earned them a spot in the Relegation stage which led to Division 2.2.
After fighting their way through 99Liga, BIG Academy made some roster changes before their big events. Hadez and prosus joined the roster on May 28th, 2019 with a chance to compete in events hosted by ESL. One of the top event organisers in the game, which helps teams gain attention from potential sponsorships. BIG Academy made their season two debut at the ESL Meisterschaft Spring event.
RISE TO FAME
They managed to win their first event since forming the program which earned the team around a thousand dollars. BIG Academy beat out Team SkinBaron and Heatwave eSports for the championship spot and mounds of respect from their peers. Halfway through 2019, the all-German roster went back to 99Liga with a plan of redemption. While they didn’t exactly dominate their opponents, 99Liga earned the team another thousand dollars. What came next was an unexpecting surprise for the entire org.
BIG Academy earned a spot in Blick Esports Masters, a C-Tier event between four different teams. After coming back from a fifth-place finish at 99Liga, BIG Academy was ready for something bigger. They ended up eliminating FRAGBOX 2-0 earning them a spot in the finals against epikk esports. While the matchup didn’t compare to their performance in the semifinals, BIG’s amateur lineup came out on top in round three. The five thousand dollar award left the pros speechless and was an out of this world moment.
LAST DANCE IN CS:GO
Before moving onto their 2020 season with some new faces, BIG Academy was able to scrape up almost three grand from 99Liga. Their strive to succeed was obvious, which meant BIG needed to find a new lineup of aggressive players. This is when Krimbo and mvN came into play and managed to complete the roster. Despite Krimbo’s late arrival to the Academy lineup, he still managed to earn himself a team offer since his graduation from the program.
The team had a slow start to the year switching between C and B-Tier events with little earnings. That was up until their entrance at 99Liga Season 15 against Unicorns of Love and TKA E-Sports in the playoffs. After two months of hard work and studying team chemistry, BIG Academy finished in first-place.
This was the team’s best run at 99Liga which earned them over eight thousand dollars. Their final event of 2020 was against eSport Rhein-Neckar which led to a fourth-place finish. Not a bad way to end their semester as up and coming pros.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
At this point in time, three players from BIG Academy have already received team offers since their departure from the org. Anhuin is the latest addition to Unicorns of Love, a team that is in the midst of a rebuild. The team has earned fifty grand in just two years and have shown lots of potential as newly founded org. Besides playing for BIG Academy, this is the first official team that Anhuin has ever played for.
PANIX and Krimbo will remain teammates alongside the players over at ALTERNATE aTTaX. The org is an even bigger step up then Unicorns of Love due to their earnings and achievements. Their previous players have moved on to play for major teams like Sprout, OG, and Epsilon Esports. BIG’s very own Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch even played for ALTERNATE back in 2016. Despite PANIX and Anhuin both joining the academy back in 2018, it seems like one player had the upper hand when competing.
BIG Academy seems like a promising program based on the fact that three of their players have already received team offers. It looks like Astralis and NiP have some competition when it comes to competitive programs. Not only does BIG have a successful tier one team, but they also have an amazing academy project.
Images via BIG
