BIG’s faveN to miss IEM Rio CSGO Major qualifier
Stephanie Lindgren/ESL Gaming via ESPATBIG have announced that Josef ‘faveN’ Baumann will not attend the upcoming EU RMR B tournament due to health reasons.
In a brief statement on Twitter, the German organization said that faveN will sit out the qualifier because of “a medical situation that requires him to rest at home.”
Replacing him at the event in Malta will be Elias ‘s1n’ Stein, who was registered by BIG as a substitute for the qualifier. s1n has been a part of BIG Academy since January, averaging a 1.24 HLTV rating in the team’s third-place finish in WePlay Academy League Season 5 and a 1.32 HLTV rating (joint tournament-high) in the runner-up finish at Fragadelphia 17.
It is unclear if faveN will recover in time for the IEM Rio Major, which begins on October 31. In July, he missed the final stages of BIG’s winning run in Roobet Cup and also did not attend IEM Cologne due to health reasons.
In a Twitter post on June 27, faveN said that he had “probably one of the worst immune systems ever” and that he was laying “flat in my bed with abdominal influenza.” Two days later, he wrote that “there is no end in sight to my illness.”
The list of absentees grows
faveN is the second high-profile player to miss the Europe RMR after Astralis’ Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke, who suffered an ankle fracture earlier this month. In a newsletter released September 29, the Danish organization confirmed that academy player Mikkel ‘MistR’ Thomsen “will stand in k0nfig’s place.”
Benched Heroes, a team made up of free agents from five different countries, will miss the event due to visa issues, ESL confirmed on September 29. Polish team Illuminar Gaming will take the vacant spot in the tournament.
Adela Sznajder/ESL Gaming via ESPATThe European RMR will take place between October 4-9 in Malta, with the event split into two 16-team tournaments due to the number of teams in attendance. BIG will take on Sangal in the first round of the B tournament, which also includes teams like NAVI, Vitality and Outsiders.
Even though the tournament has eight spots at the Major on offer, BIG’s qualification is not a certainty. Since the German organization was created in 2017, BIG have missed only one Major, the StarLadder Berlin Major in 2019.
BIG’s EU RMR CS:GO roster:
- Johannes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz
- Florian ‘syrsoN’ Rische
- Karim ‘Krimbo’ Moussa
- Nils ‘k1to’ Gruhne
- Elias ‘s1n’ Stein