BIG joins ENCE for $200,000 CS:GO tournament

BIG are the second CS:GO team to be directly invited for Elisa Masters Espoo, a $200,000 LAN tournament that will run from Nov. 16 to 20 in Espoo, Finland.

ENCE were the other team directly invited and HEET qualified for the event because they won Elisa Invitational Spring in July 2022. Elisa Masters Spoo will feature a total of 12 CS:GO teams playing in two round-robin groups, and the top three teams from each group will advance to the single-elimination playoffs.

BIG have been one of the best CS:GO teams in the world in the past years, having won multiple online tournaments between 2020 and 2022 such as DreamHack Masters Spring Europe in 2020, Funspark ULTI in 2020, and Roobet Cup in June 2022. They currently field Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz, Florian “syrsoN” Rische, Josef “faveN” Baumann, Karim “Krimbo” Moussa, Nils “k1to” Gruhne, and head coach Fatih “gob b” Dayik.

Elisa will directly invite other six teams to Elisa Masters Espoo and the remaining three spots will be filled by teams who earn their spot via Elisa events such as the ongoing Elisa Invitational Fall and Elisa Invitational Spring like HEET did.

Although the team list for Elisa Masters Espoo already features two tier-one teams in form of BIG and ENCE, it’s unclear if the tournament organizer will convince a top-five squad in the world to play in the $200,000 event.

This is because Elisa Masters Espoo will be played right after IEM Rio Major, the second Valve-sponsored tournament of the year, and the best teams in the world like FaZe Clan and NAVI will most likely want some rest before attending another event.