German esports organisation Berlin International Gaming (BIG) has joined BLAST Premier as a Member Team after winning a ‘competitive bidding process’, according to the tournament organiser.
BIG has become the 12th team in BLAST Premier’s membership programme, replacing 100 Thieves following the organisation’s exit from CS:GO.
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Robbie Douek, the CEO of BLAST, commented on the partnership via a release: “BIG are highly respected in the industry and have been one of the most successful esports organisations over the past 12 months – making them the perfect addition to BLAST Premier as a Member Team.
“We undertook an in-depth and extensive process when selecting BIG for our latest Member Team, the scope and level of interest and investment for this final slot is testament to the incredible growth and success of BLAST Premier over the last 12 months.”
Since being founded in 2017, BIG has slowly developed into a major esports organisation in Europe. Last year saw the organisation’s CS:GO team claim the DreamHack Masters Spring trophy. Moreover, BIG also has a competitive League of Legends team in the Prime League, Germany’s premier LoL competition.
Due to being a BLAST Premier member, the german organisation will automatically earn a place in the upcoming Fall and Spring Groups.
Daniel Finkler, CEO of BIG, added: “We are incredibly proud and excited to be a part of BLAST Premier as a Member Team. The successful acquisition is an indication of our outstanding development in the past years. We have clearly established ourselves among the world’s best teams thanks to our team’s hard work and people working behind the scenes.
“The tournament series BLAST has created in recent years is one of the most-watched, entertaining and competitive in Counter-Strike, and we look forward to competing alongside some of the world’s best teams in the upcoming seasons as a Member Team. At this point, we want to thank our investor Marc Staperfeld, who shared our ambition and supported us tremendously with the buy-in fee during the highly competitive bidding process.”
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BIG joins BLAST Premier’s membership programme of the back of the tournament organiser’s successful Global Finals. The BLAST Premier Global Finals peaked at 687,691 viewers, making the tournament the most-watched online event in Counter-Strike history.
According to the press release, BLAST is expecting to have up to 32 teams compete across its seven BLAST Premier events in 2021. Moreover, the organiser predicts that around 80 teams will compete in its qualifying events. Member Teams are expected to feature in at least four of these competitions.
The remaining BLAST Premier Member Teams are Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, OG, Vitality, Na’Vi, FaZe Clan, Complexity, Team Liquid, MiBR and Evil Geniuses.
Esports Insider says: BIG will undoubtedly be happy to have been selected as a Member Team for BLAST Premier. Whilst little information is given over the ‘competitiveness’ of the process, given the recent success of BLAST Premier, it comes as no surprise to find out that the position was highly sought after. As a result of its new member status, BIG has clearly outlined its ambitions in CS:GO for the foreseeable future.