German team BIG announced that Turkish cyber athlete Ismailkan «XANTARES» Dortkardesh, who played for the team for almost two and a half years, will leave the team. He will get a transfer option, and his place in the main roster recently joined the team Niklas «gade» Gade.
The head of the cybersports organization Daniel Finkler said that now BIG is choosing between several options, and the decision to move XANTARES to another team will be made, «as soon as an offer is found that will suit all parties». The contract linking the player to BIG currently runs until the end of this year.
Commenting on the news, XANTARES published a post in which he explained that he decided to seek a new path to build his career. The player signed his first contract with BIG at the end of 2018, forming the core of the lineup alongside Johannes «tabseN» Wodarz and Tizian «tizian» Feldbusch. By 2020, BIG had managed to build a roster with which it scored its first victory at a major LAN tournament – DreamHack Open Leipzig and then won several other international competitions. BIG managed to stay on top of the world rankings for two months, and XANTARES won the MVP title at DreamHack Open Summer. However, in 2021, the team failed to maintain the same level, and as a result, its management decided to change the roster.