BIG defeated Sashi 2-1 in the qualifiers to secure a spot at the EWC Club World Cup, with the rest of the qualifying run going quite smoothly.
This is BIG's second event of the season. They competed in the XPL held in China last month, but lost to PARIVISION in the quarterfinals to finish 5th-8th. After the event in China, the team took a two-week break, then resumed training about a week before the EWC qualifiers began.
In an interview with HLTV after the qualifiers, JDC said BIG treats EWC as a Major in a sense and sees the tournament as an important test in the team's push toward the top tier.
"Yes, to be honest: we've been discussing it internally at BIG, and we've said publicly, that we need to take the next step," he said. "We've been very successful in our journey in tier-two, tier-three events and cups. We've been winning these competitions, but that's not our goal, so hopefully this year is the year we take the next step."
"This means for us, of course, that we must be able to defeat any opponent we may face here."
Q: You are the second team to qualify for EWC. But the final process may not have gone as smoothly as you had hoped. Talk about your performance in this qualifier.
JDC: I think we got off to a very good start. In terms of maps and series, we were undefeated until this match. But you always have to respect the other teams. They know how to play CS, they are also fighting for this opportunity, and this was the third match of the day, the third BO3, so communication might not be as sharp, because energy was drained and morale might be a bit low, but that's just part of the game. As long as you can reset your mindset, it's a BO3, losing one map doesn't matter much, and I think we did that today.
Q: There was a lot of trash talk during the final match. Did you enjoy this face-to-face setup with only a few rows of seats between you?
JDC: Yes, the trash talk started on the last map because they are a team that really likes to scream, they enjoy doing that. I think on Ancient we got a bit annoyed, to the point where we wanted to fight back and give them a taste of their own medicine. We started getting a bit angry, so yes, you could call it a lot of friendly trash talk, but at the end of the day, we really wanted to win. So it was an old-school CS atmosphere. That's where I grew up, same with tabseN, and it gave us a nostalgic feeling for the tournament. It was pretty nice.
Q: Due to random seeding, the knockout matchups are highly unpredictable. How comfortable and confident were you when you found out the types of opponents you might face in this qualifier?
JDC: Yes, to be honest: we've been discussing it internally at BIG, and we've said publicly, that we need to take the next step. We've been very successful in our run in tier-two and tier-three events and cups. We've been winning these tournaments, but that's not our goal, so hopefully this year is the year we take that next step. That means for us, of course, we have to be able to beat any opponent we might face here. At least that's our clear goal.
So I think our mindset is not about worrying about who we face, but just showing up and truly playing our own game. Because we know we have the ability to beat all these teams, the question is just whether we show up and perform.
Q: You had a short break after the China event, right? How much did you train before this competition?
JDC: Yes. We took a good rest because we needed it. As I said, for the first six months we were training at high intensity, basically with no break between tournaments, working hard to climb the VRS rankings. So we took a good two-week rest. We trained for one week before this event. I think it was a much-needed rest. Everyone on our team is more creative and more energetic after this break, and performed better in the matches. I believe sometimes, depending on the situation, less is more. Yes, this definitely helped us.
Q: You don't have any other major tournaments scheduled at the moment. In the big picture, how important is this tournament to you?
JDC: We're not entirely sure what comes next. I think as players we don't even really look at that. It's more a matter for management. For us, this is such a massive tournament. In our eyes, it might as well be a Major. It's obviously not a Major, but it's a $2 million event with incredible teams, everyone is here. We want to prove that BIG is a good team and that we're here to really compete. So for us this is a Major.
Q: Now it's the main event, and all the top teams are here. What are your expectations?
JDC: Our expectation is of course to take it game by game, but as I said, we're here to prove we can beat stronger teams, so our expectation is that if we face these teams, we beat them. We're aiming to push for top 15 in the world, maybe top 10, and then keep going from there. So our expectation is to take it one game at a time, but to win every game.