s1n: "I want to eventually become what tabseN is for the German scene"

Less than a year ago, Elias "s1n" Stein was introduced to North American Counter-Strike in the form of Fragadelphia 17. Since then, the 21-year-old has played in a Major as a stand-in and made a full-time transition to BIG's main roster. After a tough series against Heroic, Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho talked with the German player about the match, the new struggles of the roster, and his confidence after some tier one experiences.

Tough loss against one of the best teams in the world. What are your thoughts right after this series?

Our map pick, Overpass, I think we showed better results in practice; I think the first game of the tournament, the LAN pressure, got a bit to us. We didn't show our true selves, but we were ready to adapt to it, and I think we showed it on the second map, but overall I think we would have hoped for a bit more, especially because we didn't feel like we could press our game onto them. Obviously, it's against Heroic, a really good team at adapting, so it's still fine, we can take a lot with us, I think we saw an approach change between the first and the second map and that's what we aim for in the next game. We have a few days to prepare and let's keep going.

You guys are now communicating in English. How hard was it before the event and how hard was it during the game? Will mantuu learn German, eventually?

I'm not so sure about mantuu learning German, but overall I think English is a really good language for everyone, still, I think in theory and practice it was really fine, but still, in the first official we could feel a bit that if you can't go to your comfort zone, your native language, in a few situations it takes a bit longer to communicate. Overall, I don't think it's a big problem, we just need time. As with our gameplay, now we have another step, the communication needs to improve also. I think this is not a burden, what we say, when we say it, and how we say it, loud or quiet, that's what we need to improve. Maybe soon he learns German, he is a smart guy.

You joined BIG Academy at the start of 2022, by the end of the year you stood in for the main roster, then went back down and now you have been called up again. What do you expect to accomplish with this organization?

Especially now that we have had a rebirth of BIG together, I have been in this organization long now, and I've lived every face of the team. I think we just need to believe in the process and each other to climb the rankings, climb from the bottom to the top, because right now we have a young core, experienced staff, and, obviously, tabseN is the best German player there's been. Over time, we just need to trust ourselves and go step by step, improving game by game.

Having had the previous experience of playing some tier one events, including a Major, do you feel more comfortable now?

Yeah, for sure. I still remember the Rio Major because it was the first Major with Brazilian fans in the group stage, so we played a lot of games with fans and I grew with that, I learned a lot and overall I think it helps me in these studio scenarios. I was calm but it was also a long break for me playing in these tournaments, the first game was a bit shaky, I'm not really happy with my performance but overall, I learned to grow with the environment and I will keep doing a good job not to be affected by the pressure and to learn to handle it.

We have been following you since Fragadelphia 17. Do you remember those times?

Yes, of course.

Now you are with the main team full-time. What can we expect from you in the near future and in the long run?

I want to establish myself as a great caller because I have these huge pieces behind me. We have gob b, we have tabseN; I also learn a lot from Krimbo for sure. So over time, I want to help the team grow, be a good caller, and eventually become what tabseN is for the German scene, what gob b was for tabseN, I want to grow into a person like this and I want to help keep German CS on my back.

BIG will get back to the server on Sunday against the loser of NAVI versus Astralis in the lower bracket of Group B.