Nicklas 'gade' Gade makes his debut for the BIG Clan in ESL Pro League Season # 14 this coming Friday. Last week, the 26-year-old Dane, who was signed for Can 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş a few weeks ago, gave the news site Dexerto an interview and gave detailed insights into his past.
First talk with manager in 2018
There is already a long connection between gade and BIG. The CS: GO professional revealed that he and the German organization were already in contact in 2018. "At that time I had a few conversations with Christian Lenz, we discussed a lot of things about which we had the same thoughts."
Actually, they would have found that it could be a good fit between both parties. Nevertheless, gade opted for OpTic Gaming, which had then loaned him from the North Academy.
Time at Optic and North
So gade and BIG lost sight of each other for a while. After seven months of OpTic Gaming, North brought him to the main team, in which the Counter-Strike professional became a fixture and, as captain, steered the team's fortunes.
A highlight of this time was winning the DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019, where the Danes beat BIG in the opening match. In February 2021, North stopped its esports involvement, citing the negative financial impact of the pandemic as the reason. A period of reorientation followed for gade.
Several Danish players without an organization then came together at the HYENAS. "I think I showed pretty good form in the HYENAS project too. At the same time, I led the players on the team, which was a great challenge for me," said the 26-year-old.
German lessons in school
According to gade, the HYENAS appearances had also aroused the interest of some organizations, but there was no commitment. But the Dane still had BIG in mind. "During a game with TabseN I said that he could report if something should happen to the team." Apparently Johannes 'TabseN' Wodarz took him at his word, because now he is part of the BIG lineup.
The language barrier between the Dane and the German team is not a big problem, because gade had German in school. On Twitter, he already addressed a few words in the local language to the BIG community. Sometimes he has difficulty finding the right words, but in the game it is "not a problem".
"German is a challenge for me, but I am always ready for a challenge. I am eager to learn. I took a few courses during my vacation. And if I speak the language every day now, I can improve even further," he said in the interview with Dexerto.
Versatile role at BIG
As part of the team, gade says it wants to be involved in a variety of ways. In addition to his role as a rifler, the goal is also to take responsibility for a leadership role. However, he did not want to dispute TabseN's role of in-game leader, he said explicitly. "He's doing a great job, and I'll leave that to him," she said. "I would like to be the second voice on the team and have a lot of influence with the call in the middle of the round. But I'm not trying hard to change anything."
The Danish CS: GO professional wants to grow into his position at BIG: “I'm just trying to get into the team. I want to see how everything works and then slowly adapt and find my own way. ”When asked about the great aiming qualities of his predecessor XANTARES, he remains extremely self-confident:" I know that XANTARES is a great player. I have other strengths I can bring in. "
© Image: @BIGCLAN twitter.com
