Five years of partnership: OMEN and BIG extend cooperation

"For more than four years, OMEN has been an incredibly important pillar as a partner for BIG, and have contributed significantly to our development," says Daniel Finkler, CEO of BIG. "I am delighted that we have been able to extend and even expand our joint cooperation once again."

As part of the partnership, OMEN sponsors the professional teams of BIG, including CS:GO, League of Legends, Trackmania and Valorant, as well as the jointly founded BIG OMEN Academy Team. The academy project is considered one of the best talent teams worldwide as well and a springboard for young talents into the professional scene. To date, more than eight former BIG OMEN Academy players have made the step up to full-time professional status.

For more diversity in gaming

In addition to the BIG OMEN Academy team, OMEN and BIG also set their focus on promoting female esports athletes. With the signing of BIG EQUIPA, BIG has added an incredibly talented women’s CS:GO team to their portfolio, featuring talents from Portugal and Spain competing in the ESL Impact circuit. With OMEN, BIG will focus on assisting BIG EQUIPA in reaching their professional aspirations, and help them climb higher and higher on the leaderboards.

"We were already looking for an internationally successful women’s team in the past years," says Finkler. "With the BIG EQUIPA team, we were finally able to successfully conclude our search. In the future, we will increasingly support talented, female gamers to enable them to realise their dream of a professional career in esports – OMEN will act as a partner and sponsor as an important driver of this new chapter."

"Diversity is part of the corporate DNA at HP – both internationally and nationally there are numerous initiatives for equal opportunities and diversity. I am all the more pleased that we now have the opportunity to combine our pioneering role in both diversity and esports sponsorship and to promote female talent together with BIG," says Jochen Ziegler, Director Personal Systems Marketing DACH at HP Inc. "We are confident and excited and keep our fingers crossed for BIG EQUIPA on their way to a professional career."

About the BIG. OMEN Academy Team

Since joining forces with OMEN to support young talents, an intensive five-week application and casting phase in October 2018 resulted in the official BIG. OMEN Academy team unveiled to the public. While evaluating hundreds of applications, replays and motivation letters and sifting through selected talents, the team of experts from BIG and OMEN looked for the perfect line-up.

Since then, our Academy project has brought home incredible results at a national level, and have left their mark internationally as well in various cups and events. Winning Season 15 of the 99Liga, the team have also qualified for both ESL Meisterschaft Spring 2022 and ESEA Advanced. Joining the WePlay Academy League as founding partners in 2021, the team have successfully reached the LAN Finals of the first two seasons, and made a grand final run in the third. Their competitive efforts over the years have netted them a total of $70,410 in winnings already.

Entering 2022 we have restructured our BIG. OMEN Academy team, keeping heavy hitters prosus and Aqua from the original line-up. Young talents s1n and hyped anf former BIG CS:GO professional Nils “k1to” Gruhne round out the roster, making the strongest roster competing under the academy banners so far. Former academy player Karim “Krimbo” Moussa successfully transitioned from the talent division to the professional team of BIG in March 2022.  We are now looking to challenge for the WePlay Academy League trophy, and continue our meteoric growth in national and international leagues.

About BIG

Berlin International Gaming, worldwide known as BIG, is one of the most successful European esport organizations. Currently, the German organization employs professional teams and players in eight different titles, including League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Quake Champions, Trackmania, Valorant, StarCraft 2 and PUBG Mobile, each of which are among the best in Germany and Europe. The organization’s flagship is the distinguished CS:GO team built around team captain Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz. With millions of spectators and crowded arenas, Counter-Strike is one of the hottest and most prestigious titles in the sport. Since 2017, the German team has established itself among the world’s top teams and celebrates numerous respectable successes.

Besides acquiring a BLAST Premier Partner Slot in January 2021, BIG was able to purchase a partner slot within the elite ESL Pro League in October 2021 after a competitive bidding process in a multi-million dollar deal. Most recently, the team qualified as “Legends” to the PGL Antwerp Major, which booked them a ticket directly to the main stage of the most prestigious CS:GO event and finished 4rth at IEM Dallas 2022, after a strong performance at the main event. In total, BIG’s professional teams have won over USD 2,217,000  in prize money to date.

About HP

HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers and 3D printing solutions, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com.

About OMEN

The OMEN brand from HP stands for progress in gaming and is committed to guiding gamers to the best possible performance at the highest competitive level, thus enabling them to anticipate and exceed their goals. OMEN offers dedicated gamers easily accessible cutting-edge technology and provides some of the best gamers with high-end laptops, desktops, displays and accessories. In addition to high-performance hardware, OMEN has also set itself the goal of promoting young eSports talent in Germany. The partnership with BIG and the founding of the BIG OMEN Academy Team is an important and supporting component.