Josef ‘faveN’ Baumann has just given BIG one of the loudest locker-room endorsements in modern Counter-Strike. Speaking to HLTV during IEM Cologne Major 2026, the 26-year-old German rifler told the outlet he would ‘probably sign a 10-year contract’ if the organisation offered one — a number unusual enough in CS2 to make the quote effectively a public commitment rather than a literal contract discussion.
The faveN quote in full
‘If BIG would give me a 10-year contract, I would probably sign it.’
faveN emphasised how comfortable and motivated he feels inside the current BIG environment. The framing is significant: long-term commitments of that scale are essentially unheard of in modern Counter-Strike, where rosters frequently change through buyouts, performance-driven moves and short-cycle contract renegotiations. A player publicly anchoring himself to a single organisation for a decade reads less as a contract preview and more as a structural vote of confidence.
The second-chance context
The quote carries extra weight because faveN’s first stint at BIG ended in disappointment. The German rifler left the organisation during a period of inconsistent results and unclear strategic direction, before returning to the project during the current rebuild cycle. The return-stint storyline maps cleanly onto a broader BIG narrative — a Tier 2 grind under blameF’s structural leadership that’s now producing genuine Tier 1 momentum.
How BIG’s 2026 trajectory has changed
The faveN comment lands during one of BIG’s most stable competitive stretches in years:
- Steady VRS climb across European Tier 2/3 events
- blameF publicly framing the Tier 2 grind as Tier 1 preparation rather than trophy-collection
- The IEM Cologne Major qualification itself — earned via a consistent year of structural rebuild work
- Visible chemistry across the lineup, with faveN’s role settled and his individual form matching the team structure
What it signals organisationally
For BIG, the unsolicited 10-year-contract quote is the kind of public-relations gift no marketing team could buy. Recruiting and retention conversations get easier when an existing player publicly signals satisfaction with the project. Sponsors and organisational partners read the same signal — BIG’s talent layer is stable enough that long-term planning becomes viable. The Cologne Major result will shape how loudly the quote travels; either way, the underlying message has already landed.
The Cologne stakes for faveN
BIG’s Major run remains structurally precarious. The Liquid 13-10 Nuke loss dropped them to 0-1, and their next Stage 2 matchup against G2 is now the kind of high-leverage Bo3 that defines tournaments. A win validates the entire blameF Tier 2-to-Tier 1 framework and reinforces the faveN locker-room comment with concrete competitive proof. A loss doesn’t undo the structural progress, but it does push the trophy-translation timeline further out into the post-Major calendar.
The wider read
Locker-room satisfaction is one of the harder things to quantify in modern Counter-Strike. Player interviews are media-managed, contract details are private, and the actual day-to-day of a Tier 1 esports project rarely surfaces publicly. faveN’s quote is exactly the kind of unprompted, specific, structurally surprising comment that breaks through that noise. For BIG, that’s as close as a CS2 organisation gets to free positive press in the middle of a Major.
