BIG announce TuGuX as a head coach of their Academy CS:GO team
Tugay "TuGuX" Keskin has been appointed as the new head coach of BIG's Academy CS:GO team, the German esports organisation announced earlier this Wednesday.
This marks the return of TuGuX, who has been out of the competitive CS:GO scene for almost three years, since he parted ways with ex-Dark Passage stack in May 2017, and his first tenure as a coach of a Counter-Strike team.
The German Counter-Strike pro began his career in 2008, when he played for some smaller German Counter-Strike: Source teams, including EnRo GRIFFINS KC-Gaming, Team SPEEDLINK, logiX c.V. and Tera-Gaming e.V. In September 2012 transitioned to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with zuom. He later played for Red Dead eSports, lociX e.V., Team Wild Fire, CPLAY and in January 2015 teamed up with Space Soldiers, where he spent almost two years of his career and build his renown as a CS:GO player.
With Space Soldiers, TuGuX achieved a reasonable amount of success, which includes gold medals from Operation: Kinguin, CS:GO Champions League Season 3, and ASUS ROG Assembly Summer 2016, as well as a silver medal from BlasterX INETKOX League and a top-four finish at Copenhagen Games 2016 and eSports World Convention 2016.
TuGuX's run with Space Soldiers came to an end in November 2016, when the organisation announced his departure on their official Twitter page. Since then, TuGuX played for ex-Dark Passage stack, which competed at some smaller C and B-Tier tournaments without any notable success.
Now, TuGuX is set to endeavour in his first stint as a coach of a CS:GO team with BIG Academy, where he will take over for Fatih "gob b" Dayik, who will remain tied with the team and help BIG Academy with his other responsibilities in the main lineup and the organisation's management, BIG's CGO Christian Lenz announced.
"Our BIG. OMEN Academy team is very important for us," said Mr Lenz.
"We want to keep improving the environment for our players continously, therefore we decided to look for a new head coach, who can support Fatih “gob b” Dayik, at least till summer. Fatih will continue to support our BIG. OMEN Academy team in addition to his management role and his obligations within our professional department.”
"I’m very happy that we now have Tugay “TuGuX” Keskin with us, a former pro player in German Championships (CS:S and CS:GO), most known for his time in Space Soldiers where he played on an international top-level alongside XANTARES as an IGL. He is also a close friend of our staff and players, so we are very proud to have him on board. Please give him a warm welcome to our family."
TuGuX entered BIG Academy in the middle of their campaign in the domestic 99Liga's first division competition, in which the team will hope to bounce back and improve their performance as they currently sit fifth with an underwhelming 5-5 record, which puts them just outside of the qualification zone for the final stage.
"Very glad to be back in Germany and to see familiar faces again after such a long time and I am confident that I will help the guys to reach a better level through a well-thought-out system," said TuGuX in a statement.
"My previous experiences in other projects will definitely help to shape this super talented team into something BIGger. We already started to work and it is looking very promising indeed!"
BIG Academy are now:
Markus "Anhuin" Paeseler
Lukas "HadeZ" Meier
Max "PANIX" Hangebruch
David "prosus" Hesse
Karim "Krimbo" Moussa
Tugay "TuGuX" Keskin – coach
