The German marksman tested positive for the coronavirus just two days before the start of the event.

Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische will not compete at Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 after testing positive for COVID-19, BIG announced on Twitter. To fill the gap left by the star AWPer, Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann will return to the lineup ahead of the Finnish LAN.

This is the third consecutive event that BIG will play with a stand-in on the lineup after faveN was sidelined through illness and was replaced by Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein for the IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR and the IEM Rio Major.

syrsoN will miss out on Elisa Masters after testing positive for COVID-19

BIG are the third-highest-ranked team in attendance and were expected to make a run for the trophy before their star AWPer was ruled out of the event. However, the German squad is no stranger to illness disrupting their plans as they have fielded four different rosters in 2022 due to player unavailability.

Read more Fantasy game open for Elisa Masters Espoo

The German squad will kickstart their Elisa Masters Espoo campaign on November 16 with five best-of-one matches throughout the first day of play. Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's men were placed in Group A alongside the likes of Sprout and ENCE, and will compete for a top-three finish in order to qualify for the next stage.

BIG will field the following roster at Elisa Masters Espoo:

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz
Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa
Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne
Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein
Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann

Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik (coach)

Sprout #21 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 27 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1989 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.70 Florian 'syrsoN' Rische Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1771 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Josef 'faveN' Baumann Age: 22 Team: BIGB Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1365 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Fatih 'gob b' Dayik Age: 35 Team: BIGC Elias 's1n' Stein Age: 20 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 262 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.64 BIG #14 Florian 'syrsoN' RischeJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzNils 'k1to' GruhneKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa Age: 20 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 397 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64 Nils 'k1to' Gruhne Age: 23 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 1311 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 ENCE #13 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García