Rising from the ashes – “A Falcon’s story” (by TEDD)

Chances are, most of you were there to watch PGL Cluj-Napoca and followed the two main storylines, those of the finalists. But as much as seeing MOUZ lift a trophy with Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin at the helm and Lotan “Spinx” Giladi as the shining star has made everyone discuss the new iteration of the German organization’s CS division, there is another story lying in wait. The story of a wounded animal trying to heal, redeem itself, and merit another chance to be recognised as one of the most dangerous beasts in the world of competitive Counter-Strike. This is the story of “The Falcon.”

Growing stages

When talking about one of the most antagonised orgs in the professional scene, we must start from the very beginning in order to understand how tough the road has been so far. Entering Counter-Strike in 2021, the Saudi organisation did not necessarily “make waves.” Announcing a lineup consisting of players like NRG’s br0, Saudi Arabian players Viking & varK, and the duo of maty & BLACKEAGLE, a lot of people probably didn’t even realise the team existed, and for those who did, the project looked like an investment in the MENA region—a team you could occasionally catch at some closed qualifiers but nothing more than that. Well, all of that changed pretty quickly.

In February 2022, “The Falcon” became one of the few flag bearers of French Counter-Strike, signing the ex-LDLC & Akimbo lineup which, at the time, featured players like Maka, hAdji, Keoz, Kyojin and Python. Over the following year, we saw a lot of names come and go—from legends like Kenny “kennyS” Schrub & Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt, to players like Alexandre “bodyy” Pienaro and Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier, and even some international additions like lauNX, mhL & BOROS. This Falcons team was going through the motions, trying its absolute best to keep progressing and, from a regional MENA team, become one of the top dogs in Tier 2 Counter-Strike.

Unfortunately, bar qualifying for the BLAST Paris Major RMR with its French lineup in 2023, the organization couldn’t quite achieve the success it was after. They did not win a single online Tier 2 tournament except for the ESL Challenger League S41, which, at the time, did not even guarantee a direct spot into ESL Pro League but only a chance to fight for one in the EPL S17 Conference, where Falcons couldn’t show up and were sent right back to ECL.

It’s safe to say, the Falcons were not the standard for success, regardless of being an entertaining and fun team to watch. But being the “occasional dark horse” at the foot of the peak of the “Tier 2 Mountain” didn’t seem satisfactory enough, and this is where things got serious—or at least, they were supposed to.

Big goals, small wings

After struggling to find their identity as an organisation, Falcons finally made the decision to start their big revamp and “storm the fortress of Tier 1 Counter-Strike” with the addition of one of the most legendary coaches in the history of the game and five-time Major winner – Danny “zonic” Sørensen, who was tasked with building the next “behemoth” in Tier 1 CS.

On the 16th of December 2023, the team announced the addition of ex-ENCE duo Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia & Pavle “Maden” Bošković, as well as the transfer of four-time Major champion and one-time Major MVP – Emil “Magisk” Reif, who, alongside also ex-ENCE player and in-game leader Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer & 19-year-old talent Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas, rounded out the Falcons team that was supposed to carry on ENCE’s 2023 form into 2024 and allow one of the best young aimers to develop and become one of the best in the world, just like NertZ & Spinx did with the same core before him.

Sadly, this is not what ended up happening. Bar the massive investment to assemble and create what was supposed to be a superteam, results were not really there, and it felt like the cohesion wasn’t either. Even before the team had played its first official match with this roster, tension seemed to be present courtesy of the last-second dramatic turnaround which saw BOROS keep his spot on the team, regardless of the rumours about blockbuster Nikola “NiKo” Kovač signing from G2 Esports, which, according to multiple sources, was a “done deal,” until it wasn’t.

With that being said, there was a very sudden flash in the pan for the Falcons that made people believe things could work out. After finishing 9th–12th at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024, Snappi & co. surprised many with their 3rd–4th finish at IEM Katowice 2024. This event was, and probably always will be, remembered as the first chapter of donk & Team Spirit’s story, but for the Falcons, it was hope. Losing to Eternal Fire in their first game in the Group Stage only to best Rebels, Complexity & NaVi in consecutive matches to get out of groups, and even beating the new gla1ve-led ENCE in the Quarter-Finals—all of that, with BOROS playing some solid CS, were good signs for Falcons. Little did they know, that would be their best event all year long.

Not qualifying for the PGL Copenhagen Major 2024 just weeks after Katowice saw BOROS removed from the team and, from that point on, the year felt like a freefall. Allegedly paying $1 million to NaVi for a one-month-long loan of s1mple (during which he played a single series in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024, which the team lost to Metizport), signing Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen in March, removing SunPayus from the starting roster in September only to replace him with s1mple (this time AWPing) for the remainder of the season, and not making it to the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 after beating only Dynamo Eclot and losing to FaZe, SAW & GamerLegion—2024 was a complete failure for the Falcons. The worst part about it was that it probably felt like all of the players involved “lost themselves” in that team.

Magisk stopped looking like he was still one of the best role/anchor players in the world; Maden no longer seemed to have that flamboyant playstyle and sharpness; Snappi looked suffocated, desperate; and SunPayus, despite probably being the best player on the team, was just not himself from 2023.

With that being said, it probably doesn’t come as “breaking news” to say 2024 was not what the organization was hoping for, and by the time the year ended, it was already one of the most disliked teams in the world—not because of the players, but because of what it was doing to them. At this point, people seemed to enjoy “preying” on Falcons’ failures, but it was time for another rebuild, this time with NiKo.

Chapter 3: A new era

Shortly after not making the Shanghai Major, Falcons announced the expected benching of Snappi, Maden and dupreeh, as well as the decision to “return” s1mple to NaVi, meaning only the ex-Vitality & Astralis duo of Magisk and zonic seemed to be part of the org’s plans for 2025. On the 3rd of January 2025, the big move finally happened. The transfer that was supposed to be finalized at the end of 2023—and maybe even in the summer of 2024—Nikola “NiKo” Kovač joined Falcon to become the first piece of their 2025 rebuild and potentially re-ignite the fading spark of the project.

Just a day after, in yet another shocking turn of events—and despite conversations about the potential signing of Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and/or Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo—Falcons completed their new lineup after reaching an agreement with Heroic for the signatures of René “⁠TeSeS⁠” Madsen, Damjan “⁠kyxsan⁠” Stoilkovski & Abdul “⁠degster⁠” Gasanov, all of whom had just been key parts in Heroic’s Playoff run at the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, with rumours suggesting that the Saudi organization paid a blockbuster amount of $10 million. But did that move get people excited about the Falcons and make them stop comparing the team to a “retirement home for players”? Not quite.

The lineup did not look like the promised superteam that everyone expected. With names like s1mple, m0NESY, Jimpphat and even siuhy being mentioned, you could not blame the fans or pundits for not being over the moon after seeing the Heroic deal announcement, and yet, this one feels different.

“NiKo’s era” didn’t start great, but it wasn’t hyper-disastrous either. A 9th–16th exit at BLAST Bounty after beating ENCE and losing to an in-form Eternal Fire, plus a painful early elimination at IEM Katowice 2025 after another bad loss against XANTARES & co. and a close three-map-series defeat against G2 Esports, almost convinced everyone that this year was going to be just another one in the Falcons’ Death Note. But as they say about good things, sometimes all bad things also must come to an end.

Regardless of a hard-fought win against Ukrainian underdogs from TNL, NiKo & his new teammates were able to completely annihilate Boombl4’s BetBoom in the IEM Dallas European Closed Qualifier, dropping only four rounds across two maps and booking their spot for the $1,000,000 event. With NiKo posting a 32-19 K-D & a 1.83 rating in the qualification series—which, ahead of PGL Cluj-Napoca, did give a little bit of hope to the few cheering for the Falcons—it really was that event on Romanian soil that made some believe.

With the three best teams in the world—Team Vitality, Team Spirit & Natus Vincere—missing, the $1,250,000 event in Cluj-Napoca was a great opportunity for everyone else to catch up and for some of the Tier 1.5/Tier 2 teams that got to participate to further strengthen their positions for a potential Major Qualifier Invite. But the best way to describe the event is probably a “Hope Giver.” An opportunity for teams like FaZe, The MongolZ, and Eternal Fire to finally win a big LAN tournament in the absence of the top dogs, a chance for other big orgs like Falcons, Astralis, Virtus.Pro, BIG & MOUZ to show their transfer policy has made them stronger, and a stage for teams like paiN, 3DMAX, MIBR & Wildcard to try and make a surprising deep run—PGL Cluj-Napoca had all of that, but the Falcons were one of the teams to make the most of it.

From the very beginning of the event, the kyxsan-led lineup showed some promising signs after getting a 2:0 win over FlyQuest, but the questionable form of the Aussies kept people skeptical. In the second round of the Main Swiss, the Falcons faced off and lost in a tight fashion against a well-playing paiN Gaming, which sent them to the 1-1 bracket with the tall order of playing another team trying to fight its way out of a crisis—Astralis. The start was not perfect for the Falcons after youngster Victor “Staehr” Staehr led the Danes to a 13-6 win on Ancient, but it was not until Dust 2 & Nuke that we got to see what the Falcons could do. The second and third map felt like a walk in the park as NiKo dropped a 24-12 on Dust & a 17-11 on Nuke, registering an impressive 1.45 rating for the series, compensating for the slower series of a lot of his teammates, and that performance started a trend—or shall I say, a streak.

In their next game, Falcons played against a hard-hitting MOUZ side with Lotan “Spinx” Giladi making his debut and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin IGLing, and the outcome was the same. A slow start with an 8-13 loss on Dust2, followed by a competitive Mirage and an incredibly one-sided Ancient, as this time around NiKo’s heroics were assisted by Abdul “degster” Gasanov (48-48, 1.17 rating), who topfragged the server, and René “TeSeS” Madsen (42-44, 1.04 rating), whose rifle looked as sharp as ever and, at times, even sharper than NiKo’s.

But the upswing didn’t end there. In the Quarter-Finals, the Falcons took down a hot Eternal Fire in a 2-1 (13-11, 6-13, 13-8) fashion with the Bosnian superstar & Russian AWPer leading the pack once again, as the same would go on to happen in the Semi-Final where, shockingly, the №1 favorite to win the entire event—FaZe Clan—couldn’t get a single map against the fired-up dark horse.

And just like that, with NiKo’s capability to completely change a team, kyxsan’s incredibly dynamic and creative approach to the game, degster’s flashes of old form from his days on Team Spirit, TeSeS’s phenomenal sharpness and consistency, and Magisk’s experience and security, Team Falcons made its first Tier 1 LAN Final ever.

Sadly, the Grand Finals weren’t all about the “men in green,” and they ended up being the antagonist in MOUZ’s own story of success in Romania after losing the Bo5 clash with a 1-3 score. But that is far from the point. Regardless of Vitality, Spirit & NaVi’s absence, this Falcons lineup was able to show something that the previous one couldn’t in one year—potential. Whether it was just the brilliance of NiKo, the confidence of degster coming back, TeSeS playing like a star, or kyxsan calling out of his mind and doing the best possible preparation work alongside zonic, Falcons played well for the first time in a long time. We do not know if this form is here to stay or even if this is the five-man lineup that will get the organization where it wants to be, but we know one thing for sure—this team is full of players, and a coach, that have something to prove. Compared to some of the previous iterations, it feels like this Falcon might’ve finally been able to find its direction and will to fly.