Despite the roster coming together at the start of 2025, Falcons’ CS2 team are already in a state of disarray. The Heroic trio acquired to secure event invites are struggling, NiKo is visibly malding on camera every single match, and Magisk remains completely out of form. Simply put: it’s bad. Really bad.
Separate reports recently broke that Falcons are set to acquire m0NESY and kyousuke for degster and TeSeS respectively. The former is rumored to be done in time for the BLAST Austin Major, with kyousuke arriving afterward. It’s two more big money blockbuster moves for Falcons, for two separate reasons.
Credit: Sebastian Pandelache | PGL
In m0NESY, Falcons will get a real superstar, a top-three player in the world guaranteed to raise the floor and ceiling of the team. A reunion with NiKo is helpful, too. With kyousuke, Falcons are betting on the talent of the Spirit Academy star, often touted as the “next donk.” It’s a term we’ll hear to describe every high-potential player for years to come.
Yet, despite this bold move from Falcons, the signing of this duo might not prove to be the final pieces of the puzzle for the team. It’s hard to believe, but I don’t think that roster is the finished article. Let’s look at some reasons why.
When m0NESY comes to Falcons, he’s as close to a sure thing as they can possibly get. G2’s AWPer was a risky buy for his current team, but he has long repaid his rumored $600,000 fee from NAVI Junior. Now, he’s on a pedestal only donk, ZywOo and the best CS2 teams can match.
The same can not be said of kyousuke. Spirit Academy’s aggressive rifler is arguably the best young talent in the world right now, excluding donk, who is now well established at a Tier 1 level. Falcons chasing kyousuke to slot straight into their superteam is a complement to his vast potential, but the reality is that he’s far from a guaranteed success. Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of top talents fail to make the jump from the academy level to Tier 1. If kyousuke were to struggle, he would not be the first.
I’m not saying kyousuke will fail for Falcons. His mechanics are awesome, but he has never played a Tier 1 match in his entire career. No matter how you swing it, that’s a total coin-flip from Falcons. If he doesn’t work out, then it’s just another problem they might have to solve further down the road.
Credit: Sebastian Pandelache | PGL
When Falcons started to get serious in CS at the end of 2023, the signing of five-time CS:GO Major winners Magisk and coach zonic were seen as sure things. Almost a year and a half later, the accomplished pair remain on the roster on name value alone rather than any valuable contribution to the team’s accomplishments. With multiple iterations of the roster, zonic hasn’t managed to make anything stick, putting him on fraudwatch in 2025.
Meanwhile, Magisk’s numbers just keep going down. He plays the toughest spots, sure, but that was always his biggest strength – extracting excellent value from bad positions on the map. As a four-time Major-winning player, I get why he gets far more leeway than others. If Falcons can find his best form, then Magisk is arguably the best in the world in his positions. But that patience will not be infinite. Once m0NESY and kyousuke are onboard, the pressure for Magisk to find his individual form could finally be make or break. Continued failure to deliver would make him an anchor on the team in more ways than one.
Credit: Sebastian Pandelache | PGL
With degster and TeSeS seemingly on the way out, kyxsan looks set to become the final member of the Heroic trio remaining on Falcons. Throughout 2023 and 2024, he started to develop a reputation as one of the most exciting young IGLs in the world, in a scene where in-game leading is becoming a rarer skill. Even still, his time as Falcons captain has been rough so far. Under zonic’s coaching, he has looked like a worse leader than before. Perhaps not entirely his own fault, given the similar failure of Snappi before him.
But Falcons’ resources seem to be endless in pursuit of success in competitive Counter-Strike. If kyxsan can’t lead his team to success, especially with players like NiKo, m0NESY, and kyousuke on board, he’ll be replaced like multiple IGLs before him.
Harsh?
Sure. But that’s the nature of this Falcons project – win trophies or leave. Personally, I think kyxsan will be given more time than both zonic and Magisk, with the latter pair having a year’s worth of failure with Falcons prior to his arrival.
If the team does stay with kyxsan and goes down the route of a new coach, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of chance he’s given. Will Falcons invest time into their current young IGL, or spend the big bucks to bring in someone more proven? There are so many questions to be asked, and so many possible answers. I think kyxsan can be at the helm of a winning project, but Falcons may see his place as part of this puzzle differently.
Regardless of whether m0NESY and kyousuke prove to be the final pieces in the Falcons puzzle, one thing is for sure at this point: this organization will stop at nothing to reach the top of the CS2 scene. If they need to replace more pieces, so be it. Now, we can only wait and see how its future moves pan out.
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