KRL on Falcons superteam rumors: "If you want to go big, you need to get everyone"

HLTV Confirmed went through all of the news and rumors surrounding Falcons' reported attempts to put together a super team.

Falcons are allegedly gearing up to put together a blockbuster roster in the coming months, with a raft of big-name players linked with moves to the organization. The HLTV Confirmed crew discussed the rumors flying around in detail, with Lucas "⁠Bubzkji⁠" Andersen and particularly Sebastien "⁠KRL⁠" Perez offering their keenly-informed insight on the situation.

Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen was the first topic of conversation, as the Danish coach has already committed to the Falcons project. It is well-known that Vitality are in the midst of an attempt to cut costs, and this affected their approach to dealing with zonic’s contract renewal. Zvonimir "⁠Professeur⁠" Burazin mentioned the rumored numbers attached to zonic’s move to Falcons, specifically a $1.2mil salary per year, which KRL was quick to rubbish.

"I think it’s bullshit," the Frenchman stated. "I think he has big bonuses to activate on his contract and maybe he can reach that if he achieves everything, like winning a Major, being top 20 HLTV for six months, or something like that. From what I heard he has the same salary as on Vitality, but with very easy bonuses to activate to get him 15k or 20k more monthly. For sure he is getting paid more than in Vitality." Bubzkji built upon this point, saying he did not believe zonic ever planned to leave Vitality, and that Falcons capitalized on a poor approach to contract negotiations by Vitality.

"From what I know, it was not his plan to ever join Falcons, I think they actually capitalized on Vitality being a little bit cheap," the Dane stated. "I think they offered him a pretty shitty salary, and I don’t think they believed zonic could get a really good salary elsewhere, and then zonic probably searched the market for what he could get. Falcons contact him, he gets a good amount of money, and Vitality comes crawling back like, 'Hey, we’ll give the same.'"

KRL confirmed this version of events, saying "that’s exactly what happened, zonic told them 'oh I have this offer on the table, can you align on it?' and they said 'no, no we can’t!'"

Chat then turned to Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif, who has been linked with a number of teams in recent times, but the most credible rumors suggest he will join zonic at Falcons. "Of course he’s going to Falcons with zonic, I am 100% sure about it." KRL stated confidently, which supports HLTV's recent report that Magisk to Falcons is now a done deal. Bubzkji was once again quick to point out the errors Vitality might have made in dealing with their cost-cutting efforts, and how this could have contributed to Magisk’s decision.

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Sources: Magisk to Falcons done deal

"I think it starts with Vitality giving a low offer at first, right?" He said. "From a player perspective, if an org comes to me and says, 'Hey, we want you to re-sign, but you have to go down 50%,' then I’m kinda like, 'Bro I just won you a Major, why are you lowballing me so much when you know my value is it least the same?' I get they had to cut costs, but they had to maybe start at 10% lower, or something like this. I would personally feel a little bit offended if I had just won a Major for a team that was only looking for this title."

Professeur asked if many of the current Falcons players would be sticking around, as the team have been linked with a vast array of the biggest names in the CS scene. "Of course not," KRL began. "Have you seen the results from Falcons recently? They are very shit, very very shit. Of course if you want to bring players like NiKo and m0NESY, you can’t keep lauNX, mhL, bodyy. If you want to go big, you need to get everyone."

The discussion moved on to tackling some of the other players Falcons are rumored to be pursuing, one of them being Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač. KRL compared G2’s situation with Vitality’s. "it’s the same for G2," he said, "that’s why they don’t re-sign NiKo, because they can’t offer him the same salary anymore. I think it’s between 45k and 55k." He continued by pointing out Falcons' negotiating power, saying that "Falcons can put the biggest offer on the table. Who can go over 50, 60k salary for a player, monthly? No one."

Milan "⁠Striker⁠" Švejda put a dampener on the potential of a move to Falcons for NiKo, however. "The recent stuff I heard about that part specifically is that NiKo is not likely at the moment," Striker began. "There have been talks, but it has apparently not gone anywhere particularly concrete at the moment. Not sure if that’s 100% true, this is just one side that I’ve heard this from."

Other names were mentioned as being heavily linked with a Falcons move, namely Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer. "I am very happy about Snappi in Falcons to work with zonic," KRL gushed. "I think it could be a banger." Another name discussed was Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov, who Striker mentioned had already turned down a previous offer from Falcons in the summer player break.