Falcons comment on skipping BLASTs

18-7-2025 21:24

Falcons' manager has pulled back the curtain on the team's decision to skip BLAST Bounty and Open.

Falcons foresee potential issues getting kyousuke to all Schengen events

Over the past two days, it was revealed that Falcons had decided to decline invitations to participate in BLAST's next two tournaments, Bounty (August 5-17) and Open (August 27-September 7).

BLAST announces Open London teams

In a reply to an inquiry from HLTV, Falcons' Counter-Strike operations manager, Xavier Roussac, pulled back the curtain on why that was the case.

Roussac explained that it was a combination of two factors: potential difficulties with getting Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin the necessary visas and the lower impact of the two events on the Valve Regional Standings due to the majority of them being held online.

"Kyousuke is 17 and hasn't really traveled before, which makes getting a Schengen visa a bit harder. We'll get them, but at first it'll only be for 30 days. That means he'll need to reapply between events. With the processing time from application to approval, it takes quite a while, so we might not be able to play every Schengen event," the manager explained.

"The VRS impact of BLAST will be minimal compared to the time commitment since most of it is online and less 'exciting' to play," he went on.

The team will participate in FISSURE Playground 2 because of the impact on the VRS instead, the manager added. Invites are yet to be revealed, but Falcons are well within the invite range for the tournament, which will host 16 teams invited by Global VRS.

The event will take place in Belgrade, Serbia from September 12-21 and does not clash with either BLAST tournament, but it will dwarf both in terms of impact on the VRS due to the entirety being held on LAN and featuring a much larger prizepool: $1.25 million, compared to the $500,000 Bounty and $330,000 Open.

kyousuke

2025-07-18 21:24

290

4 replies

the falconians can afford to miss out on tournaments if you know what i mean.

2025-07-18 21:27

1 reply

Yes 3DMax are also skipping both of the blast events.

2025-07-18 21:32

they have 10+ players benched, what is he talking about dudeeeeee

2025-07-18 22:07

I feel like this might affect kyousuke's legacy

2025-07-18 23:11

2025-07-18 21:25

6/8 excuse

Makes sense, but still iffy.

HAHAHA Blast got outed as being mickey mouse with new format they went for.

2025-07-18 21:26

13 replies

Everyone knows "FISSURE Playground" is the better event nowadays

113

12 replies

True crazy how bad this new blast format is borderline blackmail to keep teams going to their ass prize pool event that is mostly online too xD

2025-07-18 21:30

Yeah, who would want long term commitments when doing business and plan for the future? Something most ppl won’t understand EVER living paycheck to paycheck If you are running a business and not doing it, you are a bad businessman, so take this as am early lesson in life and don’t try to run any business, go work in a factory or something since you are 0 business minded. Even PGL copied it on the end. Don’t hate the players, hate the game

2025-07-19 11:52

So is PGL

2025-07-18 21:31

fissure isn't even comparable to PGL

2025-07-18 21:41

3 replies

Yeah, FISSURE > PGL

2025-07-18 21:44

2 replies

Remedy.

2025-07-18 23:53

reported

2025-07-19 15:19

yea when there is tons of russian betting money to blow

2025-07-18 21:54

You're absolutely delusional LMAO. BLAST, ESL & PGL and the kings of CS. Period. FISSURE is a clear t2/t3 tournament that literally can't even break 20k viewership on Twitch & most games got not even 14K on Kick. The worst games of Blast Bounty will get 50K in viewership on Twitch alone. Falcons are frauds and still have PTSD from the BLAST Austin Major. I don't blame them for getting scared to attend another BLAST event. They'd rather go to FISSURE and farm T3 for ''Valve Points'' because they are frauds and know they can't compete. They are pulling a Spirit with BB DACHA hahaha. So pathetic.

2025-07-18 23:47

FISSURE Playground is just ahead of its time, soon enough every person who's ever played CS will be watching it, and blast viewership will dwarf in comparison.

2025-07-19 00:20

I mean don't hate Fissure like that. Its a tier 1.5 tournament which will change the top 10-20, and thats good so we can have teams that deserve to get to the invite range who deserve it. Take 3DMAX per example. They are only in the invite zone because they are in the invite zone basically. So they get invited to every tier 1 tournament and do fuckall and still keep their points for the next invite, while Tyloo per example, has a lower ranking because they don't have that many ways to get points, and when they get invited, they get last seed and then start the tournament "badly" because they got a top 1-5 team lol So fissure its great for the scene, even tho its russian betting money and it doesn't have a big viewership.

2025-07-19 01:29

are u restarted

2025-07-19 13:37

How will this affect kyousuke's legacy?

he plays for Falcons not Legacy

2025-07-18 21:29

2025-07-18 21:34

How will this affect kyousuke's Falcons?

2025-07-18 23:33

he does not pet any falcons i believe

2025-07-19 11:51

Fissure playground 2? Let's goooooooooo

Not totally unreasonable, but these lower-pressure tournaments could still be great experience for someone like kyousuke

7 replies

hence why they're playing fissure mickey mouse 2

2025-07-18 21:42

It's totally unreasonable. They literally got Kyousuke to UPGRADE their team to chase tier1/Stier trophies. But hey, at least they now accept that they are frauds along with Kyousuke. They are scared to compete at an S tier event, so they are going to farm T2/T3 CS for ''Valve points'' like the frauds they are.

2025-07-18 23:50

5 replies

he said they couldnt go to every event even if they wanted to, so they skipped the ones that are less interesting/give less points, am i missing something?

2025-07-19 00:06

on the other hand, he said that he would not attend these events even if they could)))

2025-07-19 05:28

Nope, just most other replies are stupid. It is some very reasonable arguments he gives, still people hate. Lame.

2025-07-19 14:18

I am honest with you.. I really don't like falcons at all, but understand how hard it can be to get visa (no matter if ur a popular org or smth) first of all he's still a minor usually parents have to be around to say yes (if they didn't give their permission to the org to do so) second of all kyousuke is Russian and some countries especially for example london which isn't EU anymore can be hard to optain visa by even 18+ age and non russian players.

2025-07-19 08:25

did u read the text with understanding? i dont think u did, or u are too stupid to understand it

2025-07-19 13:42

cultural impact without playing

2025-07-18 21:28

lol "we don't want to face vita, new spirit" so they decided that the best way is to play camel esports event esports world cup

Are all vitality fans 10 years old and can't read ?

8 replies

We can read perfectly fine. You don't even need to understand English at ALL to know that this article shows that Falcons are literal FRAUDS. Chasing easy VRS points farming T2/T3 CS. Falcons got Kyousuke to upgrade their team and to chase T1/S tier trophies. Not go farm T3 CS. But hey, at the falcons are admitting they are frauds. That's utterly embarrassing for them. Took Kyousuke out of T3, To join failcons to go farm some more T3. lmao.

did falcons poop in your breakfast or something? 3 comments ive seen in this thread alone where u cry about them, chill out a bit, its just a cs team

2025-07-19 00:09

Not crying about nothing bud. I replied to a question stating that we can't read. If anything I WANT Falcons to be at Tier1 tournaments. Not a micky mouse Fissure tournament farming T3. I like seeing top teams playing against each other. It gives us good CS. The already did horrible at the Major & mentally collapsed. So much so they are choosing to go to Fissure playground 2 lmao.

2025-07-21 03:48

Alright.. one big question, i did read indeed the article but give me response to this. If they had to wait to apply for Schengen Visa, why couldn't he do it earlier? he knew he is moving to Falcons... and there might be problems that is why i said this "Kyousuke is 17 and hasn't really traveled before, which makes getting a Schengen visa a bit harder. We'll get them, but at first it'll only be for 30 days. That means he'll need to reapply between events. With the processing time from application to approval, it takes quite a while, so we might not be able to play every Schengen event," the manager explained. Alright... but he had 3 weeks almost month literally... is this not enough to apply for visa? also if he has to get schengen isn't playing more tournaments and traveling more a better way to do it rather than get to Cologne skip two BLAST and then have once more small traveling portion. To make Visa you need to have history of traveling to the country or in this case Schengen zone countries and he would be only having Germany. I actually don't think anyone questioned the article. In a realistic way its like saying oxymoron: Oh, alright he's gonna need to travel more. However we skip an event, also.. Visa can probably be prolonged through embassy

2025-07-19 02:25

#115

2025-07-19 05:30

What they left out is that Kyousuke is Russian which makes that process way more complicated these days for some reason. I cannot think of a reason why, maybe you can? It may be a part of a reason why degster isn't signed by anyone? Maybe... If he has to reapply for Visa then he is going to be WITHOUT A VISA while they wait. That process can be like 2 weeks or more, it's not a quick process at all - especially for Russian citizens. Which is something you have to plan for, to leave enough days on your visa to finish the tournament but make sure there are enough days in between to apply and get a new one. It's not a straightforward thing, different countries have different requirements. And how do you plan for it if you cannot 100% know how long you'll be in destination country? Are you going out in groups? Or going all the way? No one knows. As they did explain, Kyousuke can only apply for shorter visa right now which means that Falcons are going to measure and pick better opportunities. I am sorry, but mostly online tournament is not a good opportunity to waste half of his visa. Also, I wouldn't take the statement as 100% truthful, only partially. What likely happened is next - Falcons could not apply for Visa until transfer was finalized. Falcons found out that Kyousuke is getting a baby visa so they realized they have to weight all the events. Falcons knew they'll be skipping Blast earlier but didn't announce it until Blast did. Only reason to go to this Blast event is if you are a smaller team or if you are a larger team who chases that incentive program money. Falcons are neither, they have a championship team and they do not care about messily money Blast offers. Orgs are ones pushing for that money, not the players. Can't think why, maybe cause it all goes to the org? Maybe. So yeah, that's what I see between the lines here. It's not really a big deal, chances are they'll quickly find a secondary citizenship for Kyousuke but that "quickly" will take at least a few months.

2025-07-19 06:33

They will be playing Cologne, which means he does have a visa for that. Apparently it will expire shortly after and they will have to reapply for a new visa and that takes time. I don't think you are enabled to apply for a new visa while you already have a valid one.

2025-07-19 08:11

Mate, getting shengen visa as a russian right now is a nightmare, I wouldn't really be surprised if pakitanis have an easier process currently. You asked about 3 weeks - it could take that long quite easily, especially for 17 years old that never travelled. The visas he will be able to get at first will be 30 days visas only, after which they will have to reapply and go through the process (read first sentence about that one more time) again. So they have to pick and choose EU LAN events in little 1 month bursts with big pauses in-between until he can get 3 month or longer visas. If they picked Cologne, by Blast Open London his visa will expire, and that's even if it's given day to day when Cologne starts. And Blast Bounty might be possible, but might end up with playing the LAN part (if they make it to it) without kyousuke.

2025-07-19 08:51

reading is not a strong quality of yours it would appear

2025-07-18 21:38

I know what each letter means but now you have to add them together and it creates a meaning what is this sorcery.

Signed in just to let you know I appreciate this reply

2025-07-18 23:04

flair

2025-07-18 22:17

W move

understandable. L online portions of the tournies

already throwing excuses

Read

what does shenghen mean

letmegooglethat.com/?q=schengen

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area To travel to most EU countries (part of Schengen), you need a common Schengen visa

schengen area

2025-07-18 21:45

some chinese shit

2025-07-19 08:12

Fair enough tbh, Glad Blast are changing next year

cemen_bakin

2025-07-18 21:39

Call me crazy but I don't think you get a visa depending on if you've travelled before or not

For Schengen, it's one of most important factors. Most 1st time applicants get their visa rejected even if they're in their 20s/30s, especially from 2nd world/3rd world countries. Each time you get a Schengen, it's easier to get it the next time. And you can then get it for longer as well. However, considering they are applying it for professional reasons and it will include sponsorship info from a big Org (Falcons), it shouldn't be difficult.

2025-07-18 21:50

Cause its true. Maybe something happened with russia? Sorry, im outside politics and cant say what exactly happened

2025-07-18 22:15

So what is then? Ever tried to obtain one to make any conclusions?

2025-07-18 22:46

Having gotten a VISA in other countries probably helps

2025-07-18 23:12

might motivate Blast to up their prize pool, considering first place at Fissure (including club share) is more than THE ENTIRE OPEN PRIZE POOL also something to factor in is the frequent flyer thing (which i think(?) is $2 million at a minimum), still looks bad on the part of Blast considering their current format.

Blast frequent flyers program isn't that well designed - teams that might have missed one/two invites or not reached far enough to add 'tokens' into their count can't get enough of them to make future events a non-skip. and I think it's a $2 million pool, period, not minimum.

2025-07-19 01:21

I dislike blast's format a lot but it'a hard keeping up with all those bookie tournaments. No t1 teams want to play them, they have low viewership and yet they have massive pricepools..

2025-07-19 09:02

If you dont compete, you cant lose I guess?

Falcons mega brain

2025-07-19 08:13

How would he face visa problems but m0nesy wouldnt?

He’s not a minor

2025-07-18 21:52

m0NESY has had visa issues, although it is admittedly rare for him: hltv.org/news/39223/m0nesy-to-miss-first.. However, as the article specifically mentions, getting a Schengen visa as a first time traveler in particular is harder.

2025-07-18 22:44

m0nesy got some history ok?

2025-07-18 22:48

Online tourneys are dogshit W move falcons

2025-07-18 21:46

blasts

2025-07-18 21:51

wtf? said skipped events because its online and then said doesnt want kyousuke to travel so why not just dont play?

2025-07-18 21:58

only half the event is online, the playoffs are on lan

2025-07-18 23:32

still afraid

2025-07-18 22:01

his name is now: khouya Suke

2025-07-18 22:05

tldr?

2025-07-18 22:06

Falcons rather wanna play camel esport world cup than risk losing vrs points to brazilian and chinese teams that might very likely beat them at blast Mickey mouse events.

2025-07-18 22:08

That camel esports world cup will have all of the best teams in the world. Free is cry

2025-07-18 22:41

They had to skip some events because it's difficult to get a continuous VISA for a minor (Kyousuke) in Europe. They chose Blast because the VRS/time investment is lowest with Blast.

2025-07-18 22:50

Did something happened with russian players that they harder to get visa? I'm just not into politics.

enlighten us what exactly russian players did

2025-07-18 22:31

not really he is just a kid that’s why

2025-07-18 22:33

Just unluko

2025-07-19 03:41

he looks like a young Sam Hyde on that pic lol

2025-07-18 22:21

I see it hahaha

2025-07-18 23:59

Falcons had entire season break to get this sorted

2025-07-18 22:35

the problem isn't getting the visa in the first place, it's "reapply[ing] between events" makes sense to skip the blast events because the new format sucks ass anyways and has no vrs impact anymore, and make sure that he can go to events that actually matter later in the season

... wait dude but reapplying? you mean extension right he doesn't need to get new visa just extend period itself

2025-07-19 02:27

apparently the first shenghen visa only lasts 30 days and then you gotta reapply. it'll probably get way easier after the first time reapplying.

2025-07-19 04:47

start digging in yo butt lars

2025-07-18 22:42

major > cologne > katowice > iem > blast > epl > pgl > fissure > betboom simple as

2025-07-18 23:38

Smart

2025-07-18 23:44

smart

2025-07-18 23:48

Can someone enlighten me, how can he travel to Cologne but somehow wouldn’t be able to travel to Malta for BLAST?

2025-07-19 00:14

his first schengen visa is for 30 days

2025-07-19 01:06

Oh? I read that part but my I guess my reading comprehension failed me there. Thank you.

2025-07-19 01:15

Pussies

2025-07-19 01:03

I had a feeling this was the case, to be honest. It's not like they can simply just attend all events depending on Visa issues, so attending the ones that are the biggest for VRS makes sense, it's just a tad sour because of the timing and the overall hype of the move... And now missing two BLAST tournaments.

2025-07-19 01:25

Yeah would have loved to see more of kyuosuke but i guess we gotta wait post cologne, its stupid to have online tournaments i am suprised so many big teams have accepted the invites

2025-07-19 02:59

It's because they're going to be doing more giveaways on YouTube now

2025-07-19 02:15

I like the decision tbh. Forget all these online tournaments, not worth vrs and not as exciting. Get rid of this shit tornamants please and thank you

2025-07-19 02:30

next t1 tournament is epl 22, in october... 2 months without practice t1. doubtful.

2025-07-19 05:39

Huh? They're in ewc that ends the 24th of August then will do the second fissure tournament that starts Sept 12

2025-07-19 06:40

Well, you can see the composition of fissure 1)) It doesn't look like Tier 1. But ewc - yes. I really forgot. Well, 40 days.

2025-07-19 07:45

Why not play with stand-in instead?

2025-07-19 02:50

what the fuck are you saying?

2025-07-19 02:57

why not?

2025-07-19 05:38

lmao you cant be serious, why a team who just purchased one of the upcoming best player in the world wsste their time in a couple of shit online tournaments instead practice for their next event who has a bigger pool money, home event, better impact on VRS, instead chosing to play with a standin apparently just because some russians what monesy and niko to play every week, thats one of the worst takes i have ever seen

2025-07-19 10:43

well, then g2 should have been removed from dallas 24?))))

2025-07-19 11:17

translation: we dont care about Mickey Mouse tournaments

2025-07-19 03:55

i know failclowns have trouble getting visas, but it's an online event

2025-07-19 04:07

final stages are on LAN

2025-07-19 09:46

dodging vitality lmao. no one is going to play in mickey mouse fissure tournaments so it should be an easy win for them

2025-07-19 05:56

@Striker pls give summary points for the actual answers. These people can't read and they need to be spoonfed the information. But then again they will probably just ignore it anyway and still make up their own narrative. Actually dont bother.

2025-07-19 12:20