Inside the creation of Falcons' CS academy

We dived into the Saudi organization's academy program amid questions of conflict of interest.

Jordan "⁠Next⁠" Savelli never would have imagined that there would be such a fuss over Falcons' academy project.

As the Saudi organization's General Manager, he is used to the scrutiny, the headlines and the hot takes accompanying their every move. But he saw the creation of an academy team as common sense, a move aimed at raising the standard for the next generation and future-proofing Falcons' CS division.

The roster, called Falcons Force, was finally unveiled on September 15, and it immediately found itself at the center of a storm after an article claimed that there was a conflict of interest with head coach Niels Christian "⁠NaToSaphiX⁠" Sillassen and the agency representing him, NEEVE.PRO.

During the course of our reporting, HLTV spoke with several people familiar with the tryout process, including Next, NaToSaphiX, the agency's founder, and some of the young prospects who did not make the cut.

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Falcons announce academy roster

This is the story of how the Falcons Force roster was created.

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It had long been the ambition of Next to set up an academy roster for Falcons. He knew, from personal experience, how useful a program like this can be, having overseen the creation of EnVyUs Academy in 2017 during his time managing the North American organization's European operations.

That academy brought players like Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug, Lambert "⁠Lambert⁠" Prigent and Ali "⁠hAdji⁠" Haïnouss to the fore, the latter of whom would go on to play for the main squad.

But before Next could sign off on the creation of the academy, there was much work to do on the main team. "It made no sense to have an academy team while [things on] your main team are not working," said Next, who joined Falcons as General Manager in 2024 after almost three years working for Prodigy Agency.

It was only around March that the program began to take shape. NaToSaphiX, whom Next knew from Prodigy Agency, was one of the coaches on Falcons' shortlist, and his contract with Ninjas in Pyjamas was about to expire. In the end, the Saudi organization had to move quickly to hire NaToSaphiX amid interest from FURIA, who were also interested in the Danish coach to lead the rebuild of their own academy.

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Falcons sign NaToSaphiX to coach new academy

On July 6, Falcons unveiled NaToSaphiX as the head coach of Falcons Force, an academy program "aimed at bringing on board the most promising talents and prepare them for the biggest worldwide stages." The organization simultaneously launched an application process for the tryout process, which would also include scouting tournaments and player evaluations.

According to Falcons, nearly 5,000 players applied for the academy – a pool that was trimmed down to around 80 for the start of the tryout phases, with invites sent out at the end of July.

The first two phases saw applicants split into different teams that competed against each other, with some players trying out for multiple roles. NaToSaphiX and team manager Loïc Potages, who previously worked with teams such as Imaginary, EnVyUs Academy and AS Monaco, watched the matches and listened to the teams' comms. Players who were eliminated in each stage were given feedback on what they needed to improve to further their careers.

"We had a few players who didn't make it further because of their English level," Potages explained to HLTV. "While they had really good mechanical skills, they would have to work for three to six months to be able to communicate properly."

By the end of the second phase, only 13 players remained. The purpose of the final stage, which featured scrimmages against outside players, was to observe team dynamics and gauge how personality traits influenced behavior and performance.

"We came up with two teams, each with good mixes of experienced and younger players," Potages said.

Four people were involved in the selection process: NaToSaphiX, Potages, Next himself and Mattéo 'mAtéhaut' Paganin, who in February was promoted to Esports Operations Manager at Falcons.

In the end, the five players that joined Falcons Force were:

Vladimir "⁠VENO⁠" Stankovic
Andrei "⁠grecu⁠" Grecu
Oskar "⁠clockzi⁠" Led Blæsbjerg
Benjamin "⁠Olaie⁠" Olaie
Matej "⁠NucleonZ⁠" Trajkoski

Just 48 hours after the roster was unveiled, an article from Heine "puffin" Winthereig called the academy team "a classic case of conflict of interest." At the heart of the controversy was the fact that NaToSaphiX and several of the team's players are represented by NEEVE.PRO and that the Danish coach was reportedly a co-owner of the agency.

HLTV knows that only three of the players, not four as initially reported, are represented by NEEVE.PRO. clockzi was formally announced by the agency on social media on August 5, but negotiations broke down after his father (clockzi is only 14 years old) consulted the esports player foundation (epf), a German non-profit that supports up-and-coming and top athletes.

Recently, clockzi removed all mentions of NEEVE.PRO from his profile on X.

"This year, we awarded clockzi a scholarship that provides him with one-on-one coaching from former pro players, access to a personal sports psychologist, as well as additional guidance in nutrition, fitness, and legal matters," Christian Lenz, Director of Esports at epf, told HLTV.

"With the support of our partners – in this case, Fabian Broich from Achieveminds – we made a clear recommendation that minors should neither sign agency agreements nor be treated as fully professional athletes. In clockzi’s case, we provided direct consultation with his father, and we are grateful for the trust he placed in us.

"Our top priority is always the well-being and long-term development of the players we support. We have no financial interest in the players themselves."

In a comment on Dust2.dk, NaToSaphiX said clockzi was "the first player I was sure I wanted to sign."

"Keep an eye on him," NaToSaphiX added.

HLTV knows that Falcons approached the player before the tryouts even started. This indicates that the 14-year-old had a ticket to the academy roster despite still going through all the trial phases.

Multiple sources told HLTV that two other players were initially targeted for the academy roster. One was an in-game leader that Falcons couldn't sign in the end after loan talks with his organization fell through. The other was a player who rejected their offer due to concerns about the roster composition.

Falcons added that a third player was dropped from consideration because his signing hinged on landing the main IGL target. Since that didn't happen, the organization decided to go with a different player.

Of those three players, only one is represented by NEEVE.PRO, HLTV knows.

NaToSaphiX's involvement in NEEVE.PRO is a more complex topic, not least because the agency has not yet been officially established. Until that is resolved, NEEVE.PRO's players and coaches are asked to sign agreements directly with Gustavo Aroso, the agency's founder.

"I'm currently finalizing the formal setup of NEEVE.PRO," he told HLTV. "I engaged legal counsel three months ago to prepare the contracts and company documentation, and I’m now aligning with an accountant on the most appropriate corporate structure.

"In practice, my approach is player-first and straightforward: clear goals, transparent communication, and balanced terms, both financially and competitively. Until the entity is fully established, players sign two contracts: the first is a representation agreement authorizing me to speak to organizations on their behalf. The second one is a simple exclusivity commitment, so there are no parallel negotiations creating conflicts.

"The aim is always the same: maximize their talent and stability while keeping pressure and obligations reasonable."

One source told HLTV that he recalled leaving a meeting with NaToSaphiX with the clear impression that the Dane had a big say in the way the agency conducted business.

Aroso and NaToSaphiX confirmed that they discussed co-ownership in the agency while the latter was still working with NIP Impact, but claimed that they scrapped that idea after NaToSaphiX joined Falcons, having realized the potential conflict of interest that such an arrangement could present.

"To be clear, NaToSaphiX has no ownership or financial interest in NEEVE.PRO," Aroso stressed.

Next rejected the claim that he approved any sort of co-ownership by NaToSaphiX in NEEVE.PRO. However, he said that he gave NaToSaphiX his permission to recommend players to the agency – something he had also done in the past when Prodigy Agency represented him. It was on his recommendation that the agency signed with Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman.

That was how NEEVE.PRO came to represent Ksenia "⁠vilga⁠" Kluenkova, whom NaToSaphiX had coached while at NIP Impact.

What would Next do if he found out that NaToSaphiX was receiving financial gain from NEEVE.PRO's business deals?

"If this were the case, he would have to give up his role," Next said. "He would also be in trouble with our contract because of exclusivity."

He also argued that "many issues" can arise when an agency has several clients on the same team.

"When I was with Prodigy, four of Vitality's players were with the agency, and no one said anything," he said.

"In my opinion, three players is already a lot. When players are all represented by the same agency, it can be a real problem for the team. The agent might say, 'We'll not do this or that,' and the players will just follow.

" I'm making sure in the contracts that we cannot be blocked by any situation like this."

During the course of our reporting, some unsuccessful candidates mentioned that they felt they did not have enough chances to show their talents as there were many players to analyse and choose from during the first stage, which ran for little over a week. There were cases of players who were dismissed from consideration after just one best-of-three match.

A common sentiment was also that the Falcons Force lineup does not represent the best players who applied for the academy. However, such assessments always need to be viewed cautiously, as players typically lack objectivity when evaluating their own performance and tend to overestimate their abilities.

The main point of criticism has been the choice of Olaie as the IGL, given his personal relationship with NaToSaphiX. The 22-year-old has also worked for Ace League, a platform co-founded by NaToSaphiX that aims to provide a pathway to professional Counter-Strike for amateur players.

"Olaie was hired by someone else as social media manager for Ace League," NaToSaphiX told HLTV. "I didn’t know him before, and we barely had contact.

"Recently, I started playing FACEITs with him. He was bringing in a lot of young talents in our stacks and overall pointing out some players (like clockzi, for example), who would have otherwise likely not been on my radar. This was an indicator that he had an eye for scouting.

"I would now consider Olaie a friend, but three or four months ago, I had had almost zero communication with him. Even now, it's not like he is a very close friend outside of CS. I'd say already I am equally good friends with all players on the team.

"I met Olaie for the first time recently because I went to Copenhagen for a concert, but we were meeting as friends and not to discuss the academy, since at that point I didn’t know 100% who would be the IGL of the project. The day after I also met with clockzi."

In a comment on Dust2.dk, NaToSaphiX rejected the notion that Olaie is getting preferential treatment. And on X, he admitted that he initially thought Olaie "had zero chance" of making the academy team.

"Olaie knows he has a lot to learn, but he is good with feedback, and he works 24 hours a day if asked to," NaToSaphiX wrote on Dust2.dk. "A player like that can develop really quickly, which is why I chose him over the others.

"He was chosen because he was the IGL who performed best, put in far more hours than anyone else and ‘changed’ the most with the feedback I gave him."

Potages said that, from the moment Falcons announced the academy program, they were open to having an "older profile that could lift the other four players." (Olaie is at least four years older than everyone else on the team.)

Next confirmed that Falcons were aware of NaToSaphiX's relationship with Olaie. Asked if he is concerned about personal bias, he said: "Not at all."

"It's common in many teams," he explained. "I can give you the example of apEX and XTQZZZ, who are really, really close. That has been the case for many teams.

"As long as there is a balance in the middle of this, there is no issue, in my opinion. But it has to be balanced by someone. And this is where Loïc or I can step up."

The majority of Falcons Force's players are committed to two-year contracts, with the longest agreement running through mid-2028. The academy is designed to develop young talent who can potentially move up to the main roster when needed – whether as permanent additions or temporary stand-ins to address situations such as visa issues.

The academy program also helps Falcons prepare for a potential future without head coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen, who will turn 40 next July.

"Maybe in two or three years he will want to stop his career," Next said of zonic. "In my opinion, this is a better way to try to anticipate all these types of situations."

Falcons are committed to providing the resources to make the academy project a success. This includes access to the organization's performance team, as well as funding for bootcamps and participation in LAN events.

"We want them to get the full package," Next said, adding that Falcons are already planning to expand the academy program to other games.

"The goal for Falcons is to have at least one player ready to jump into the main team as a sub if we need," he added.

"Personally, of the five players, if we can get at least three into tier-one within the next three years, I'll be more than happy."