zonic joining Falcons was one of the biggest and most shocking moves in 2023, but a year later, as he admits in this interview, it hasn't yet gone to plan.
The team has struggled throughout the year, missing the PGL Major Copenhagen and failing to qualify for playoffs at events such as IEM Cologne, but after winning BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2024, they have a chance to play in front of a Danish crowd at BLAST Premier Fall Final.
We spoke to zonic about what it would mean to the team to play in front of the crowd, the disappointments in 2024, and why history shows that Falcons are a team everyone should be afraid of for 2025.
You're here for Fall Final, how are you feeling about the event?
It's good to be back. The last time I was here was in 2019; 2020 was cancelled, 2021 I was leaving Astralis, 2022 we failed to qualify with Vitality, and in 2023 it was the same story where I was leaving Vitality.
You have a Danish core in Falcons, does that make this feel like a home event?
Yes and no. Snappi really wants to play in front of the Danish crowd because he has never done so, but dupreeh, Magisk, and myself, we have done so many times.
I still see this team as an international roster, even though on a personal note it means a little bit more for the Danes on the team.
I haven't had that strong hoemcoming feeling as I did with Astralis, and I also didn't have that in Vitality because I see us as an international team. But, hopefully whenever we are not playing against Danish teams, we can have some support from the fans if we get far enough.
Your opening match is against NAVI, how do you feel about that?
It's a tough match, they have a lot of firepower and a lot of players who can pop off. I'm thinking about b1t, iM, jL has shown some great stuff, and they have w0nderful too who is a great up and coming AWPer.
I don't see any clear weaknesses and they have a good mesh in their team where no one feels above anyone, they don't have a traditional star who the entire team plays for. They are much more team-based where everyone sacrifices and everyone is playing equally for the team.
This is essentially strong and some of the same things we had in Astralis back in the days, whereas with Vitality it was all about ZywOo, which is also fine. Nothing is worse or better than the other thing, but it makes them a scary team to go up against, especially with our year so far, it's like David and Goliath.
As someone who has coached the more team-based approach and the obvious star player approach, why do you prefer to be at the helm of?
I think I prefer the team-orientated version, but the other option is also fine, it just requires that the star player also contributes to the team in a certain way.
In Vitality it was very, very easy, if not too easy to coach ZywOo sometimes. I mean that int he sense that you don't get challenged at all by him outside of the game, there is absolutely zero diva material in him, to a point where sometimes I had to push him to be a little bit more demanding.
I think when you have the team-orientated approach, you rely a lot on yourself and to come together as a team. Whereas on the other side, you rely a lot on one or two individuals and you need to pray that they have a good game.
That was why it was my sole purpose with Vitality to make it so we could win games when ZywOo wasn't having his best day, and that was why we implemented some of the things we did throughout my time there. You can't rely on him having to pop off every game and sometimes he will have a bad game or just a rough start.
So, for me as a coach, I feel a bit more influential when I have a team where everyone can contribute and no one is above.
If we could talk about the recent run with Falcons, it seemed like you might've took an upturn with the Fall Showdown but it's been a bit rocky since, where do you feel like you're at with your form?
In a disappointing stage, I would say.
Creating a team in modern CS is a tough task, especially from scratch. That was the task I was given, I was the first to join. It's not a secret that the roster that we had in mind when we first created this team fell through at the last minute, but then we were bless to get the ENCE core.
That said, things have been rough this year. On top of that, we also had to adapt to a new game, not to use that as an excuse, but it's an obstacle that came into play.
To be straight up, it's not been good enough. It takes time to build a team, and I didn't expect results from the start, but I would've expected us to be further ahead than we are now and that is disappointing.
You spoke to Dust2.dk after your Cologne elimination where you spoke about whether or not this is the right five-man lineup, was that something you said in the heat of the moment or is that something you stick by?
As a coach, you are responsible for always trying to see where you can optimise the team and where you can find betters players, structures, or just ways of doing things.
Even when things are going well, this is your job. A lot of people were surprised when I picked up flameZ in Vitality just after we won the Major, but it's the responsibility as the coach to also foresee what is needed. Traditionally in CS, we have seen too many teams stick with rosters that didn't function for too long because the past was successful.
For us, I've been given a task in Falcons to create the best team in the world. The Falcons guys know that it takes time, but at some point, we need to figure out if there is some potential in the current five.
We need to look at their individual performances, how they're meshing as a team, their average age. We need to look at whether there is future potential and how much effort and fight they can give.
At one point, we need to look at if there are other alternatives, but I focus on this when I'm not at events. Right now, my motivation is to try and give Snappi his first experience of playing in front of his home crowd and to give dupreeh and Magisk another experience because you never know when the last chance may be.
So that's my focus, but we will always be and should always be looking for how we can optimise the team.
With that in mind, while we won't ask you to comment on rumours, there has been some recently; is that a distraction when you come to these events?
No, I don't know which rumours you're referring to but I guess that's why they are rumours.
I don't have anything to say right now, I'm just here with these five players to focus on Fall Final with the goal of improving for the RMR.
One thing I need to say about this team is that I know we can play better, we showcase this very often in practice. Ever since dupreeh joined we have also shown slight improvements, the thing is just how fast it is going and whether it is too slow. That's my concern, and hopefully we can do better here.
Some of your players seem confident at times, some of them seem like their confidence is a little broken, but what about yourself and your own individual confidence with how the year has gone?
For myself, I've never had a good first year with any of my teams. This is something that I actually think a lot about, I try to improve because I would love to have a honeymoon period.
I think we managed to when Magisk joined Astralis, but the first nine months with Astralis was a disaster. The same was for Vitality and now also here in Falcons. For me, I just think it's a tradition that the first year is always very rough.
I also think it's because the sports psychologist and myself are trying to implement a system. That takes time and it requires that the players are buying into it, it can be a little bit overwhelming in the beginning, but history shows that at one point, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
So yeah, I'm not too worried about my capabilities because I know what I stand for, but, this has been one of the worst years in my career as a coach. That said, it's also the first time I'm building something from scratch, normally I join establish teams both in-game and on a cultural aspect, but here we have to create everything from the beginning.
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