zonic: "Winning a CS2 Major is one of my final tasks"

It's been a long season for Falcons, but it's impossible to not look at it as a successful one.

They won their final event with their previous AWPer, degster, at PGL Bucharest, and have since announced themselves as one of the best teams in the world following the arrival of m0NESY.

Ahead of their opening game at the BLAST.tv Austin Major, we sat down with zonic to discuss the team's growth, the mental obstacles they may face in the Major, and what it would mean to him to win a Major in his third iteration of Counter-Strike.

"We reached two finals and a semi-final, so we must be doing something right"

We're here at the last even of the season, it's been a long season for you guys with a lot of events and a roster change as well, what are your takeaways from the season so far?

As you say, it's been a very long season. We set the goal of trying to get into the top five, so when we started out we decided it was important to play as many tournaments as we could. We also wanted to win a tournament, which we did in Bucharest with degster.
We didn't have that much time to practice, we made a roster move in the middle of the season, so we've that whole thing of going back and building up the playbook? That has been a bit of a challenge compared to previous years.
But, I'm very satisfied with the season overall, especially with the addition of m0NESY.

You've had some time to practice now, recently had a bootcamp in preparation for the Major, how did it go? Did you manage to cover everything you hoped to going into it?

I think I'm a bit pessimistic in nature, there's always this "if only we had a bit more time, that would've been great," whether that's just for new things, specific parts of a map, or a map in general.
But, I think that overall, we identified some of the things that were missing in our way of playing and the maps we've struggled on a little bit. It was also important for me, though, that we didn't go all out and just do a full makeover of our playbook, at the end of the day, we reached two finals and a semi-final, so we must be doing something right.
It was a little bit more of analysing where we need to improve and helping some of the players in specific positions that needed attention. Of course, the whole thing about introducing m0NESY properly to our full playbook that we've been creating throughout the year, that was something we had time for in this bootcamp.

Photo: Michal Konkol

We interviewed you earlier this year and spoke about TeSeS' roles, how are you feeling about his evolution on the team now?

I'm very proud of TeSeS, he's extremely sacrificial, also to a fault sometimes where I have to say "I really like that you're setting up your teammates, but in this specific case there's no need for you to run in, it has to be the guy behind you with 2hp first."
He's very much a team-thinker, he reminds me a bit of Xyp9x in the sense that the team comes first no matter what shit role that means he has to take. He's always the person to raise his hand to say he can do that in any strat.
He's very versatile, he can play different positions, and in terms of his evolution, we had to change some things in the middle of the season because I thought he was better on some other positions, and that's been working really well for him as well.

You've worked with two of the best AWPers in CS history, you've now added a third with m0NESY, what's he like compared to device and ZywOo?

I definitely see some similarities, you can definitely feel he's more of this younger generation. He has it all, he's very mature for his age and he has these flashy plays that I've seen from both him and ZywOo.
It's too early, for me at least, to compare the two, though. It's clear that, without disrespecting all the AWPers out there, that those two are a special breed in CS2, so it's very fun to be working with m0NESY.
He's a special player, but surprisingly he's also super mature and social, it's just a joy to have him.

We can't talk about this team without talking about NiKo at Majors, he previously said that one of the things he was looking forward to working on with you was Major preparation, how has that been?

I think that the way me and Lars [Falcons' Director of Performance] works is that we understand that you can only come so prepared for a Major. Everything in the playbook should be there, of course, but most teams will be there and will be able to play six maps, at least the teams we like to think are capable of winning it.
The other part is the mental part, and our bootcamp hasn't just been scrimming and playing eight praccs a day, 30-40% of our day has been on the mental side, there's been activities and a lot of talks. Magisk said it during this bootcamp as well, he's a four-time Major winner and when it comes to the Major, there are different stages of what you go through on the mental side.
This is the first time I'm here in a CS2 Major after our run last year with Falcons, but the whole thing that you go through, it's maybe slightly easier mentally now because the RMR was such a hurdle.
But for us coming into it, it's just important to not think too much about two weeks ahead and the playoffs, you know? The teams that are here can definitely pull off some upsets. It's MR12, two BO1s, it can set the entire Swiss stage in one day.
It's about that mental aspect, for several reason, and for different stages. We've been doing a lot of talking about these things and I think that hopefully, mentally, we are here for the Major, which is 50% of the way.
Player-wise, I think the last few tournaments have proved we're already there on the in-game stuff.

You've had a few games recently that you've struggled to close out, why has that happened and how do you go about preventing it? Is it even a mental issue?

I think that it is, but it isn't as crucial, it's an easier fix when it comes to not throwing away a lead.
I would say that against Vitality in Melbourne, I really did think that we did our best, and sometimes you just have those rounds. The MOUZ game, I think on Mirage, we had a strong lead, but it's a lot about how you want to react when you have that big lead.
Now that we have MR12, you can have a 10-6 lead and feel comfortable because you only need three rounds to win, but you need to have a little bit more respect for how easy it is for the opponents to come back. It's not going to mean six buy rounds, it'll be maybe three or four, and if you start losing, you go from being super overconfident to super nervous.
It's a lot about how you approach that situation as a team, and that's something I've been speaking to kyxsan about in terms of how we want to call them, do we want to continue to use our prep or do we have a certain mode that we go into instead?
It's been a big talking point, but a slightly easier one, because it's just about approach rather than stressing that you just want to get something over with to avoid certain comeback scenarios.
I've been using my experience in my former teams, back in Vitality we threw away a 12-3 lead to Liquid in the Katowice 2023 playoffs.

Photo: Michal Konkol

You mentioned Vitality there, is there something missing to beat them or did you just need that time to go and have some proper practice?

I wish that the world is that black and white where we could have that one extra day of practice with m0NESY for Melbourne and now that we've had that extra time here. If it was that way, then we would definitely beat Vitality this time.
Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. They've also had the time to figure out some of the things that we did against them, and they probably have the mental fortitude when it comes to their match up against us because they've won the last three times, and the first time was where we were closest and should've broken their streak back then.
The games against them always have their own life, you can't really go too much into details about how the previous one has gone. What I told the guys is that it really comes down to where you can pinpoint one or two rounds where if it had gone our way, then we potentially could've won whatever map or game.
But I don't like to speculate too much, I would rather focus on ourselves and what we need, and then have these talks and try to improve our playbooks, talk about how close we've been compared to other teams despite how young we are as a team, which definitely speaks in our favour.
It's more about keeping the belief up that we can beat them because we've been close several time. I will say that the one in Copenhagen, even though it was five maps, they were the better team, and sometimes you have to give credit to greatness. You're an idiot if you can't do that and an idiot if you don't acknowledge what they've been doing this season, it's phenomenal and props to them, but I also really hope that we're the one breaking the streak.
From our side of things, and from the eyes of Falcons, it would be just beautiful doing it here at the Major. I would take that for all of the losses we had previously.

Do you think the streak is something that will be starting to weigh heavy on them?

I think that, knowing them as well, they are probably talking about this, and they'll have a very humble approach to it.
Even though they might think or might say it shouldn't be a focus point, of course they'll want to protect the streak. I don't know what's going on in their camp, but I know that they would love to keep it going because I know them.
I don't think the world is going to come crashing down if they lose a BO1 or they lose a game, for them, the goal is the Major. Knowing how hard they work and also knowing apEX, he would be proud of this season, but the Major is everything for him and for them. Even though their season to the outside world, no one thought this would be possible with MR12 and when you see how competitive it is, but they will be super disappointed if they don't finish the season on a high note, and that means winning it.

Vitality are number one right now, a lot of people say that you guys are number two, would you say that's a fair assessment?

I want to take the humble way, I don't see ourselves as the second best team. You have NAVI who haven't had their best season, but now they've had time to actually work. We've not been able to face Spirit much, been kinda dodging each other when it comes to attending the same events, so it would be a mistake to take them out, too. MOUZ beat us last time, we got the better of them before, but I would rather see it as having Vitality and then three or four teams who can upset.
That's why we're all gathered here at the Major, where there's no excuses and no saving strats, here's where it all counts and I think it will become more clear as to the state of the scene after this event.

You said in an interview when you joined Falcons that it would mean a lot for you to win a Major in a new iteration of CS, now that you're finally here, have you thought more about what it would mean?

It would be my, I won't say final task, but close to it. This is where I want to finish off one day when I decide to retire.
To have won, it wasn't called a Major but it was how we described it, a Major as a player in 1.6, and then several as a coach in CS:GO, to do it in a third game and with a different team, that means a lot to me, and I'm putting in my heart and soul to the team and create this special bond with the players.
It's been a tough ride in Falcons, but I'm happy that we finally got into the Major and it might be too soon for this Major even though we'll go all in and we see ourselves someone who should go very far, but yeah.
I'm excited, but I'm not thinking too much about it. For us, it's about the fact we're here in Stage 2 and we have a long way to go. It's one game at a time, it can be over in four days if we're not cautious, so we need to stick our chest out and be proud of what we have done, but also be humble enough to know that there's still a lot of work to be done here.