In a surprising shift from their formerly French roster, Falcons have entered a new era following their announcement of the signings of Milosz “mhL” Knasiak, Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas and Laurentiu “lauNX” Èârlea.
Three impressive young players, each of them come into the team looking to take the next steps in their career. With backing from Saudi Arabia, Falcons is an ambitious organization with a team that mhL says has “really big potential.”
In an interview with Sam “AN1MO” McKenzie, mhL discussed joining Falcons, the team’s ambitions for greatness and replacing legendary French AWPer Kenny “kennyS” Schrub.
“[We] have everything you need to get into tier one here. Players, coaching staff and team structure. There is no better place right now to let me play my best game.”
Until recently, mhL had been playing for UK organization Endpoint, a team that has been a hotbed of developmental talent in the last few years. A fact mhL quickly realized as ENCE came calling for one of his teammates, it prevented the AWPer from having the success on Endpoint that many others have enjoyed.
“I would rate it 6.5/10, I think it’s fair to say we didn’t really have a chance to prove ourselves and reach our peak level, but on the other side, I don’t think we played badly in the situation we have been in. Playing with stand-ins, Nertz getting bought out one day before the Major qualifiers, etc. It was a hard time if we only speak about results.”
That being said, it wasn’t all doom and gloom during the time, he added:
“I met some amazing people, so that side of my time there I will rate as a 10.”
With Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt and Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro remaining on Falcons, the roster still retains its backbone of French Counter-Strike legends. One legend that did depart, however, is Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, who called time on his incredible career at the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
Possibly the biggest shoes any AWPer with any amount of experience could ever attempt to fill, no one would blame mhL if it left him feeling pressured to succeed in his new team. It’s clear from speaking to him though, it’s a pressure he doesn’t feel as he prepares to don his new jersey:
“I don’t really care whose shoes I need to fill. I really respect Kenny as he was the guy that made me want to be an AWPer, but right now I’m super confident in myself and I know I can perform very well. I want to be the best so it doesn’t matter to me who I am replacing. I will do my best and time will tell if I can play better than the legend himself.”
With such an ambitious rebuild now completed, Falcons will be pushing to make the tier-one teams fear for their places in the competitive landscape. The organization may have missed out on a spot at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, but as the tier two teams that did make it shone, it’s clear they feel they can emulate that with this roster.
It’s a sentiment mhL strongly believes in, as shown by when we asked him what his hopes were for the team. His response was short and sweet:
“High. This project is built for playing Majors.”
