Danny “zonic” Sørensen has been a hot topic in the Counter-Strike scene lately, as the high-profile head coach continues to struggle alongside Falcons.
The team’s 2025 season has gotten off to a rough start, and the same could be said about most of 2024. Despite major roster changes and significant investment, the results simply haven’t followed.
Harsh critique
In the latest episode of the Hot Take Point Made podcast, CS analysts Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović and Alex “Mauisnake” Ellenberg both expressed strong opinions on the situation, calling for Falcons to part ways with zonic and the coaching staff.
kassad starts off:
– I think that zonic and the Falcons whole coaching staff need to be sacked. Today.”
– When you take a look at the things that have been happening in that team in the last 16 months – where they have invested… I feel like it could be $10 million in different aspects of the lineups – they’ve accomplished a total of nothing.
The Serbian analyst continues by highlighting not only the disappointing level on the server but also the management behind the team.
– They had a good lineup last year. They have a better lineup on paper right now, together with one of the GOATs of the game. But they’re not even close to moving forward at all in terms of their game. Not a centimeter. Not an inch. Nothing. It’s even going backwards. It’s regressing.”
– They’ve been playing shitty, shitty Counter-Strike. And it comes down to the decision-making behind the team, which includes the people in the organization, zonic, and the coaching staff, kassad said.‘
[post_preview url="https://pley.gg/apex-defends-zonic-after-criticism-of-the-falcons-boss/"]“Every piece has gotten worse”
kassad is not alone in his take. Co-host Mauisnake backed the criticism and made it clear he shares the same belief.
Something he made clear during the podcast.
– I agree with the take [that Falcons has to fire zonic and the coaching staff].
– Every piece that has been with zonic on Falcons has gotten worse. Every single piece has gotten worse since he has worked with them on Falcons. I don’t know if that is because he hasn’t adapted to CS2, or because he was never really a tactical coach after all. Or if he’s making so much money that it’s hard for him to focus. We saw how that was the death of the original golden five VP lineup, Mauisnaked stated.
Roster changes
Coming into 2025, Falcons made a high-profile roster overhaul. The Heroic core, led by kyxsan, joined forces with NiKo and Magisk – on paper, a lineup with top-tier potential.
A belief that Mauisnake also had.
– I thought this Falcons team was guaranteed to be a real top-six contender.
– Like, you take the Heroic core that made top eight at the Major. Then you add NiKo, who is still a top-three rifler in the game. And Magisk is a sidegrade to sjuush in my eyes. And they’re ninth—but like barely holding on to that. And it’s mostly just because of the points they’ve already gotten in the past.
Results tell the story
Falcons’ recent form speaks for itself. Since their roster rebuild, they have exited multiple top-tier events in the early stages, including BLAST Open Spring, ESL Pro League Season 21, and IEM Katowice.
With that being said, zonic and his men showed a strong level at PGL Cluj-Napoca in February. At the $1.25 million tournament, they managed to take home a second-place finish, falling short to MOUZ in the Grand Final.
Looking at their overall team rating in 2025 so far, Falcons have averaged a 0.99 rating against Top 20 opposition. That’s below teams such as Astralis, GamerLegion, 3DMAX and FURIA.
You can watch the entire episode of Hot Take Point Made below.
