Falcons opened the new season at BLAST Bounty only a month and four days after their Budapest Major exit, and NiKo says it feels like an unusual start.
With a stand-in in the server for kyousuke and zonic also missing in Malta, the environment is different, but the veteran still sounds confident about the direction of the team and the decision he made to leave G2 behind.
The BLAST Premier Bounty S1 is the second BLAST CS event hosted in Malta as part of their multi-year deal with GamingMalta.
The Freya interview
NiKo said he recently wanted to address the questions that followed him after his transfer, especially the reasons he chose Falcons and how he views the last period of his time in G2.
“I think some people were wondering why I made some decisions in my career, why I left G2 to Falcons. I just wanted to talk briefly about it and explain my situation.”
When asked directly what pushed him toward a change, NiKo pointed to disagreements with how things were developing, and how involved he felt in the decisions.
“I didn’t agree with some of the moves that were happening in G2.”
He also said the overall feeling was that the roster building shifted away from the players, which made the situation harder to accept.
“That’s the feeling that at least I felt, that they started not building the team around the players.”
At Falcons, he described it as a different dynamic, with more involvement in the direction of the project.
“I was definitely more involved when I joined Falcons in the moves.”
Keeping the roster
Even with the stand-in situation in Malta, NiKo emphasized that stability is the bigger story for Falcons coming into 2026. After a short off-season, he says the roster staying together matters more than anything else.
“I feel very good coming into the new season, and I’m really happy that we kept the roster together. Now we can only focus on the progress and the development of the team.”
NiKo would not put an exact date on when “peak Falcons” arrives, but he believes the team has created the conditions to improve rather than reset again.
“I don’t see us getting worse with this lineup. I think we’re only going to get better.”
He also downplayed the idea that Falcons’ investment adds extra internal pressure, saying expectations have followed him his entire career anyway.
“There’s no pressure from the organization… the pressure has kind of followed me throughout my whole career.”
A tougher role shift than expected
One of the clearest parts of NiKo’s answer was how openly he talked about his own adaptation. He said the change is less about learning new responsibilities, and more about consciously giving space to teammates and accepting that the team’s priorities have shifted.
“It’s shifted more towards Ilya and Maxim. In that sense, it’s a bit more difficult than I have expected.”
NiKo added that if the team is functioning and trophies follow, he can live with personal sacrifices, but he also made it clear he is not happy with how last year looked for him individually.
“I’m not satisfied with how the last year went. For me personally, it’s a big disappointment… I will work hard to get back where I believe I belong.”
Anubis is back
NiKo also touched on the map pool after Anubis returned, and while he likes the idea of more frequent rotation, he is not a fan of bringing a map back without meaningful changes.
“They’re not really changing and not doing any tweaks on the map… it’s just sad to see that exactly the same map comes back in.”
From his perspective, the biggest issue is how restrictive it can feel on the CT side.
“The map is very one-dimensional… it’s very hard to be innovative on the CT side.”
