Team Falcons have signed Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov from G2 Esports. The Russian AWPer had joined the samurai in January 2022 and despite his young age is now seen as one of the best Counter Strike players in the world.
The news come one day after G2 Esports' CEO Alban "Stilgar" Dechelotte revealed that G2 Esports had "decided to accept the trade" for the Russian player and encouraged the team's fans to "direct your feedback to me and not to the CS management, staff or players as this was a decision on org-level."
Here's Alban's reasoning behind the decision of accepting m0NESY's departure:
Ilya's contract ends in December of this year and we decided to maximize our chance of rebuilding our team for the future with this trade instead of hoping for a last minute turn of events.
I'm very sad to see Ilya go but I wish him the best and thank him for the magic moments he gave us. After 4 years of failing to lift CS trophies under the previous management, this roster and their staff have finally landed 6 trophies in the last 2 years for the G2 banner including Cologne and Katowice among others.
It was obvious that he was becoming a bit disconnected from the rest of the team due to his situation and it was very difficult to have meaningful conversations with potential talents without the clarity around his future. Now that the decision has been made we are gonna make the best of the last 3 events of the season and work in parallel to prepare for the next season with ambition.
Under G2 Esports, the 19-year-old won multiple continental and international competitions, including two BLAST Premier World Finals, three Intel Extreme Masters editions, and one BLAST Premier Final, among others.
Team Falcons' announcement comes one day after the esports organization's victory at the PGL Bucharest 2025. Curiously enough, the European mix won the championship after a 3-0 victory against G2 Esports.
The Russian AWPer will replace his fellow Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov, who joined the team in January 2025 when Team Falcons decided to make four signings. As of now, degster has been moved to the bench, as per the team's official post.
Team Falcons' first official match with the green roster will be played in less than a week as the squad will take part in the Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2025. His debut will be against the Portuguese-majority lineup of SAW.
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