kassad on Team Falcons: “They don’t stand a chance of winning with this roster.”


Analyst Alexander “kassad” Trifunovich assessed Team Falcons’ loss in the CS Asia Championships 2026 Grand Final in a video on his YouTube channel, discussed its significance for the team, and explained the reason behind the backlash against the squad.
Team Falcons managed to screw up again, this time against Legacy in the CS Asia Championships 2026 Grand Final. It seemed like they were truly the favorites, but they lost yet another final. It was similar to their loss to Team Spirit. They had almost no chance. On the first map, the score was 13-11; on the second, Ancient, it was pretty close, but NiKo played poorly. And on every map, the score was decisive. If you look at it, it’s 13-9, 13-6, and 13-6. <...> In my opinion, it was a one-sided game.
I think the illusions finally faded when it came to the point where karrigan joined the team to save it. In my opinion, they’ll start to realize that they don’t stand a single chance of winning with this roster—not just at the upcoming Major, but throughout the entire year. I don’t blame karrigan. Yes, he had a terrible result; he was the third-worst player in the tournament. But why should he be blamed? He didn’t qualify for the Major and got the chance to play for Team Falcons, participate in the IEM Cologne Major, earn money—and probably a lot of it. Who would turn that down? Everyone would accept it. Even frozen said that anyone who gets an offer like that would take it. So we’re not blaming him, but those who make such a delusional and foolish decision, and now it’s leading to these kinds of results.
There have been a lot of negative comments directed at Team Falcons. I think it’s justified. In my opinion, the hate is warranted because the money these people are making doesn’t match their results over the past two years. You know, NiKo is performing at a mid-tier level, even below average. m0NESY and kyousuke play better. TeSeS is a poor guy who’s doing everything he can, and karrigan just joined. And I don’t want to hear people say, “Give them time.” They’ve been doing that for the past two years since this roster came together. I didn’t like it from the start; I knew this would happen.
The CS Asia Championships 2026 took place from May 20 to 24 in Shanghai. In the tournament’s grand final, Team Falcons lost to Legacy with a score of 1-3. The “Falcons” managed to win on Nuke 13-11, but then lost three maps in a row: 9-13 on Ancient, 6-13 on Mirage, and 6-13 on Dust2.
Photo — PGL.