zonic: “From day one of signing this team, we knew that this roster was only temporary”

The Danish coach admitted there was a lack of firepower and a style clash between Snappi and himself.

Danny “⁠zonic⁠” Sørensen has given a damning interview to Pley.gg around Falcons’ disastrous 2024, admitting that “from day one of signing this team, we knew that this roster was only temporary.”

“I think throughout the entire year we have tried upgrading and changing the roster. That decision was already made in the spring. I’m not saying we were wasting time, but I’m not willing to meet and not be satisfied with the roster that I have. I wish it would have happened earlier, but it was simply not possible to get the players that I wanted.”

The roster was hit by difficulties in recruitment as they looked to assemble a superteam, with the original goal to build around a core of Marco “⁠Snappi⁠” Pfeiffer, Emil “⁠Magisk⁠” Reif, and Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač.

Those plans were scuppered by NiKo’s sensational u-turn, a move that led Falcons to filling out their fifth slot with Mohammad “⁠BOROS⁠” Malhas and then Peter “⁠dupreeh⁠” Rasmussen as firepower issues plagued them all year.

Since day one I had concerns regarding the lack of firepower
Danny “⁠zonic⁠” Sørensen to Pley.gg
“For Magisk and Snappi that this was not the team they expected,” zonic added, calling the signing of the ENCE duo Pavle “⁠Maden⁠” Bošković and Álvaro “⁠SunPayus⁠” García a “last-minute solution.”

In hindsight, zonic is frank about his role in Falcons’ failures: “Since day one I had concerns regarding the lack of firepower, which I also informed Falcons. But I should have acted a lot faster. I should have looked more long-sighted. and said: ‘Okay, right now we can’t get these players, now I’m going to get these two talents instead.’”

Even with lower firepower, results were poor. Magisk dropped from a 1.12 rating 2.0 to a 1.02 rating 2.1 and SunPayus — the 6th best player of 2023 — from 1.13 to 1.08.

zonic pointed to lost confidence after the failure to qualify for PGL Copenhagen, but also a “style clash.”

“Snappi and I had some difficulties finding each other in the beginning. Like, ‘will we go with the ENCE way of playing or the Vitality way?’”

Attention now turns to 2025 and life after Snappi, with the expectation being that NiKo will still join Falcons after G2’s CEO all but confirmed that he will be moving to join Magisk and zonic in 2025.

The other three players remain unconfirmed, with the rumor mill in full flow and Sebastien “⁠KRL⁠” Perez linking in-demand MOUZ anchor Jimi “⁠Jimpphat⁠” Salo to the Saudi organization.

The possibility of Ilya “⁠m0NESY⁠” Osipov following NiKo out of G2 is also one leakers such as Alexey “⁠OverDrive⁠” Birukov have mooted, though G2’s CEO said he was at “the heart of the [G2] project” and stressed his contract length in the same interview he spoke about NiKo’s future.

Reports of interest in Dan “⁠apEX⁠” Madesclaire were also laughed off by Vitality.

Veteran journalist Richard “⁠Richard Lewis⁠” Lewis has said on stream that Magisk is the likeliest candidate for the captaincy in 2025, a role he had in Astralis under zonic when Lukas “⁠gla1ve⁠” Rossander was absent for medical reasons.

What is clear is that Falcons will be looking for a far younger constellation than their 2024 roster, which had an average age of 29 when they failed to qualify for the Shanghai Major.

“If people think that I have handpicked [the 2024 lineup], they are gladly mistaken,” zonic said.

“When I decided to replace dupreeh with flameZ right after we won the Major, the main reason was flameZ’s age. I mean he was ten years younger than dupreeh. And then eight months later I found myself in a team with an average age of around 29.”