m0NESY says Falcons must relearn CS2 basics as kyousuke form dip lingers before IEM Beijing

Falcons AWPer Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov has addressed the team's recent mentality issues and teammate Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin's dip in form ahead of IEM Beijing, in comments carried by HLTV.

Falcons go into the event still chasing a trophy in the Fall season, with two of their main rivals, Spirit and Vitality, absent from the Beijing lineup.

The team has had two weeks without official matches since finishing fourth at the Thunderpick World Championship, a run that saw Falcons play scared, stressed and prone to repeated overpeeks.

Osipov told HLTV that the priority heading into Beijing has been stripping things back. "I think to remember the basics that you have learned from the beginning of CS," he said, adding that this means relearning "how to play off your teammate, how to support him" and reading situations quickly rather than overthinking whether to challenge an angle.

He pointed to specific results at Thunderpick as evidence of the team losing its footing, noting Falcons won the opening maps against BETBOOM and Aurora before collapsing. "I think we smashed it. And after, we just kind of, I don't want to say relaxed, but we threw away the games," he said.

Osipov linked the slump to a loss of identity following the Major and a subsequent break, saying the squad had to "remember our strengths, strengths that we had when Finn joined our team, strengths that we were building together as a team" before results dipped.

On overpeeking specifically, which had become a recurring talking point among the players, Osipov said practice sessions have been built around isolating individual weaknesses, using communication as an example of a focus point the team drills directly before matches.

Asked about kyousuke's form, Osipov said he has not noticed any drop-off in practice or on FACEIT, and offered his own explanation for the gap between scrims and official play. "I just think sometimes maybe during officials, he thinks he's always forced to say something because he has a very important role, very important roles where he has a lot of responsibilities," he said.

Osipov suggested the pressure of that in-game responsibility may be working against his teammate. "Maybe sometimes he overthinks and he thinks that he's forced to say something, to always do something. But everything that he needs, most of the time, is to just focus on his crosshair and be himself," he said.

Osipov said his own mentality coming into tournaments remains consistent regardless of the opponent, telling HLTV he always arrives "very confident" and expecting the team to show a strong level of play, win or lose against the field in Beijing.