Falcons left IEM Chengdu with third place and a bruise or two to their tournament confidence. After the event, Damjan kyxsan Stoilkovski admitted the team has been slipping in big moments and that the lineup is actively working on the problem with a mental coach.
Falcons arrived in Chengdu with high expectations after assembling a stacked roster around Ilya m0NESY and Maxim kyousuke. Group play looked tidy, but playoffs exposed cracks: losses to FURIA in the semis and a tight decider against MOUZ to claim third left the team asking why the same mistakes keep showing up when it matters most.
“Sometimes when it comes to these high pressure games, sometimes we make some mistakes that we usually don’t do,” kyxsan said after Falcons beat MOUZ to secure third. “Something is definitely happening to us in these important games, and we’ve been working on it to fix it.“
The warning signs included lost 4v2s and 5v3s and viral radar screenshots from moments where the team looked out of sync. kyxsan pointed at pressure and mentality as likely culprits and said the squad has been holding frank conversations to surface how each player feels in those moments.
Beyond internal talks, kyxsan confirmed the team has been using a mental coach to try to steady nerves and simplify decision-making under duress. He declined to go into granular detail about the sessions, but described the coach’s role as helping the lineup “be more relaxed, calm, to play the game like every other game.”
On the map side, Falcons still showed strength on Ancient and Mirage, while Inferno remains a problem area they plan to revisit. kyxsan also highlighted that improvements in pistol-round decision-making helped them at Chengdu, even if the team faltered at times during high-pressure stretches.
There are bright signs: tournament wins and flashes of top-tier play are in the team’s history, including a trophy at PGL Cluj-Napoca earlier this year. But those moments are increasingly costly if the side cannot iron out lapses in the knockout stages. Falcons’ approach now looks equal parts tactical refresh and psychology work.
If Falcons can translate the talks and coaching into consistent on-stage habits, they should head into the next event with more than just third-place hardware to show for the trip.
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