# Team Falcons

Team Falcons (formerly Falcons Esports) is a Saudi esports organization. Founded in 2017, the organization fields rosters in multiple esports. The org has garnered a reputation for pursuing high-profile players and coaches, being able to successfully construct "superteams" in the process.

## History

Team Falcons was co-founded in 2017 by Mossad "Msdossary" Al-Dossary, the winner of the 2018 FIFA eWorld Cup. Msdossary also serves as the CEO of Team Falcons. In August 2022, Grant Rousseau joined Falcons, serving as their Global Director of Esports. Rousseau has stated that Msdossary's goal when founding Falcons was to develop "an esports world for gamers in MENA". Indeed, being a Saudi organization, the team plays in MENA, EMEA, and Asian regions. Since its founding, a lot of Falcons' branding work has been focused on achieving popularity in MENA and Europe, in a similar fashion to the American FaZe Clan. The organization's financial backers have not been formally announced, though Nicholas Taifalos of Dot Esports wrote that "it is believed [the org has] connections with the Saudi royal family".
In July 2022, Gamers8 (a tournament organized by the Saudi Esports Federation), announced that Team Falcons would have their own dedicated spaces at an event in Riyadh. These two spaces were Falcons Arena and Falcons District; the former featured gaming tournaments, meet-and-greet events, and a live cooking show. The latter space featured merchandise, a museum showcasing the team's accomplishments, a gaming PC center, the "Learn to be a PRO" academy, and a streaming area. "Gamers8: The Land of Heroes", another esports festival was held in 2023 at Boulevard Riyadh City. The festival included an attraction dubbed "Falcons HQ", where visitors could play against gaming influencers.
Falcons has been documented targeting high-profile players and coaches who have considerable past success in professional esports, in hopes of signing them. The org has been successful in their courting of these players and coaches, developing a reputation of forming what what esports media writers have referred to as "superteams" in various different esports. Some players, however, have turned down joining Falcons, with Canadian Counter-Strike player "Twistzz" even stating "obviously, if I wanted the bag and I didn't care about my career, then I would go to Falcons. But I do care about my career. I have morals and it's not about the money." In 2023 and 2024, the organization made a push to form rosters across multiple esports. Taifalos wrote that "Many gaming fans and pundits have likened Falcons' push into esports to 'sportswashing'."

## Divisions

Team Falcons fields rosters in Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, FIFA / EA Sports FC, Overwatch, PUBG, Rocket League, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant. They have also previously competed in Call of Duty competitions.
In mid-2023, Falcons was aiming to make a deal with Astralis, an org looking to sell its slot in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC). However, talks broke down after Riot Games (League's publisher) did not sanction the purchase; the slot eventually went to Karmine Corp.
In May 2024, Falcons announced a partnership with AP Bren, an esports team competing in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournaments. Their partnership was made ahead of the season 13 playoffs of MPL Philippines.

### Apex Legends

In May 2024, Falcons entered the competitive Apex Legends scene, signing Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen, Noyan "Genburten" Ozkose, and Rhys "Zer0" Perry. Due to the trio's dominance in professional Apex with their previous teams (TSM for Hal and DarkZero for the latter two), esports media writers considered their joining under Falcons to be a "superteam". ALGS Year 4 Split 2's Pro League marked the first competitive campaign for the trio. They won the North American Pro League and later won the silver medal at the 2024 Esports World Cup.
Despite entering the ALGS Year 4 Split 2 Playoffs LAN tournament as favorites, the team finished in 20th-place. The disappointing result led to a roster change as Genburten departed from the team, being replaced by Wxltzy. Draugr was also signed as the team's head coach.

### Call of Duty

In August 2024, Falcons acquired the Vegas Legion franchise spot in the Call of Duty League from C0ntact Gaming. The team will compete as the Vegas Falcons starting in the 2025 season, utilizing the same roster fielded by Falcons at the 2024 Esports World Cup.

### Counter-Strike 2

Team Falcons fields a Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) roster. In October 2023, the team signed coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen. zonic previously led Astralis to four Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) major championships, before winning a fifth title with Team Vitality. zonic's signing was considered a surprise as Falcons ranked 55th in the world at the time. Later in October, Falcons signed Emil "Magisk" Reif, who was previously coached by zonic on Astralis and Vitality. Falcons also signed Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer from Ence. Media reports about Nikola "NiKo" Kovač agreeing to join Falcons were issued, though he denied a transfer to the team from G2 Esports. Instead, Falcons' CS2 roster was ultimately rounded out with the signings of Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia and Pavle "Maden" Bošković, also from Ence.
In February 2024, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev joined Falcons on a one-month loan from Natus Vincere. While he was loaned to Falcons specifically to compete in at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024 tournament, the team was upset by Metizport and eliminated in the first round. The team also failed to qualify for the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. Also in March, they signed Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen to the roster.
In April, the team suffered another upset by RUBY in the first round of the European Open Qualifier for the Esports World Cup 2024 tournament. The loss meant that Falcons would not represent its sponsor region in the tournament.
In September, after being eliminated in last place at the BLAST Premier Fall Final, Falcons would sign s1mple for a second loan replacing SunPayus, this time lasting until the end of 2024 and including the Shanghai Major Europe RMRs.
Following their elimination from the Perfect World Shanghai Major RMRs, Falcons benched Snappi, Maden and dupreeh, reducing the team's active roster to just Magisk. On January 3, 2025, Falcons signed Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. The next day, Falcons completed the roster after acquiring the HEROIC core of Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski, René "TeSeS" Madsen and Abdul "degster" Gasanov.

#### Roster
### Dota 2

In November 2023, Falcons entered the competitive Dota 2 scene with their signings of Oliver "skiter" Lepko, Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen, Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun, and Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak. The team won the BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 tournament in February, with ATF being award MVP honors. In March, the team had a dominant victory in the DreamLeague Season 22 tournament, winning the $300,000 grand prize after a 3–0 sweep over BetBoom Team in the finals.

### Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

In May 2024, before the start of the MPL Philippines Season 13 Playoffs, Team Falcons would sign a partnership deal with AP Bren, renaming their MLBB roster to "Falcons AP Bren". The team would proceed to lose in the grand finals of both MPL-PH S13 and the MLBB Mid Season Cup (the latter held in Riyadh) to Liquid ECHO and Selangor Red Giants respectively. The team failed to qualify for M6 after finishing as second runners-up in MPL-PH S14 to Aurora Gaming.
Upon the conclusion of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, Team Falcons and AP Bren went their separate ways, with AP Bren keeping their spot. On January 24, 2025, it was announced that Team Falcons and fellow Saudi team Twisted Minds would enter MPL Philippines for Season 15 onwards, replacing the outgoing Blacklist International and RSG Philippines.
On the 1st of February 2025, Team Falcons Philippines announced their roster for Snapdragon Pro Series Season 6 Challenge Finals, which included M5 World Champions from AP.Bren; Michael Angelo "KyleTzy" Sayson, Marco Stephen "Super Marco" Requitiano, cousins Rowgien "Owgwen" Unigo and Vincent Joseph "Pandora" Villones Unigo, as well as the two time world champions (M2 and M5) David Charles "FlapTzy" Canon, and Angelo Kyle "Pheww" Arcangel. These players were not tagged as "loan", which hints that they are fully part of the Philippine MLBB department of Team Falcons. Team Falcons PH unveiled their roster for MPL-PH S15 with the said squad, fully confirming the acquisition.
Falcons also run a team in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League MENA (MPL MENA) and have done so since the 2023 Fall season. The team finished runners-up of 2023 Fall, qualifying for M5 World Championship Wild Card, and won Season 5 (2024 Spring), qualifying for MSC 2024.

### Overwatch

Falcons won the Season 2 tournament of the Overwatch Contenders' European division in July 2021. In February 2024, Falcons constructed a roster for the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS). It was made up of South Korean Overwatch veterans along with a Saudi Arabian player "Sir Majed" and included some former Overwatch League champions.

### Rocket League

In March 2021, Falcons Esports acquired Sleeping, a Saudi Rocket League team. The roster consisted of players "Venom", "Ali", "trk511", and "faisal", with "Mr3zo" as their manager. They placed second in the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) 2021–22 Spring Split Major, losing the final series in seven rounds to Moist Esports. In December 2023, they signed twins "Rw9" and "Kiileerrz" from Rule One.

### Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

The Saudi org fields a roster in Rainbow Six Siege (R6). The team qualified for the Six Invitational 2024, though were eliminated in the tournament by Team Liquid. In February 2024, Falcons signed Hashem "Hashom" Al Jafri.

### Valorant

In 2022, Falcons won the inaugural Valorant MENA League, which was held in Riyadh and organized as a partnership between the Saudi Esports Federation and Valorant's developer, Riot Games.

### PUBG

On the morning of Jan. 15 2025, Soniqs announced the departure of their highly successful PUBG roster. Finally, the former Soniqs players were announced as the new Falcons PUBG lineup later that day