Banner Image: Ubisoft / Kiril B. @ItsKirillVision
In Aug. 2022, Team Falcons put the MENA region on the radar after defeating MIBR, TSM, and WYLDE in 2022’s Gamers8. Eventually, the Green Eagles became the first team from the Middle East to qualify for a Six Major.
Unfortunately, Team Falcons was affected by a visa complication before the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen, which prevented JLad from traveling to Denmark. Instead of the player from Jordan, Madskills was introduced to the squad.
Despite the situation of Team Falcons, the squad survived Copenhagen’s Phase 1 after victories against MNM Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming. However, the roster finished at the bottom of the Swiss Stage standings after defeats against DarkZero Esports, DPlus, and M80.
After reaching the Top 4 of the Gamers8 2023, the unexpected happened in the MENA League: Team Falcons was dethroned by Geekay Esports, who had signed European talent to improve the blue roster’s squad and coaching staff. Against all of the odds, Geekay Esports stole the show with a breathtaking Top 8 finish.
Fortunately for Team Falcons, the squad’s consistency in their home region was enough to qualify for the Six Invitational 2024. The organization’s first and second places in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, gave the players 280 of the 355 SI Points they collected throughout the season.
With a bunch of Gamers8 appearances and after having competed in a single BLAST R6 Major, Team Falcons is one of the youngest and most inexperienced sides in the competition.
That was, of course, before the team’s most recent additions. Earlier this month, the Brazilian coach Marlon “Twister” Mello announced that he had joined Team Falcons on loan from Team Secret.
“They approached me just before the window closed,” the former FaZe Clan and FURIA Esports explained at a pre-Six Invitational 2024 interview with SiegeGG. “They spoke a little bit with me, they spoke about me maybe joining, but at the end of the day they decided to go with another coach,” he revealed.
Eventually, Team Falcons’ first option didn’t go as planned, so the Saudi Arabian organization approached Twister again. This time, both parties only had seven hours to reach a deal.
“Once we came to the final day of the transfer window, with almost seven hours left, they sent me a message saying that the other coach was out,” the Brazilian explained. “We started talking about the possibility, what could be an offer, because we had nothing, we only had the initial conversation.”
“In seven hours we needed to come out with an offer, we needed to understand that it wasn’t a decision that was supposed to be done that fast, changing regions isn’t that easy, and I needed as well to talk about Team Secret’s staff.”
Finally, Twister and Falcons agreed the best decision was the loan of the coach. “We came up with the solution of a loan, I was able to sign, and just after I was able to talk with my team about it.”
Since then, Twister mixed his Team Secret with Team Falcons’ duties with the help of his staff. While his goal now is to help the Saudi Arabian roster succeed in Brazil, the coach is still part of Team Secret’s Siege team.
At first, the highly experienced coach approached the Team Falcons’ project with his experience and his knowledge of the region after the scrimmages with Team Secret against the MENA roster.
“I tried to understand what were their needs, and based on my previous view of practicing against them, I saw that they were lacking structure, it felt like they were very good at gunfights but lacked pretty much everything else,” Twister admitted.
However, the Brazilian quickly realized that his ideals didn’t match the players’ mentality – cultural differences and how each party looked at Siege were a challenge.
“Siege for them is something they do extra,” Twister revealed. “They do it because they have fun with it, they like the competition in a light way, not like their careers or like their life depends on it.”
For those readers who don’t know about it, most of the players in Team Falcons and Geekay Esports are university students who combine their studies with their esports responsibilities. “Motivating them and finding a good pattern of scrims and schedules was challenging,” he admitted.
In other words, Twister was used to seeing players who put Siege in front of everything, sometimes even in front of family. Meanwhile, Team Falcons is different from anything he had seen before. “In some regions, if you don’t play good Siege you won’t have what to eat the next day,” he explained.
Despite the players’ professional goals, they know they are making history. Alongside Geekay Esports, Team Falcons will be the first MENA team to compete at the Six Invitational. It’s a dream come true for the region. “They understand, they want to be there, they want to do their best,” the Brazilian concluded.
Unfortunately for Team Falcons, the team had to pick two stand-ins in Victor “Bersa” Bruschini and Jake “Leadr” Fortunato. The roster’s first performance will be LOS later today, at 9 PM CET.