{"id":153456,"date":"2026-09-06T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/?p=153456"},"modified":"2026-09-06T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:00:00","slug":"falcons-map-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/falcons-map-pool","title":{"rendered":"Falcons’ Map Pool Is NiKo’s Biggest Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winning a Major is supposed to be the thing that fixes everything, the trophy that turns a talented roster into an unstoppable machine. For Falcons, it seems to have done the opposite. Nikola “NiKo” Kova\u010d has broken down exactly why the reigning Cologne Major champions are still searching for consistency, even after pushing their way to the semi-finals at BLAST Open Porto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Shaky Start to the Season<\/h2>\n

Falcons arrived in Portugal carrying some real baggage. An early exit at BLAST Bounty and a disappointing top-eight finish at the Esports World Cup had already raised questions about whether the Cologne triumph was a peak or a new normal. The run at BLAST Premier Open Porto<\/a> looked like progress on paper, but it ended the same way, a 0-2 semi-final loss to Spirit.<\/p>\n

NiKo didn’t sugarcoat it when he sat down with HLTV to reflect on the event. “There are some positives, but a lot of negatives,”<\/strong> he told HLTV. “The whole event has been really up and down for us, one game would be and then one game would be shit, back and forth all the time.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Map Pool Problem<\/h2>\n

Dig into the specifics and the picture gets clearer. NiKo pointed to a brutal run of lost map picks as the single biggest factor behind the inconsistency, admitting the team has basically been playing on the back foot in every series.<\/p>\n

“The negatives obviously are that the map pool has been awful for us this event, losing our map picks constantly,”<\/strong> NiKo told HLTV. “It’s very hard to win series when you lose, I think we lost every map pick that we had at this event, so it’s hard.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also flagged Dust2 as the only map the team can currently rely on, and even that’s shaky given how well Spirit play it. Anubis, meanwhile, is apparently testing worse in scrims than Ancient or Nuke, which has left the roster second-guessing its own preparation. “Maybe we should just pay attention a bit less to what’s happening in practice, and focus on how we approach the maps in important games,”<\/strong> he said, framing it as something the team needs to properly dive into before EPL.<\/p>\n

Confidence That Cuts Both Ways<\/h2>\n

The most striking line from the interview, though, is NiKo’s read on how the Major win itself has actually affected the team. Rather than fueling a hot streak, he believes it’s created a false sense of security that’s been hard to shake off.<\/p>\n

“I feel like we are not carrying well the confidence we had from the Major, I think it rather hurt us more than we actually benefitted from the confidence,”<\/strong> NiKo told HLTV.<\/p>\n

He was also asked directly about a common criticism aimed at Finn “karrigan” Andersen, the idea that his teams tend to sink to the level of weaker opposition in group stages before rising for the big moments. NiKo pushed back on pinning it on the IGL specifically, framing the dip as a collective issue rather than a leadership one. “I don’t think it’s just him, me\u2026 just as a team it feels like we are just not there, you know?”<\/strong> he said, adding that he doesn’t buy into that kind of logic when it comes to karrigan’s role in it.<\/p>\n

What he did concede is that the gap between Falcons’ playoff level and their group stage level simply shouldn’t exist. “If we can perform in the playoffs, we have to perform in the group stage,”<\/strong> NiKo told HLTV, noting that if the reverse were true, stress and poor decision-making under pressure would at least explain things.<\/p>\n

What’s Next for Falcons<\/h2>\n

With a short break now on the calendar before ESL Pro League Season 24 gets underway, Falcons have a rare window to actually address the issues NiKo laid out rather than firefighting between events. Fixing the map pool feels like the obvious starting point, especially with Spirit and other top sides clearly aware of where Falcons are vulnerable in the veto.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Filip Hajd\u00f3ci on Pexels<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether that translates into the kind of stability the roster showed on their way to Cologne remains the open question hanging over the team. NiKo’s honesty at least suggests Falcons know exactly what needs fixing, even if the fix itself hasn’t clicked yet.<\/p>\n