FalleN on molodoy: “I think he considers himself one of the best, and he’s not going to stop until he gets there.”

Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo is a living legend of Brazilian Counter-Strike, but it took looking further afield to rejuvenate a Furia who were stagnant for much of the last few years.

The additions of young Kazakh AWPer Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko and a reborn Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis have made Furia dark horses for this event, with victories over Legacy, Spirit and Mouz giving Furia a direct placement in the semi-finals of BLAST Open London.

Esports News UK spoke to FalleN about his past and potential future in Counter-Strike. Despite a storied career, stretching back to Counter-Strike 1.6, FalleN’s transition to rifling has given him and his roster a new lease on life, but will it lead to FalleN once again lifting Counter-Strike’s biggest trophies?

FalleN interview at BLAST Open London

How nice is it for you to be here?

Yeah, definitely. Coming back, I think I was here many years ago, playing ECS for FACEIT tournament, so it’s good to be back.

You were third/fourth in the London FACEIT Major in 2018 as well.

Oh, that’s another one, I didn’t remember that one, that’s the second time, yeah.

Do you have any memories from that event?

From the Major itself? I have more memories from the ECS one, because I won the tournament, so the Major maybe slipped away, probably because I lost it.

Is that how you stay mentally strong? You just forget the tournaments that you lost?

[laughs] Yeah, there’s so many tournaments, it’s impossible to remember all of them, but it was always a great time here. I remember ECS was amazing, and I think both of them were held in the same spot we are right now, so it’s great to be back.

“Your understanding of how you should react now matters more than it mattered in the past.”
FalleN on the difference in today’s game

In comparison to back then, how would you assess the current meta and how different playing is from back then to now?

I would say that right now, Counter-Strike, I think, just like other sports, people are just looking for ways to be more optimised, and ways to be using the tools that develop you as a player and as a team much more efficiently, so that the game just keeps getting harder and harder.

The fact that the game changes brings a little bit of differences in terms of the tools you have inside the server, grenades can break smokes nowadays, back in the days you couldn’t.

I think the thing that stands out the most for me is how aggressive and how individuals have to be on point, not only on their aim, you have to be on point on the aim the best too, but it is still a factor nowadays, but your understanding of how you should react now matters more than it mattered in the past.

In the past, I think, because the game was a little bit more slow-paced, as a team, you could get more out of situations slowly and easily.

Nowadays, if someone is not making the right reaction, it’s going to hurt the team.

Are reactions something you have to drill into players so that they know intuitively how to react, or is that something that you’re putting into some of the more inexperienced players?

I would say that, as a team, you want to have foundations and understanding for what’s the best thing you can do on certain outcomes, on certain situations, and there is room for how a player can adapt in that regard.

It’s not like a strict, like, ‘you have to follow this, this, and this,’ but, in some sense, if your players are taking the best decisions from what you understand to be the best, then you’re performing better and more consistently, so I think that’s what teams are normally looking for the most.

“If everyone needs a donk to win, then donk will be winning all the tournaments, right?”
FalleN on the importance of entry riflers

In terms of this specific meta, donk has kind of emerged as a force, we’re saying that kind of entries are more vital. How do you feel about entries with Yekindar coming into your team?

I think you can divide Counter-Strike in many, many subjects when you are trying to get a grasp on what’s making teams win, and definitely the way donk has been playing the last year and a couple months, it does raise the bar on the entry department, like, you expect your entry guys to be collecting some of the best outcomes you can have by collecting some kills.

But in the same sense, if everyone needs a donk to win, then donk will be winning all the tournaments, right?

Like, it’s definitely possible to win by having other areas developed as well. So, I would say that just as strong as entry, donk getting an entry somewhere, you trading somewhere in a good position as well, and playing correctly, the 4v4 can get you winning as well.

So, you can still win in many other regards than only having the first guy fragging out, and if that wasn’t the case, donk would be winning every tournament.

“In the end, you still have to shoot, and I think I have been shooting pretty well”
FalleN on his individual form

How good is molodoy?

Yeah, molodoy is an incredible player. He’s such a young kid, and he has so much more to play, and it’s amazing to kind of grasp how much more he’s going to be playing. From the get-go, he already has a very good understanding of the game, a very natural feeling, and is very precise with the AWP.

I like the attitude he has towards his opponents and towards the matches as well. I think he considers himself one of the best, and he’s not going to stop until he gets there.

Welcome to #FURIACS, Danil @tvoy_molodoy Golubenko! 🇰🇿 pic.twitter.com/zk6mI0rtPh

— FURIA (@FURIA) April 11, 2025

Obviously, molodoy’s arrival put you on the rifle, but statistically, you have performed extremely well on the rifle. So, how would you characterise your own playstyle now?

I would say that for me, transitioning to the rifle wasn’t too difficult, mainly because I was already playing a very sacrificial role as an IGL, even when I was AWPing.

So when I went into the rifle role as an IGL, for me, it was more about putting more emphasis on doing the things that the team needs to be doing. Make sure that you’re not a liability, mainly on the CT side.

Like, make sure you’re studying other players who do the same role as you, and making sure that I help other teammates as well to be strong on their strengths. I want them to feel comfortable playing. I want them to have voices.

I want them to express themselves outside and inside the server the best way I can help them.

So, for me, it’s all about being sacrificial and also giving space for people to flourish. Yeah, so that’s interesting you talk about, you know, looking at how other people play your roles.

“Having the team grow as it is growing, it kind of gives you the question, wouldn’t you want to continue for more?”
FalleN on potentially elongating his career

Could you say who you are studying in your new roles?

I think on this new role, there’s a lot of times when I am in doubt, where I need more information about which behaviours I need to change. I’m always looking for the maps and checking the teams that have players who have been playing well in these roles.

So, for example, when I’m studying how to play B on Mirage, I was checking out magixx from Team Spirit from the past, Techno[4K] from MongolZ. It’s just so easy to research nowadays what players are doing that you can find the similarities and the differentiation from them.

Then I try to find what fits me the most as well, because I understand that if I’m going to have to be beating donk in a 1v1 coming to B Apps, my best play is not to go fighting instantly on the first thing I find.

I have to find the best tools for me to deal with these type of aggressors as well on my bombsite. So, I try to play as smart as I can in order to avoid having to deal with them brutally in terms of only skill inside of the match.

Sometimes I can do it, sometimes I cannot. In the end, you still have to shoot, and I think I have been shooting pretty well, considering my outputs in the last few months as well.

So, you can only get better from there.

You’ve talked in the past about how FalleN has had a lot of time, and maybe Gabriel needs his own life, but coming into rifling, with how well you’re doing, are you reassessing your own potential longevity?

It’s been very cool. First, because it has been very refreshing. Once I entered the server, I was like, okay, now I’m doing something completely new to me, and not new in a sense where I had no idea what needs to be done, because the idea was always there, helping other teammates, studying opponents, and understanding the game.

But to be in the position and to be facing the demons you have to face there, when it’s your time to hold the site solo, and all those things, only with the rifle, it’s a completely different shape.

That’s kind of reinvigorating itself, because it gives me a perspective that I can be learning something new, even though the job is the same for so many years.

In terms of reassessing, yes. On one hand, I have the intention, and at some point, I’m going to have to transition to something else, because there are other things to do in life and competitive life. It is a life that takes a lot for you, at the same time that gives you a lot as well.

So when I’m going to be transitioning, then I’m going to have more time for family. I’m going to be thinking about having kids, and I’m going to have time for myself in this regard, but at the same time, doing well in a different role and having the team grow as it is growing, it kind of gives you the question, wouldn’t you want to continue for more?

So right now, it’s in the open. I have full support from my teammates. They know what time I am in my career right now, and it’s definitely possible to play for more. Let’s see how this last part of the year is going to go.

Maybe I can play for more. It’s all about how much willingness I have to sacrifice the other things in life to still focus on being the best that I can be.

😏😏 pic.twitter.com/QTGHDgeh0R

— Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) August 31, 2025

Last year it felt Furia had too many players who wanted to play in the late round, and maybe not as many players who wanted to play early. How do you think this roster has helped yuurih and KSCERATO?

Yeah, I think that’s definitely a factor. Yuri and KSCERATO, I think by definition, yuurih more than KSCERATO, they are late-round players by definition.

Both of them are capable of going for plays and trying to bring this early round impact, but where they thrive the most is by playing on the late times of the round, and I think that comes from the fact that they played from a school coming from arT when they’re developing themselves as great players and coming to the Tier 1 scene.

arT was always aggressive. So they are used to having someone else do this job. So it was more natural for them to be laid back and play in the situation that occurs from his plays, right? So it’s completely natural that he felt that way.

But since I joined Furia, including with arT on the team, it has been a point of where I wanted them to be a little bit more, developing their bar into somewhere else where they are at.

https://t.co/pH6vdbnlVz

— FURIA (@FURIA) April 16, 2024

I think KSCERATO had an easier life going for those plays. KSCERATO has many, many positions where he is an initiator, like many of them. So he doesn’t have a problem with that.

In bringing YEKINDAR to the team, we have this person who is willing to go front forward. I kind of assumed Chelo’s position, who was actually a guy who was going first as well, and all those things.

So we want them to be mostly trading. I enjoy playing with Furia a lot because even a practice, I played some days ago, he traded me four times in a row, and I was like, ‘bro, this is insane!’

If I’m dying and you are getting traded, it’s perfect. The round keeps going, and you guys are going to try it at the end.

But yeah, definitely bringing Mareks to the team, he was also reinforcing this point with the guys that there are times when you have to collapse the team. It doesn’t matter what. It doesn’t matter if you want to play later on or not. You have to be initiating.

I think another person bringing this subject helps them understand this factor more and pushes the bar where I want it to be.

“I knew that as an IGL I could possibly be outputting what I need to be doing and helping others to flourish.”

FalleN on rifling switch

A lot of people believe that you can win the event. A lot of people have talked about you guys as a dark horse simply because the team is functioning really well. How does it feel to be discussed as one of the contenders again for a Tier 1 event?

Yeah, it feels great to be considered one of the teams that can possibly win a tournament. That’s the goal for every team that is building up. They want, at some point, to not only be considered by the outside, but also internally to feel like we have what it takes to win this.

Just to get this result that we had here in this tournament to come to the semi-finals, we had amazing team play and we had an amazing individual output in many situations like Molodoy, KSCERATO, all of them. But I would say mostly KSCERATO and Molodoy.

It’s just how we need them to play if we want to be winning titles, and that’s one of the reasons why I decided to go away from the AWP role as well and focus more on my IGLing, because I knew that as an IGL I could possibly be outputting what I need to be doing and helping others to flourish.

At the same time, I would be getting a capable AWPer to really get you to the finish line of the games, and you look for the teams that have been winning tournaments lately, all of them have those players. ZywOo, Shiro, all those guys. They are making the difference for them to win.

So for us, it’s all a fact of coming to the playoff games and understanding that we’re going to have to do something new. Every game, every point is new, and the capabilities are there.

It’s all about us feeling comfortable and finding this groove and synergy between ourselves to make it happen on LAN.

You said that you don’t remember the London Major as much because you didn’t win, but remember ECS, so maybe this will be a tournament to remember.

Definitely. ECS was one of the coolest tournaments I won, and I remember it because we had to beat so many good teams to win. There was, I think, from the top five, we beat three of the top three teams at the time. FaZe, Astralis, and someone else. [SK beat FaZe twice, Astralis and G2 to win ECS Season 3 Finals]

I don’t remember now, and intense games with overtime. So it does look a little bit familiar from the get-go on the online part.

Let’s see how we’re going to do in the playoffs. I’m very curious about it.