đ They are inevitable: Team Falcons 2025 World Finals Preview
Team Falcons are a confusing team at times. They seem to be plagued by an inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to perform at the level that the fans know they are capable of. Until, though, the lights are at their absolute brightest.
During stage 3, a regular season stumble against ZETA DIVISION led to a third-place finish, despite beating 2nd-place finishers T1 in dominant 3-0 fashion. Another tough loss to WAE sent them crashing out of the Regional Playoffs, and they would have to make a patented Falcons run through the play-ins to get to the Road to World Finals.
Of course, as soon as the stakes are raised, Falcons start to look like the terrifying team that everyone knows they can be. After winning the play-in spot to the Road to World Finals, they faced off against none other than Crazy Raccoon in the first round, and actually beat them 3-2. This was a shock, but far from a fluke. Falcons tore through the upper bracket to set up the rematch between them and Crazy Raccoon in the Grand Final. Seven nail-biting maps later, Falcons fall just short and take Koreaâs second seed.
Signature Compositions
Falcons have struggled to find their identity this stage after proving to be the best of the best in the Midseason Championshipâs Ramattra-favoured meta. Ramattra nerfs and buffs to several of his competitors led to him falling out of the meta, leaving Falcons without a signature composition to speak of. Choi âMER1Tâ Tae-min also struggled at the beginning - the early double-flex DPS compositions that were prominent in Korea at the start of the stage didnât cater to his skillset at all. He was often forced onto Sombra and even Tracer at times, which didnât go particularly well.
This indecision and lack of identity continued throughout the regular season, where Falcons struggled by their standards. They experimented with Ham âSOMEONEâ Jeong-wan and Choi âHanbinâ Han-been playing a variety of tanks and compositions, but only really found their groove when the playoffs began.
In the end, Falcons deployed their âsecret weaponâ - HanBin on D.Va. This was where things really started to click for the team, and they relied on this composition to take Crazy Raccoon to a seven-map thriller. SOMEONE played a very solid Ramattra on the maps where it was still strong, and MER1T found a home on his signature Cassidy, but also played some EMEA-style Symmetra to good amounts of success.
The composition they ended up on was a version of the most popular dive composition of the stage, with D.Va instead of Winston. This consists of Tracer, Cassidy, Kiriko and Lucio alongside the tank. Itâs no surprise that this composition ended up being the key for Falcons; everyone on the team is able to play to their strengths, and can rely on their comfort picks.
Hanbin has consistently proven himself to be one of the best off-tank players in the world, with D.Va being one of his strongest heroes. He demonstrated that he could also flex to the Zarya if needed, which has proven to be a very strong pick in the current meta.
SOMEONE still has a big role on the team, coming in for maps that favour the ground tanks, such as Ramattra, who was extremely popular in Korea even after his nerfs this stage. He holds up well against most other tanks in the region, especially on those flatter maps, but the best of the best, like Park âJunBinâJun-bin and Kim âDONGHAKâ Min-sung have proven to be a level above when it comes to Winston or Wrecking Ball dive.
The saving grace for Falcons, though, has always been Kim âProperâ Dong-hyun. That hasnât changed this stage, with their superstar Tracer player putting the team on his back and hard-carrying them through when he needed to. He has a staggering ability to keep the enemy Tracer from doing literally anything, while in the same breath threatening to solo-kill the enemy backline. The threat of Proper is real, and itâs constant; he is what elevates Falcons when theyâre down, and makes them terrifying when theyâre up.
Another welcome addition to the roster is MER1T. He has provided a hitscan option that Falcons can absolutely rely on when it matters. He has had some quiet games this year, especially during the regular season, but when it comes to playoffs and big matches, there are few hitscan players youâd rather have on your team. He won the Midseason Championshipsâ Grand Finals MVP, after all.
Falconsâ biggest strength is arguably their backline, though. Kwon âFielderâ Joon and Han âChiYoâ Hyeon-seok have been heralded by many as the best in the world on their heroes. The level of Lucio and Kiriko play is second to none with these two; they are almost never the problem and have the ability to turn fights all by themselves. They donât look as strong when forced off those comfort picks, but they still look able to hang with the best of them, regardless of which heroes they need to play.
Statistics
Falcons have a respectable map win rate of 64.91% and have clearly defined strengths and weaknesses in the map pool. They were extremely strong on brawl maps like Lijiang Tower and Samoa, boasting a perfect record on both. Escort is a particularly strong game mode for them as well, going perfect on both Rialto and Watchpoint: Gibraltar. However, there are some glaring dive-shaped holes in their record. A 33.33% win rate on Suravasa does not bode well, and 50% win rates on both of the push maps suggest a significant weakness on the dive-oriented maps.
In the bans department, Falcons struggle most when MER1Tâs comfort Cassidy pick is banned out, with their win rate dropping to a shocking 16.67%. SOMEONE also struggles on maps where Winston is banned, with a win rate of 60% - his Wrecking Ball play isnât up to the standard of D0NGHAK or Junbin, which means heâs quite easy to target ban on the Winston maps.
To their credit, the Falcons backline seems pretty draft-proof. Chiyo is often seen as a Lucio one-trick (at least by professional standards), but their win rates when Lucio is banned are very positive at 66.6%
With Falcons, you can expect peaks and troughs to a degree. Sometimes, they canât seem to get anything going and are made to look second-rate by the top Korean teams, but other times theyâll look absolutely dominant. Their World Finals bootcamp in Sheffield will aim to prepare them against everything that EMEA and North America can throw at them. They are a team that definitely gets better when the stakes are high, which is a scary prospect for any team facing them at the World Finals. This time, the stakes are even higher - Falcons have the opportunity to tie things up 3-3 with Crazy Raccoon on LAN victories if they lift the trophy in Stockholm.
Time will tell if they can pull it off, but as weâve learned since the inception of OWCS, youâd be foolish to count Falcons out of any LAN tournament, especially when Proper is in the server.