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A day after his move to Team Falcons was confirmed by G2 leadership, Ilya “mONESY” Osipov took to the media circuit to discuss his change of jerseys.

“I’m very sad to see Ilya go but I wish him the best and thank him for the magic moments he gave us,” G2 CEO Alban “Stilgar” Dechelotte said on social media Sunday.

G2 confirmed that the team released him early (prior to his contract expiration in December) to begin the rebuilding process sooner.

A departure for Falcons had been discussed for months. But the 19-year-old Russian native joined the “All About Counter-Strike” podcast to dispel any rumors about the move being pre-ordained, while also allowing that the departure of Nikola “NiKo” Kovac to that same Falcons squad in early March was a major factor.

“It wasn’t set in stone,” mONESY said. “When NiKo left, it was pretty hard to understand how we’re going to play on the CT side.”

The two performed well with G2, though the team struggled against top competition.

mONESY has several awards and honors to his credit, including being tabbed the second best player in the league by HLTV in 2024 after previously winning that organization’s Rookie of the Year award in 2022. He was also the PC Rookie of the Year as designated by the Esports Awards.

NiKo recently helped Falcons defeat G2 for the PGL Bucharest 2025 championship.

Reuniting with NiKo became a top priority for mONESY, so much so he barely considered any other option.

“When I looked at other teams, there was only one team I wanted to join, and that was Falcons. I didn’t have that much belief in the other options. I wanted to play with NiKo. I believe we can win a lot of tournaments together and finally get him a Major.”

The Falcons will compete at IEM Melbourne, starting April 21, and will later be at the Blast.tv Austin Major in June.

–Field Level Media