FalleN on facing MOUZ at IEM Cologne: “It’s going to be war when the match starts”

Gabriel “Fallen” Toledo is arguably the best Brazilian Counter-Strike player of all time, boasting two Major wins across a storied career over multiple iterations of the game. After years on the AWP, FalleN has rejuvenated himself on the rifle, leading a FURIA team going international for the first time.

Ahead of FURIA’s match against MOUZ at IEM Cologne 2025, we had the chance to speak to FalleN about the team’s chances at the event, as well as a little about his own nostalgic memories of glory in the LANXESS Arena. You can find the interview in text and video form below:

FalleN talks LANXESS return, Overpass, and international FURIA

Daniel Morris: So it’s been eight years since you were last in the LANXESS Arena. What does it mean for you to be back here with the team?

Gabriel “Fallen” Toledo: It means a lot for me to be able to come back to Cologne. I have a lot of joy here in 16/17. I bring my whole family to watch the tournament. We won it back-to-back. I was playing for the SK team, which was the Cologne team as well. So it’s special to be in this city, I like it a lot.

Daniel: What’s it been like for you putting down the AWP and getting to learn all these new positions?

FalleN: It’s been interesting from a point of view where I have to learn a lot of new things, which for me, it’s refreshing after so many years playing the same game. It can get a little bit stale and going to different roles and getting the chance to test things that I knew beforehand theoretically, but then testing them like in actual fashion when games matter, like it’s completely different vibes. So it’s been refreshing to play those roles and also I feel like with the ability that I have right now and understanding of the game that I have, I can contribute much more this way than I was contributing before. So it’s been pretty fun.

Daniel: Well, I think it’s fair to say that when you guys went international, people kind of sneered at it. Why do you think early results have been so positive for this team?

FalleN: I think we got very good chemistry between the players we got right away. First, I knew for a fact that bringing a stronger AWP than I was playing lately, would be a point of change for the team. And molodoy has been contributing so much with all these games he’s been playing. And secondarily and a little bit surprisingly, YEKINDAR brings a lot of good things for the team, not only in terms of firepower inside the server, but a lot of the work ethic, a lot of the ideas he has for the game and a lot of the responsibility also takes on his shoulders when we’re playing, like he does a lot of things for the team. So I think all those things together, combined with the fact that yuurih and KSCERATO have been playing lights out, the best they can play. I think that’s when it can become a scary thing. So I think the people we got together, they really do well with each other and that’s helping.

Daniel: Obviously, the second match yesterday against G2 went all the way down to the wire. What do you think made the difference in your favour?

FalleN: One of the things that made the difference was the preparation. I think sidde got us some good ideas on what to do on Dust2. He went through some research and he was looking through other teams’ ideas and he got some stuff that wasn’t too different from what we think. But it was things that we didn’t show yet in other games. So we got some undisclosed rounds that we could play against you that we have not shown in other games. So that’s one thing. And on the second map, I think it was a brawl and could have gone either way. It was more about the, I would say individual rounds that happened. I think molodoy was playing very, very strong and got us some crucial rounds that made the game go in your favour.

Daniel: So coming into Cologne, you guys lost Anubis from your map pool. How do you think that’s going to affect FURIA? Is Overpass something that we can expect to see from you guys?

FalleN: Yes – we definitely want to play a lot of Overpass. It has been one of my faovrite maps historically in all teams I played. It’s one of YEKINDAR’s best maps as well – he played a lot from VP. Just like all the other teams we didn’t have much time to prepare yet because the map just came out, but probably in a few months it’s gonna be one of our strongest maps – I’m looking forward to it.

Daniel: If you’re going to make a deeper run at Cologne, it’s going to be a tough start with MOUZ up first. What are you expecting to see from them and how are you planning to prepare for this game?

FalleN: Yeah, mousesports is a very tough team and last time we played them I think was in Brazil, in the stadium as well and they gave us a nightmare there. We were playing in front of a crowd and they beat us hard. So we’re trying to bring revenge here and hopefully we can do the same against them in their homeland now. So it’s going to be pretty fun to be challenged like that. They’re a very strong team. We like to watch them play, we like how they think. We have a lot of respect for them as players, but it’s going to be war when the match starts. We’re going to do the best we can to beat them.