Maxim “kyousuke” Lukin’s Debut for Falcons! Has the CS2 World Gained a New Star? Pro Players on CEMEN_BAKIN’s Game
Yesterday, June 26, 2025, the group stage of IEM Cologne 2025 began, watched by the entire Counter-Strike community. Many believe this day will go down in CS history, as one of the main talents of recent years made his debut. Even before his debut, kyousuke’s personality was actively discussed, with many prophesying an even greater future for him than donk. The seven-figure transfer and joining such stars as m0NESY, NiKo, and zonic added even more intrigue to Maxim’s debut, so we couldn’t leave it without attention.
In this material, we want to tell you about the interesting moments we managed to notice during the game, and also analyze several quotes from pro players about their impressions of the 17-year-old Russian.
Match Against GamerLegion
- Nuke: Rating 2.1 – 1.07
- Mirage: Rating 2.1 – 1.60
When Falcons’ first opponent at IEM Cologne became known, it seemed to everyone that this would be easy prey for this roster. However, we fundamentally disagree with this and believe that GamerLegion is one of the most difficult opponents for an inexperienced player, especially considering their game form after the Play-In stage. GL is an extremely organized team with a clear structure and quite high firepower in the form of REZ and PR. Rosters like Falcons, who play based on individual skill, find it difficult to face such opponents, let alone a youngster debuting at tier-1.
The Nuke map largely proved this point, but Falcons still managed to take it. What was kyousuke doing on it? On the defense side, he was trusted to play on ramp, where he replaced Magisk, and already in the first gun round, he made a quadkill with incredible ease. Despite not having played in this position before, Max showed good versatility: sometimes he would go help on B or pressure radio, where he almost always found a frag.
Also worth noting from interesting moments is that after losing the pistol round, during the force round, Kovač dropped kyousuke the only M4A1-S. This speaks of complete trust and is a very telling moment. On attack, Maxim most often played on the street, where he also managed to find a couple of opening frags for his team.
Moving to Mirage, it became obvious that he was much more comfortable here, and everyone remembered his signature one-tap from connector, where he killed the AWP on short.
kyousuke on His Transfer to Falcons
First of all, he noted that he was given all the positions he played in Spirit Academy (except for Nuke), which pleasantly surprised him. Maxim was also very pleased with the atmosphere in the team, but noted that he and his teammates have different views on the game. Now he’s learning to find a balance between team and personal vision of the game to adapt as quickly as possible.
Speaking about his debut, according to him, he was quite calm and wasn’t nervous before the game:
“Was there pressure? My hands weren’t shaking. I don’t care how big the tournament is. We’re just on the server. It’s just a game. I just play without feeling pressure.”
He also commented on rumors about the team’s psychologist, who, by the way, was blamed for Falcons’ defeat at the Major (allegedly he forbade m0NESY from playing at night, which left Ilya out of form).
“The psychologist personally didn’t forbid me anything, he only said positive things for me – just advised me to take care of my health. He didn’t forbid anything, for example, I also smoke and drink energy drinks. I liked all the work done together with him.”
Maxim didn’t hesitate to talk about the difficulties, and he highlighted communication in English outside the game as the main problem. Of course, he wants to communicate with his teammates not only about the game, so he still needs to work on improving his English.
NiKo Interview After Falcons' First Match
Undoubtedly, Nikola Kovač, being one of the best riflers in the game’s history, couldn’t ignore a player coming to his position. It’s worth noting that the Bosnian is not doing this for the first time – last year he sheltered MalbsMD, who finished 2024 at 12th place in the HLTV rating. Therefore, we personally had no doubts that there would be no positional conflicts with kyousuke and Kovač would be able to find places on the map for the young talent. The player himself approaches this very philosophically:
“I definitely got this strange feeling that now there are people in the team who are 11 years younger than me. And just a few years ago, someone was saying that about me. It’s funny, but everything suits me. I’m not at all ashamed that now I’m the one dropping weapons to others.”
“I know why we initially decided to take kyousuke. I’m ready to give him room to maneuver, because he’s a young star, and we all believe he can become one of the strongest players in the world. There’s no room left for me, so I want to do everything to make him comfortable. And this doesn’t just concern me – everyone on the team is ready to sacrifice their positions for him.”
Kovač also shared his impressions of playing on the same team as kyousuke and was also surprised at how mature and prepared young players from the CIS region come:
“Kyousuke is a rising star. Everyone believes he can become one of the best. His shooting is on another level. Because of this, we didn’t have to go through all these adaptation periods. This really surprised me. His in-game communication is at a high level, he’s confident in himself. It feels like we’ve been playing on the same team for a long time.”
“In terms of shooting, kyousuke simply has no equal. He reminds me of Ilya m0NESY when he just joined G2. It’s just amazing how maturely they play, how deeply they understand CS and all the rotations. They don’t even need to be told anything – they already know everything. He’s only 17 years old, but he already knows so much about this game, and thanks to this we don’t need to spend time teaching him. I think this is what surprised me the most.”
What Other Players Think About kyousuke
Of course, absolutely everyone was following not only the young talent’s debut, but also his performances in Spirit Academy and FACEIT games. Almost no one left him without attention, so we collected several more quotes and opinions from people in the industry.
ropz on practice games: “When kyousuke was picking me and how I died from his picks – it looked like I had absolutely no chance in many situations. If he can transfer his game to tournaments and officials, then he could quite possibly be as good as donk.”
SPUNJ on the transfer and team roles: “I personally definitely like the kyousuke transfer to Falcons. Maxim can easily take some of NiKo’s positions. Nikola will be able to take duels and play by timings.”
Mauisnake on kyousuke’s reputation: “There isn’t a single person I’ve talked to who has watched at least two matches with kyousuke and doesn’t consider him a future tier-1 star.”
Conclusion
Maxim’s debut was truly successful. Maybe he didn’t show any crazy highlights, but he proved the most important thing – readiness for the tier-1 scene. Where needed, he wasn’t shy about going for saves, felt when he could risk or bait an opponent to let his teammate play.
If kyousuke continues to perform at this level, he will definitely make it into HLTV’s top-20 best players of the year, and if Falcons lift a couple of trophies, he could quite possibly even aim for the top-10! In one interview, kyousuke promised himself that within a year he would win at least one tier-1 tournament. We wish him all the best and will actively follow his career! Welcome to big CS!
