In the latest episode of the Hot Take Point Made podcast, the outspoken Thorin once again dropped a "hot take" – post-online era, FalleN is the most overrated in-game leader in history. He reviewed FalleN's career since 2020, arguing that his recent achievements are insufficient to justify the acclaim he receives from the outside world.
Thorin: During the 2022 Antwerp Major, I made a statement: FalleN is one of the most overrated players in CS history. And I said it right after he had just put on an incredible performance, so you can imagine how everyone lost it.
This time I'm narrowing the scope: if we're talking purely about in-game leadership, especially in these few years after the pandemic, I think FalleN is the most overrated in that category.
Take a look at the current FURIA. Since FalleN announced his retirement, the team has nearly come to a standstill. Now they are even allowing YEKINDAR to take on more in-game leadership responsibilities on certain maps. The discussions surrounding FURIA have long since turned to "who will take over after FalleN leaves," "who will stay," and "who will leave the team." This in itself already says a lot.
Of course, those who support FalleN will immediately play their strongest card: FURIA won four consecutive championships last year. Well, let's take a look at these four titles—Fission Global S2, Thunderpick World Championship, IEM Chengdu, and BLAST Fall Finals. It does sound impressive, but the issue is that these four trophies are not even in the same league.
IEM Chengdu and BLAST Hong Kong have no issues—one winning against Vitality in the finals, the other defeating Falcons—these are true major champions. However, the prestige of Fission Universe S2 and the Thunderpick World Championship is noticeably a tier lower, with the latter being closer to a 1.5-tier event and not even gathering all the strongest teams at the time.
So don't equate the "four consecutive championships" directly with "four top-tier titles." Realistically speaking, it's two significant tournament victories.
Looking at Major. Austin Major didn't achieve much; yet at the subsequent Major, FURIA secured an extremely favorable knockout stage bracket. They were ranked very high at the time, and strong teams like Vitality, Spirit, and Falcons were all in the other half of the bracket. The result? They were eliminated by NAVI in the very first round.
More importantly, FalleN did not join FURIA for just six months or a year; he has been with this team since 2023. Over such a long period, what is truly worth repeatedly highlighting amounts to only two major championships and a Major final appearance.
This is certainly not bad for a regular excellent in-game leader, but that's precisely the point: when people evaluate FalleN, they never use the standards of a "regular excellent leader." They're talking about legendary status, historic greatness, and GOAT-level caliber—so the standards should naturally be higher.
And what I find most incomprehensible is that the same group of people can criticize Karrigan every day.
You can say he should leave FaZe, say he's playing poorly, say he should be benched at Falcons now. But when it comes to FalleN, suddenly it becomes: "It's fine, he's about to retire."
Why? If we only look at the years after the pandemic, karrigan's achievements and the time he has maintained top-level competitiveness have clearly been stronger than FalleN's.Of course, this does not mean FalleN wasn't great in the past—quite the opposite. In 2016 and 2017, FalleN was indeed a world-class leader. Not only could he lead effectively, but his individual skills were also strong, and he often made an impact in crucial matches. Even in 2018, I wouldn't say he was completely left behind.
But the issue is, that was many years ago. From 2019 onward, then to Imperial, and now to today's FURIA, you cannot forever use the FalleN of ten years ago to endorse the FalleN of today. Historical status is one thing, but the evaluation he should receive today is another matter entirely.
Some people like to explain his situation by citing changes in the map pool: Overpass is gone, Train is gone, so FURIA struggles. But if you're truly a historic in-game leader, this should be precisely the kind of problem you need to solve.
The value of a top-tier IGL, isn't it to find new solutions when the environment changes? If the map pool shifts, develop new maps; if a system fails, rebuild the system. If a team with such strong paper strength like FURIA can only truly build advantages on one or two maps in the long run, then I would naturally start questioning the IGL.
So my point is actually quite straightforward: FalleN was absolutely legendary at his peak, but post-pandemic FalleN has been shielded too well by his past reputation. If judging solely on his in-game leading performance over these past few years, he’s in the most overrated tier.