m0NESY fires back at a hater after the ESL Pro League S22 final — and the wider story around it

After Team Falcons’ loss to Vitality in the ESL Pro League Season 22 grand final in Stockholm (Oct 12, 2025), Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov chatted with viewers on his personal Twitch stream. When one viewer mocked his motivation—“Did you and NiKo get into pro CS just for laughs?”—m0NESY answered with dry sarcasm: “Of course, bro. Nothing better to do—just went with him to run around and throw grand finals.” 

What happened at EPL S22

Champion: Vitality swept Falcons 3–0 in the best-of-five final (maps: Inferno, Train, Dust2). It was Vitality’s first trophy in four months and their eighth title of 2025. 

Dates & venue: Sept 28–Oct 12, 2025, studio event in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Audience numbers: The season set a series record for average viewership (≈219.4K) with a 631K peak during the grand final. 

m0NESY’s tournament & post-final reflections

Despite the defeat, m0NESY won the HLTV x 1xBet MVP of the event—his first MVP of 2025—after leading Falcons to the final with a 1.38 rating across the tournament. 

On what went wrong in the final, m0NESY told HLTV: “We didn’t manage to play better CS after the first map… we were making a lot of mistakes today and the communication wasn’t on point… In the grand final, I missed a lot of shots in situations where I could have made a difference.” He also spoke about needing more stability and having a bigger mid-round voice on Falcons. 

How the key figures saw it

apEX (Vitality IGL): “We’ve been working hard and we really wanted to get back to trophies,” he said after the win, framing the title as the end of a short drought. On broadcast he also admitted the early-season grind “killed” him and that they came in better reset. 

NiKo (Falcons rifler): After a narrow 2–1 quarter-final over 3DMAX, NiKo said he was “a bit frustrated how we played, but happy that we won,” highlighting Falcons’ resilience even when pistols went against them. Post-final, HLTV’s live blog captured him saying, “I hate myself for that shot on ropz,” reflecting on a key moment. 

huNter- (G2, ex-teammate): A few weeks before the final, huNter- called m0NESY “the best AWPer in the world” and backed him to have a legendary career. 

Falcons, m0NESY & NiKo — the arc

m0NESY and NiKo first linked up in G2 in 2022, collecting multiple elite trophies. Both left G2 in January 2025 and reunited on Team Falcons in April, where they’ve since pushed into late-stage runs, including this final (Falcons also beat MOUZ 2–0 in the semis to get there). 

The final at a glance

Result: Vitality 3–0 Falcons (Inferno, Train, Dust2). flameZ was the series’ hard-carry (1.60 rating in the final), while m0NESY still posted 51 kills across the three maps.