Schalke 04 has extended the contract of head coach Dylan Falco for the 2021 season, the team announced on Twitter.
In the corresponding video, Falco shared his thoughts on the current state of Schalke, highlighted their potential, and relayed his excitement for sticking with the team for one more year.
“2021 for Schalke is an ambitious project. We’ve come so close to qualifying to Worlds twice, that we’ve learned so much as staff and as an organization to put together a good practice environment & team culture,” Falco said in the team’s announcement video. “This will enable us to compete for the top spots in the LEC.”
An indomitable veteran within the coaching atmosphere, Falco was signed by the German organization in late 2018 after he led Fnatic to the World Championship finals, Europe’s first occurrence since 2011. Under his direction for the past two years, Schalke twice came agonizingly close to qualifying for Worlds, but both times, they failed to take their chances.
In 2019, the team lost to Splyce in a three-game sweep in the second round of the Regional Finals. The next year, they lost to MAD Lions in four games in a series that decided on the region’s fourth and final seed. Sad as their recent elimination was, it is worth mentioning that their exit wouldn’t have been possible without the famous “Miracle Run” near the end of the summer split. In that stretch, the team rallied back and pulled a seven-game winning streak to qualify for playoffs in the last day of the regular season, going from last place at a 1-10 record to being within two games of sealing international qualification.
Regardless of the team’s excruciating failures, Schalke remain hopeful that Draco will steer them to finally appearing in the World Championship for the first time in club history.
“Thanks to everyone that supported us over the last two years and especially I would say in this past season,” Falco said at the end of the video. “We really look forward to what we can do in 2021.”
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