s1mple returns to action today
One of Counter-Strike's greatest, if not the greatest, Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev returns to action today as the decorated Ukrainian star kicks off his loan spell with Falcons today at the Thunderpick World Championship 2024.
The superstar was Natus Vincere's (NAVI) talisman between 2018-2023, carrying the team on many occasions to title wins, including the PGL Stockholm 2021 Major, which was s1mple's first and only Major to date where the star AWP-er also took home the MVP award. After a long and decorated spell with NAVI, where the won everything one could, s1mple took an undefined leave of absence following ESL Pro League Season 18, which took place in August 2023 and was the final major CS:GO tournament.
The game switched to CS2 and it kicked off without arguably the finest ever to have touched the game. He did have one stand-in appearance for Falcons itself against Metizport in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown which they lost with s1mple putting up a 0.93 rating in his official CS2 debut but apart from that he has been missing from the competitive scene.
With the second Major of 2025 around the corner, s1mple will be looking to make it to Shanghai with the Falcons and no better place to get himself back into the way of things than some LAN action before taking part in the RMRs with Falcons. s1mple replaced Spanish AWP-er SunPayus in the team.
s1mple will be on loan with Falcons until 2025 and he will pair up with one of the game's finest minds in zonic, a five-time Major winner himself and five-time Major winner dupreeh and four-time Major winner Magisk. On paper, this team should not be placing anywhere apart from on top of the podium but Falcons have had a rough start to their Counter-Strike journey and s1mple will have that extra pressure to get the organisation the accolades it is looking for after investing heavily into the title.
s1mple's return to action will be against Skyesports Championship 2024 winners 3DMAX with the French team set to lock horns against the Danish-core team. The BO3 action will kick off today at 15:00 IST.
Falcons3DMAX| Falcons |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev |
33 - 30 | +3 | 81.3 | 68.9% | 1.12 |
 Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer |
29 - 31 | -2 | 77.1 | 66.7% | 0.97 |
| Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
29 - 30 | -1 | 70.3 | 66.7% | 0.94 |
 Pavle 'Maden' Bošković |
25 - 36 | -11 | 65.9 | 53.3% | 0.72 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
20 - 33 | -13 | 51.6 | 57.8% | 0.70 |
| 3DMAX |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pierre 'Ex3rcice' Bulinge |
43 - 29 | +14 | 106.3 | 68.9% | 1.41 |
| Lucas 'Lucky' Chastang |
40 - 23 | +17 | 89.0 | 82.2% | 1.40 |
| Filip 'Graviti' Brankovic |
29 - 29 | +0 | 58.4 | 73.3% | 1.04 |
| Bryan 'Maka' Canda |
27 - 24 | +3 | 61.3 | 75.6% | 1.01 |
| Thomas 'Djoko' Pavoni |
20 - 33 | -13 | 63.4 | 73.3% | 0.87 |
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