The highly anticipated comeback of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev was a rather quick affair. Team Falcons failed to win a single map across two series and were eliminated in last place at the Thunderpick World Championship 2024.
The individual performance of s1mple was the only positive for Falcons, as they crashed out of yet another event.
s1mple's return to play ends in a last place finish!
Following a 0-2 loss to Virtus Pro, in the group A elimination match, the Saudi org is out of the Thunderpick World Championship 2024.
All eyes were on the Ukrainian superstar in his return to play, after more than 6 months on the sideline.
In Falcons' opening game versus French side 3DMAX, he struggled to begin with.
Welcome back s1mple! pic.twitter.com/5zgsaI2phA
— CS2 NEWS (@CS2News_EN) October 21, 2024
Following his poor start on Anubis however, he started to heat up on Nuke. A more familiar map for the former NaVi star, who is on loan to Falcons, for the remainder of 2024.
s1mple 4k with a CLUTCH... LET HIM WARM UP pic.twitter.com/nK6ljEQD7k
— Ozzny (@Ozzny_CS2) October 21, 2024
Overall, he posted a 1.12 rating in the series. Topping the charts for Falcons and proving that he's still got what it takes to compete.
The Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer led squad were then forced to play for survival against Virtus Pro, facing s1mple's former teammate Denis "electroNic" Sharipov.
Falcons were handed another 0-2 loss, but s1mple topped the scoreboard again. Posting a very solid 1.24 rating.
Overall, it's a disappointing return for s1mple, as his team could not give him the support he deserves. With a performance like this, it will be tough for the group, to qualify for the Major in a few weeks.
s1mple's former teammate Ilya "perfecto" Zalutskiy pointed out what the former Major MVP has improved, during his time off:
Perfecto was watching s1mple's debut yesterday and said that he has improved compared to how he was before: pic.twitter.com/uyURrqsyci
— CS2 NEWS (@CS2News_EN) October 22, 2024
Falcons' next event is starting on Friday, as they head to Katowice, in order to compete in the ESL Challenger event on LAN.
Amidst many rumors about further changes to their roster, they will have to make do with what they have for the remainder of 2024, and ultimately try to make it to the Shanghai Major.
What do you think about s1mple's return? Will he be able to somehow carry Team Falcons to the Major?