s1mple’s Debut At Team Falcons Ends In Disaster

The greatest Counter-Strike player of all time, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, was set to make his Counter-Strike: 2 debut with Team Falcons at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. Woefully, Team Falcons blew it and was upset by Metizport, resulting in an early elimination.

How s1mple Joined The Falcons

The star AWPer decided to take an extensive break from competition following the release of the new game due to the AWP being less impactful and wanting to take care of personal things going on in his life. After months of waiting, fans were notified that s1mple would be loaned to Team Falcons. 

However, the transfer wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, as Kostyljev would replace Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas, a rifler, instead of an AWPer. As a result, s1mple would be playing the role of a rifler instead of his preferred role. Still, he did express his desire to try a different role with the nerfs to the sniper rifle. 

The Ukrainian was only loaned to the Falcons for one tournament, the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. The Falcons were set to play against a young, unproven Swedish squad, Metizport. Though fans have not seen s1mple’s form since CS2, his team was the clear favorite to take the series without a doubt. 

Opening Match Against Metizport

Team Falcons started strong in their opposition’s map pick of Mirage. The MENA-backed squad finished the first half strong with an 8-4 score and, after a few struggles, eventually closed the map 13-9. However, s1mple’s first map did not look too great; he finished with a negative rating of 0.84.

The following map was the choice of the Falcons, Overpass. Metizport held firm on their defense, finishing the half 9-3. Though the map was heavily CT-sided, the Falcons lost the second pistol round and the game 4-13. In this map, s1mple was the only player to go positive in his team, with a rating of 1.35 – one we’d expect from the GOAT.

The series was forced into Map 3, with Vertigo as the battleground. The first half ended 7-5 in favor of the Swedes, with s1mple only managing three kills in the first half. However, his in-game leader, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, was behind him, with only one kill, while the three remaining players were putting up good numbers.

The two underperforming Falcons players could not improve much in the second half, resulting in a close 11-13 loss to Metizport. With this defeat, the Falcons have already been eliminated from the Spring Showdown. 

Negative Rating For s1mple, What’s Next?

In the series, s1mple only performed well in one map, Overpass. When all three maps are accounted, the 26-year-old finished the series with a KD of 38/49 and an unfavorable rating of 0.94. Though this rating isn’t too far below average, these are not the numbers we expect from a player of his caliber.

However, most of the community flak was directed at Snappi, who had an abysmal KD of 19/43 and 0.62 rating.

Not good enough, working the best I can to fix my own level and the team. Really sorry for the people rooting. GG WP

— Marco Pfeiffer (@SnappiCSGO) March 6, 2024

Sure, he hasn’t played professionally in months, but the biggest problem is that he was only loaned to the Falcons for a month, mainly to play in the Spring Showdown. Now that the team has been eliminated from the tournament, what does the future look like?

Will they extend the loan and spend more money, or end their collaboration with s1mple and find a permanent player?