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S1mple returns to pro CS in a surprising move.
Credit: Helena Kristiansson / ESL
Perhaps the best Counter-Strike player ever, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, is joining the Saudi Arabian organization Team Falcons to resume his playing career.
S1mple will join Falcons on a one-month loan from NAVI, the organization he has played for since 2016. Before the loan s1mple had been inactive in pro competition, taking a break since the launch of Counter-Strike 2 for personal reasons.
While the move is not permanent, it is a very interesting step for s1mple who mentioned when he started his break that he would be looking for different offers to return to pro play once he was ready. A loan move is certainly not a guarantee that s1mple will end up on Falcons full time, but it is a good indicator of where he could land when he does return full time.
Team Flacons certainly have the money to afford his salary thanks to the money the Saudi Arabian government is pumping into esports as part of its sports washing plan, and have been looking to build a CS2 superteam for some time. While Falcons is not owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, one of its main sponsors is.
The move to bring in s1mple on loan for a month means that the organisation will have a full roster for the upcoming BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown tournament that offers up a spot at the massive LAN event set for Wembley Arena in London later in the year. S1mple will be replacing Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas, who is being benched from the team following its failure to qualify for the upcoming Copenhagen Major last week. Assistant coach Rafael “Feldman” Rodriguez is also being released from the team.
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“As part of our transparency to our fans, we have moved BOROS to the bench position for performance reasons as we look to rebalance the formation of our roster and move players into the necessary correct roles and positions,” reads the statement from Team Falcons. “This continues our commitment and focus for our long term goals towards a major success in late 2024 and 2025.”
But the move could be more of a risk than it might seem, as s1mple has not played competitively for some time and not on CS2, which is a very different beast to CS:GO where he made his name. S1mple even went so far as to criticise the game on launch, saying that pro players were better off waiting for it to be fixed than grinding in its launch state.
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