GoCore Logo

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev is once again part of the active roster of a professional team. Team Falcons have brought s1mple on loan for the rest of the year. The official announcement came on the 27th of September, but it had been in the works for some time. Falcons registered s1mple as a substitute before the 22nd of September for the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024. We will see him compete for the Saudi Arabian team in the RMR. Álvaro “SunPayus” García is the player s1mple will be replacing in the starting roster.

The best CS:GO player of all time took a break to focus on other aspects of his life on the 27th of October 2023, one month after the release of CS2. Just three months after Danil "donk" Kryshkovets was promoted from the academy to Team Spirit’s main roster. The young Russian sniper has never faced off against the greatest to ever play on the big stage. That could change in the coming months.

When can we watch s1mple?

S1mple has played only one match in 2024, standing in for the Falcons during the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024. They lost to Metizport 1-2, with the Ukrainian star posting a 0.94 rating—not his best performance. That match took place in March, and it's been a long wait since we last saw him in action. The first tournament where Falcons and s1mple are confirmed to compete is the Thunderpick World Championship 2024, an $80,000 online event set for the 21st to 26th of October. Not all teams have been confirmed yet. At the time of writing, Team Spirit is not on the list, but there are still five invites left. Unfortunately, Vitality and G2 are also not among the invited teams, meaning we won’t see a s1mple play against m0NESY or ZywOo.

The other tournament Falcons will be attending is ESL Challenger Katowice 2024, running from the 25th to the 27th of October. These two events overlap, so teams like Falcons and Legacy, who are competing in both, might play the Thunderpick tournament from Katowice or request a schedule change. All teams for ESL Challenger have been confirmed, and once again, neither donk, m0NESY nor ZywOo will be present.

There is always a possibility we could get to see Falcons and s1mple compete in the meantime but there are no confirmed matches at the moment.

Clash of Titans at Perfect World Major

The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 RMR could be the first time we see all the players compete. From the 17th to the 24th of November, the best European teams will fight for their spot in Shanghai. Falcons and Spirit will battle it out in RMR B group, and we might finally witness the s1mple vs donk matchup. The Swiss format of the RMR means there's a chance we won’t see them face off until the Major itself.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 is set to take place in China from the 30th of November to the 15th of December. In the year's final tournament, we could witness the greats—and the new blood—on the server once again. It’s been too long since we've had epic s1mple matchups with so much history behind them. ZywOo was the one player who could challenge s1mple at his peak, dev1ce was close, m0NESY was the NAVI prodigy behind the s1mple himself and now we have yet to see what donk can do when the GOAT is on the other side.

The Best Player of the Year award will likely be decided at the Perfect World Major too. While s1mple can’t take it this year, he can still ruin the plans of others. All in all, it's shaping up to be a must-watch tournament—but first, let’s see them qualify.