"Welcome back king": CS2 fans celebrate s1mple's return, but there's a catch

The Counter-Strike prodigy Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev recently announced his comeback to the CS2 pro scene as a loan to the Team Falcons. The official announcement has caught some enthusiastic fans off guard, with many left flabbergasted about this development. While he is returning to the Counter-Strike pro scene, s1mple is joining Team Falcons, on a three-month loan, instead of NAVI (Natus Vincere), meaning he will likely switch rosters after this duration.

Following the X announcement from Falcons Esports, their Esports Content Specialist, Saif-Eddine Miadi (@saif_4g), commented:

“Welcome back king!”

X user @gamechale expressed their joy about s1mple coming back to the Counter-Strike pro-scene, writing:

“FINALLY THE GOAT IS BACK”

Another fan, @Atompro34 stated that they want this Counter-Strike prodigy as a permanent player of the Team Falcons, not just on loan:

“@Msdossary7 @_next @GrantRous @zonic @TrochuCS thank you so much guys for this and in future please my goat @s1mpleO make him permanent member of @FalconsEsport”

@Atompro34's comment on the X post (Image via X)

Following the original announcement post, X user @HotBrainFreeze mentioned that they now have a reason to watch Team Falcon’s Counter-Strike matches.

The comment by @HotBrainFreeze on X (Image via X)

A well-known Counter-Strike gambling site, PLG.BET commented on the post, asking for NiKo and s1mple as a permanent duo in Team Falcons.

PLG.BET's reaction to the announcement (Image via X)

Another fan, @MegaJano22 jokingly commented that s1mple will likely be forced to play his permanently banned map, Vertigo, while competing:

“Are you gonna make him play his perma ban, Vertigo, again?”

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CS2 star s1mple officially joins Falcons on 3-month loan

After a year of inactivity in the Counter-Strike 2 pro scene, the Ukrainian prodigy, s1mple has finally made his comeback in the CS2 Esports league, albeit with a little twist. When he starts playing the S-Tier matches, he will be competing under Team Falcons’ roster instead of NAVI, as he joined the former for three months on loan. This means, that after three months, s1mple will be parting his ways with Team Falcon and likely join NAVI’s active roster, if he continues to compete in CS2.

While fans were eagerly waiting for their star’s return to the game, they did not expect him to come back as a loaned player of Team Falcons. He will compete in the upcoming CS2 Shanghai 2024 Major in November 2024, hosted by Valve’s exclusive Chinese distributor, Perfect World.

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