Even if you’re not fully invested in the Thunderpick World Championship, any CS fan is likely pretty invested in s1mple. After a 10 month break, the Ukrainian GOAT is back for his second ever CS2 official on loan to Team Falcons from Navi.
The very first game of this long awaited championship saw 3DMAX face off with Falcons on Anubis and Nuke. After a less than favorable map 1 for Falcons, there are definitely going to be those who think s1mple has lost his status. But there’s one thing to remember. This was game 1, map 1. Give the guy a break. Even the best players in the world need a bit of a warm up.
Didn’t see that coming
I’m sure I can’t be the only one who thought Falcons picking Nuke was a mistake, right? We’ve seen some pretty devastating defeats on this map for Falcons including a 13-3. But despite Falcons taking the L, history wasn’t quite ready to repeat itself.
After an abysmal KD on Anubis, s1mple was back on Nuke. Sure, they were down in rounds but s1mple’s 27 kills to dupreeh’s 7 shows just how back he really is. It was a far more respectable 13-9 result for Falcons but 3DMAX just played better on the day.
Is s1mple soo back?
Falcons haven’t actually had much time to practice with their stand in. In only a couple of weeks, it hasn’t become clear how he’ll fit into their style. Map 2 was an S tier performance for s1mple, but not for the rest of the team.
As analysts grimyrannarr and Allan pointed out, captain Snappi didn’t say a word during the tactical pauses. S1mple has always been a talkative player but he really took the lead on this one. It seems there are definitely still some kinks to work out but this is only the group stage. There are plenty of games still to come at the Thunderpick World Championship.
Later today, Falcons will come up again the loser of Virtus.Pro vs OG Gaming, set to take place at 5:30pm CEST.
Check out all of the Thunderpick World Championship games on Grid Esports on Twitch.
