The Thunderpick World Championship is now live in the world of Counter-Strike 2, and it’s an event that marks the return of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. After a lengthy break, the Ukrainian legend has returned to the esports scene, but his first match back was marred by a loss to 3DMAX.

When the Thunderpick World Championship group stage went live, 3DMAX handed Team Falcons a 2-0 defeat, but there is still a long way to go and s1mple remains resilient.

Unimpressed

After the 2-0 loss to 3DMAX, s1mple took to social media to express his thoughts, but apparently the initial loss didn’t bother him much:

Bad start, but don’t forget we trained for about 10 days. In most cases there are lots of bugs but nothing new. The preparation process and correcting mistakes takes time. We’ll play the second official in a few hours, thanks to everyone for the support.

Translation of Ozzny_CS2 to X

It was s1mple’s first professional match in more than ten months, so it’s understandable that he’ll have a short adjustment period before he’s back in the saddle. However, fans of the 27-year-old competitor remain hopeful. It’s not that he’s playing poorly – he secured an ADR of 125 and a KD of 27-16 in this opening series.

The Thunderpick World Championship went live today and runs until November 3rd. There’s an $850,000 prize pool at stake, and 16 of the best CS2 teams in the world are vying for the lion’s share of the prize – a whopping $500,000.

Last year’s tournament was won by FaZe Clan, with Virtus.pro taking second place. It was around this time that FaZe Clan began a dominant streak – winning IEM Sydney, Thunderpick and the CS Asia Championships in just three weeks.

Do you think Team Falcons has a chance at the Thunderpick World Championship? Let us know in the Insider Gaming forums.

For more Insider Gaming esports coverage, check out the news that only four teams remain at LoL Worlds