Image: Perfect World Esports
Despite having three CS:GO Major champions on its roster, Falcons failed to qualify for the CS2 Shanghai Major.
Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has confirmed that he will not be continuing with 
Team Falcons beyond his current three-month loan from 
Natus Vincere (NAVI) after the team failed to qualify for the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024.
S1mple himself announced his status within the team on his personal Telegram group, where he simply said “I'm not moving to Falcons.”
Falcons were knocked out of the Shanghai Major's European Regional Major Ranking (RMR) A event in 13th place after losing to FaZe Clan, SAW, and GamerLegion in rounds two, three, and four, respectively. Their sole win followed a bout with Dynamo Eclot in round one.
It's a massively disappointing result, considering Falcons' roster included s1mple – widely considered to be the greatest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player of all time and a CS:GO Major champion – alongside two other CS:GO Major champions in 
Peter “dupreeh” Rothmann Rasmussen and Emil “Magisk” Reif.
S1mple joined Falcons in late September to replace 
Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia on loan from NAVI until the end of 2024, having been inactive since October 2023. He had already been sent to Falcons on a short-term loan for the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 back in March, where the team failed to make it out of the Round of 16.
However, it should be noted Falcons' struggles have been very apparent even before s1mple. The team notably lost 11 out of the 12 matches they played in before s1mple replaced SunPayus.
Falcons were hoping for improvement in the closing months of the year before the rumoured arrival of 
G2 Esports' star rifler, 
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, after the Shanghai Major. Many hoped that s1mple would remain with Falcons beyond his three-month loan to see him team up with NiKo, but those dreams of a superstar team-up have now been dashed.
With s1mple confirmed to be leaving Falcons by the end of the year, CS:GO's greatest player of all time will continue to be without a team in CS2 after spending eight years under the NAVI banner from October 2016 to October 2023.
