First of. Most players could only dream of having a year like Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s 2023. With a 1.19 rating, NAVI’s superstar is ranked 5th among all players in the elite level of Counter-Strike (vs top 30 teams) after the first half of the season is done and dusted. A season that ended without NAVI making it to one of the Grand Finals, which given the track record for NAVI and s1mple is almost unheard of.
The internal struggles on NAVI combined with the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war have been a dangerous cocktail for the 2021 world beaters.
With inhuman ratings during the last couple of years, 2023 has been somewhat of a downfall for the s1mple. Let’s take a look at the numbers:
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s HLTV rating (vs top 30 teams) since 2016:
2016: 1.17 rating (Average of teammates: 1.01)
2017: 1.23 rating (Average of teammates: 1.00)
2018: 1.34 rating (Average of teammates: 1.04)
2019: 1.28 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)
2020: 1.28 rating (Average of teammates: 1.02)
2021: 1.35 rating (Average of teammates: 1.06)
2022: 1.26 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)
2023: 1.19 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)
The second part of 2023 is waiting after the summer break, but the question remains what kind of NAVI we will get to see? Rumors have speculated in a new rebuild of the roster with an international focus leaving out Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy, and Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi. With this tweet, s1mple fueled the rumors even more about an upcoming change.
2023 ratings: (Against top30 teams)
1. {cflag:FR} ZywOo – 1.32 rating
2. {cflag:RU} sh1ro – 1.24 rating
3. {cflag:DK} device – 1.22 rating
4. {cflag:SK} frozen – 1.21 rating
5. {cflag:UA} s1mple – 1.19 rating
