s1mple

Oleksandr ”s1mple” Kostyliev is an Ukrainian professional CSGO player and currently plays for NAVI. s1mple is one of the most skilled CSGO players and is regarded as the greatest player of all time by many experts in the CSGO community. The finest players do not emerge from anywhere, and the Ukrainian AWPer is no exception. His transformation from a toxic player to a model teammate is almost as astounding as his ability to rack up frags on the server. In addition to multiple S-Tier trophies, the 24-year-old Ukrainian has won 19 MVP medals, a Major, and an Intel Grand Slam trophy.

He began playing Counter-Strike 1.6 at a young age, influenced, like many others, by his older brother, Alexey, whom s1mple would sit next to and watch play. Because the Kostyliev family only had one computer at home, s1mple had to make do with using the mouse while his older brother handled the keyboard. S1mple couldn't do much when his bigger brother instructed him to leave because he was ten years younger than Alexey. Unlike many other prominent Counter-Strike players, s1mple never had any academic issues and consistently maintained high grades in school.  

Early career

S1mple made his semi-pro debut for a local team called Lan Dodgers after only one year of actively playing. s1mple was signed by Courage Gaming in early 2014 and made his professional debut at the Voronezh Cup with his current head coach at NAVI, Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy, and Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin, under the "Hashtag" banner, but with the same lineup. s1mple at 16 years old, was given a platform to show off his talent to a larger European audience, and he immediately proved himself. He was an essential part of the team and played well against some of the best teams in the world, establishing himself as a player with enormous potential. The Ukrainian AWPer thought he was destined to become a professional CS:GO player after that success. HellRaisers came knocking later that year, and s1mple took another important step forward in his professional career by joining a higher-tier Ukrainian team.

Later at Hellraisers he was issued an ESL ban back from his Counter Strike 1.6 days which led to the team suspending him. Flipsid3 Tactics then picked him up and he continued to prove himself on the server, but he was being very toxic towards his teammates. The toxicity got him suspended from Flipsid3 Tactics as well. s1mple had short stints with different teams with little success.

A career on the rise

The Ukrainian was at the center of one of the biggest transfers in the game's history when he joined Team Liquid from North America in early 2016. Liquid was one of, if not the most, well-known esports organizations at the time, and they opted to fly s1mple to Los Angeles, where he would later reside. Hiko, who had a solid relationship with the Ukrainian, was a big component of the transfer to the North American team. The Ukrainian had his best year yet, both as a team player and as an individual, and his reputation was only increasing. Due to homesickness and the comfort of having family and friends around him, s1mple chose to leave the roster and return to his home country.

s1mple fulfilled his lifelong dream of playing for Natus Vincere when he joined the organization in 2016. Together with NAVI, s1mple really started to accelerate his career. Despite s1mple’s raw talent, the team couldn’t seem to get things right and were really struggling to put things together and get consistent results. 2016 was the best individual year for s1mple as he was ranked the 4th best player at the yearly HLTV top 20 player ranking. s1mple has ever since continued to grow as a player and has won the award for being the best player in the world 2 times, in 2018 and 2021, and the second-best player 2 times, in 2019 and 2020. He has continuously played on a very high level and is therefore considered by many as the best CSGO player of all time, still having many years left at his best.