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Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, currently inactive long-time star of Natus Vincere, is the star of the 331st Episode of ‘Reflections’. This episode is part one of two about s1mple’s career.
s1mple is widely considered the greatest player in CS:GO history and was voted ESL Player of the Decade. He has three times been awarded HLTV number one player of the year (2018, 2021 and 2022) and twice ranked second on their list (2019 and 2020). s1mple’s journey to the top was a winding one, though.
After breaking out with HellRaisers at Dreamhack Winter 2014, he soon found himself under B1ad3’s tutelage in FlipSid3. Team-mates making mistakes frustrated him and saw him parting ways with the team after some successful runs, including a top four run at ESWC 2015 with Hiko standing in.
Hiko would help get s1mple into Team Liquid and the results were immediately explosive, as Team Liquid were on map point in two games during the semi-final of the MLG Columbus major, bombed Dreamhack Malmo and saw s1mple soon heading out of the team only to return as a stand-in and help the side reach the ESL One Cologne 2016 major final.
This run caught the attention of Na’Vi and got s1mple the call up he had been waiting for his whole career. Despite winning a number of trophies in Na’Vi and the team being considered dangerous throughout it wasn’t until 2021 many considered the line-up worthy of s1mple’s talents. Na’Vi had lost two major finals with him in their ranks, despite him being considered already CS:GO’s greatest talent.
As the online era came to a close, Na’Vi gave s1mple the platform to show himself the game’s best ever star. Na’Vi would win the Intel Grand Slam, sweep the PGL Stockholm major without a single map loss and s1mple’s numbers at the biggest tournament in many years cemented by so many called him the best to ever do it.
Na’Vi was still an elite team in most of 2022, but in-game leader issues denied them many titles. 2023 has been a much more troubled year, with a bizarre international line-up pivot around the summer and with the release of CS2 s1mple has decided to take a break from competitive play.
In part one, s1mple talks about his early days becoming a pro, falling out with the FlipSid3 players, almost winning majors with Team Liquid, Na’Vi’s IGL issues, friction with GuardiaN, Zeus’s leadership style and who flamie is.
This interview was recorded on the 4th of December, 2023.
► Time-line of topics discussed:
00:00 Is he a prodigy?
01:06 Playing his first major (DHW 2014)
03:08 Cheating ban
05:57 Flipsid3 drama
09:13 Practice mentality
10:50 Respecting legends
11:37 Trying to help his team-mates
14:22 Being disrespected by F3 team-mates after kick
15:37 Wasn’t always an AWPer
16:47 Hiko standing in at ESWC
19:02 Getting recruited to Team Liquid
24:02 Friction in Team Liquid practices
26:47 MLG Columbus 2016 major
29:19 ESL One Cologne 2016 major
34:27 Joining Na’Vi
35:59 Winning ESL One New York 2016
38:42 GuardiaN relationship and giving him the AWP
42:13 AWPing role and style
45:27 Going for clutches
46:39 Zeus as a leader
48:15 Zeus and Edward having performance issues at the end
49:50 electronic
54:40 Frustrations over losing
57:16 FACEIT Major London 2018 final vs. Astralis
59:31 flamie
Part two will be released tomorrow:
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