S1mple

Oleksandr Olehovych Kostyliev^[b] (born 2 October 1997), better known as s1mple, is a Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Falcons, on loan from Natus Vincere.^[2] He is considered to be one of the best players in Counter-Strike history.^[1][3][4]

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Olehovych and the family name is Kostyliev.

s1mple
s1mple at IEM Katowice Major 2019
Current team
Team	Team Falcons (loan from Natus Vincere)
Role	Sniper
Games	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Counter-Strike 2
Personal information
Name	Олександр Костилєв (Oleksandr Kostyliev)
Born	(1997-10-02) 2 October 1997 (age 27)
Nationality	Ukrainian
Career information
Playing career	2013–present
Role	Sniper, Rifler
Team history
2014–2015	Hellraisers
2015	Flipsid3 Tactics
2016	Team Liquid
2016–present	Natus Vincere
2024	Team Falcons (loan)[a]
Career highlights and awards
CS:GO Major champion (Stockholm 2021) HLTV Major MVP (Stockholm 2021) IEM Grand Slam champion (Season 3) 3× HLTV Player of the Year (2018, 2021, 2022) 8× HLTV Top 20 Player of the Year (2016-2023) 21× HLTV MVP

Early life

Kostyliev was born on 2 October 1997.^[5] He started playing Counter-Strike at four years old at the recommendation of his older brother. S1mple picked up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on its release in 2012, joining his first professional team a year later.^[6]

Career

2014

S1mple's first team was a team called LAN DODGERS, but he was soon signed by Courage Gaming. Around September 2014, s1mple was signed by a large organisation known as Hellraisers.^[7] There, he joined ANGE1, Dosia, Kucher, and Markeloff, who s1mple considers his idol.^[8]

2015

In January 2015, s1mple was soon removed from Hellraisers due to his inflammatory comments about Germans, and an ESL wire ban for cheating.^[9] S1mple himself says that the ban was from cheating in Counter-Strike 1.6.^[10] However, records from ESL show that it was an in-game ban from when S1mple played CS:GO.^[11] This ban was also extended to 2016 due to ban evasion.^[12] S1mple was soon after signed by Flipsid3 Tactics, but his time in the team would cut short due to the team's semi-final exit at ESWC 2015. At this period in his career, s1mple was known for being quite "toxic", or rude to his teammates.^[13][14]

2016

After a short stint studying Chinese at a university,^[6] s1mple moved to Los Angeles, United States in early 2016 and joined Team Liquid. A Team Liquid player, Spencer "Hiko" Martin, was standing in for Flipsid3 at ESWC 2015, and he developed a friendly relationship with s1mple there.^[15] Team Liquid surprised at the first major, and reached the semifinals of MLG Major Championship: Columbus, before falling to the eventual champions, Luminosity Gaming. Despite this result at the game's biggest tournament, it wouldn't be long before s1mple would leave Team Liquid, citing homesickness. The next major of the year was approaching, and s1mple once again played for Team Liquid.^[16] During the semifinals at ESL One Cologne 2016, Valve Corporation added a graffiti on Cache commemorating s1mple's falling AWP play against fnatic.^[17] Thus, Team Liquid became the first North American team to reach a major final. They were stopped in the finals by the same Brazilian lineup of SK (formerly Luminosity Gaming).^[18] After leaving Team Liquid, he replaced Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko on Natus Vincere.^[19] With Na'Vi, s1mple won ESL One: New York 2016, and he was awarded the #4 placement in the HLTV top 20.^[20]

2017

During the first major of the year, ELEAGUE Major 2017, Na'Vi lost to Astralis during the quarterfinals. After a group stage exit at PGL 2017 Krakow Major Championship, Na'Vi benched Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs and Denis "seized" Kostin while bringing in former member Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko.^[21][22] GuardiaN had been the AWPer for Na'Vi, so s1mple was forced to take up the sniper rifle after his departure. Despite these changes, Na'Vi continued their drought of results, and found a replacement for seized in the form Denis "electronic" Sharipov.^[23] s1mple didn't find much success in 2017, but he still kept up his individual form from the previous year. S1mple was awarded the #8 placement in the HLTV top 20 this year, down from #4 in 2016 due to a lack of results in the team.^[24]

2018

Na'Vi started 2018 with a semi-final finish at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. At the start of 2018, Brazilian organisation MIBR attempted to sign s1mple and flamie. The deal was reportedly very close to being finished, but Na'Vi asked for too high of a buyout, and the deal eventually fell through.^[25] After two 2nd-place finishes at Starladder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and Dreamhack Masters Marseille, Na'Vi won their first event of the year at StarSeries & i-League Season 5; they would follow it up with wins at CAC 2018, and ESL One Cologne 2018. S1mple won MVPs at StarSeries and Dreamhack Marseille, despite his team not winning the events.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} In the semifinals at Cologne, they beat the best team at the time, Astralis.^[31] Na'Vi would lose to Astralis at the second major of the year, FACEIT Major: London 2018. Na'Vi won their final event of the year, BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018, and s1mple would once again claim the MVP award.^[32] Due to s1mple's personal performance,^[33] he would be nominated for the #1 spot at the HLTV top 20 players of 2018.^[34] According to the statistics from HLTV, s1mple in 2018 achieved the highest individual rating out of all of previous top 20 players. In retrospect, 2018 s1mple is considered by many fans and pundits alike as the best player to ever touch CS:GO.^{[35][36][37][38]}

2019

Na'Vi came 3rd to 4th in the first major of the year. S1mple would keep up his form from 2018,^[39] and receive an MVP at StarSeries Season 7. After this, Na'Vi would eventually hit a slump and replace s1mple's long time teammate Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev with Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov who was in September 2019 made the team's leader (or IGL).^[40]

2021

Na'Vi went into the PGL Major as the heavy favourites after placing first in their regional ranking tournament by reverse sweeping Gambit in the finals.^[41] After going undefeated in the Legends stage of the Stockholm Major, Na'Vi proceeded to the playoffs, defeating home favorites NiP in the process.^[42] Na'Vi retained their form and won the Major, making history by winning every single map played throughout the tournament.^[43] S1mple's individual performance through the Major, including a 2.26 HLTV rating in one of the two maps against Gambit in the semifinals, earned him tournament MVP.^[44][45] At the end of the year, s1mple was named Best Esports Player at The Game Awards.^[46]

2023–present: Counter-Strike 2

On 26 October 2023, s1mple announced that he would be stepping away from professional Counter-Strike competition temporarily. He would be replaced by w0nderful on 31 October.^[47][48] Upon the release of Counter-Strike 2, which replaced CS:GO shortly before he stepped away, s1mple was critical of the game, saying that it was a "shit game".^[49] The break would ultimately mean he would be on the bench for NaVi during PGL Copenhagen 2024, as they ended up winning their second Major.^[50]

s1mple would return to professional Counter-Strike competition on 19 February 2024, signing on a one-month loan with the Saudi-based Team Falcons, which saw him compete at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown online event. This loan spell would only last 1 match, as Team Falcons lost to Metizport in the first round.^[51][52] On 27 September it was announced that s1mple would return to Team Falcons on loan once more, this time for the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Europe RMR.^[53]

After last place group stage exits at ESL Challenger Katowice and Thunderpick World Championship, s1mple and Faclons placed second to last at the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Europe RMR. Following these underwhelming results, Team Falcons announced they would not extend s1mple's loan period with the organization.

Notable achievements

Placement	Tournament	Location	Date
With Team Liquid
	MLG Major Championship: Columbus	Columbus, United States	March 29, 2016 – April 3, 2016
	ESL One Cologne 2016	Cologne, Germany	July 5, 2016 – July 10, 2016
With Natus Vincere
	ESL One: New York 2016	New York, United States	September 30, 2016 – October 2, 2016
	StarSeries Season 3	Kyiv, Ukraine	April 4, 2017 – April 9, 2017
	ESL One Cologne 2017	Cologne, Germany	July 7, 2017 – July 9, 2017
	ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018	Boston, United States	January 12, 2018 – January 28, 2018
	DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018	Marseille, France	April 18, 2018 – April 22, 2018
	StarSeries Season 5	Kyiv, Ukraine	May 28, 2018 – June 6, 2018
	CAC 2018	Shanghai, China	June 14, 2018 – June 18, 2018
	ESL One Cologne 2018	Cologne, Germany	July 3, 2018 – July 8, 2018
	ELeague CS:GO Premier 2018	Atlanta, United States	July 21, 2018 – July 29, 2018
	FACEIT Major: London 2018	London, United Kingdom	September 5, 2018 – September 23, 2018
	EPICENTER 2018	Moscow, Russia	October 23, 2018 – October 28, 2018
	BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018	Lisbon, Portugal	December 14, 2018 – December 15, 2018
	IEM Katowice 2019	Katowice, Poland	February 13, 2019 – March 3, 2019
	StarSeries Season 7	Shanghai, China	March 30, 2019 – April 7, 2019
	ESL One Cologne 2019	Cologne, Germany	July 2, 2019 - July 7, 2019
	DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019	Malmö, Sweden	October 1, 2019 - October 6, 2019
	ESL Pro League Season 10: Finals	Odense, Denmark	December 3, 2019 - December 8, 2019
	ICE Challenge 2020	London, United Kingdom	February 1, 2020 - February 6, 2020
	BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season	London, United Kingdom	January 31, 2020 - February 16, 2020
	IEM Katowice 2020	Katowice, Poland	February 24, 2020 – March 1, 2020
	ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe	Europe (Online)	September 1, 2020 - October 4, 2020
	IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020: Europe	Europe (Online)	November 6, 2020 - November 22, 2020
	IEM Global Challenge 2020	Europe (Online)	December 15, 2020 - December 20, 2020
	BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020	Europe (Online)	January 19, 2021 – January 24, 2021
	BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2021	Europe (Online)	February 4, 2021 - February 14, 2021
	DreamHack Masters Spring 2021	Europe (Online)	April 29, 2021 – May 9, 2021
	Blast Premier: Spring Finals 2021	Europe (Online)	June 15, 2021 - June 20, 2021
	IEM Cologne 2021	Cologne, Germany	July 6, 2021 - July 18, 2021
	ESL Pro League Season 14	Europe (Online)	August 16 - September 12, 2021
	PGL Major Stockholm 2021	Stockholm, Sweden	October 26, 2021 - November 7, 2021
	Blast Premier: Fall Finals 2021	Copenhagen, Denmark	November 24, 2021 - November 28, 2021
	Blast Premier: World Final 2021	Copenhagen, Denmark	December 14, 2021 - December 19, 2021
	PGL Major Antwerp 2022	Antwerp, Belgium	May 9, 2021 - May 22, 2021
	BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022	Lisbon, Portugal	June 15, 2021 - June 19, 2021
	IEM Cologne 2022	Cologne, Germany	July 7, 2022 - July 17, 2022
	IEM Katowice 2023	Katowice, Poland	Feb 4th - Feb 12th 2023

Individual awards and accolades

Rankings

• HLTV Top 20 Players: 4th (2016),^[20] 8th (2017),^[54] 1st (2018),^[55] 2nd (2019),^[56] 2nd (2020),^[57] 1st (2021),^[58] 1st (2022),^[59] 7th (2023)^[60]

MVP

• ESL One New York 2016
• DreamHack Winter 2017
• StarSeries Season 4, 2018
• StarSeries Season 5, 2018
• ESL One Cologne 2018
• Dreamhack Masters Marseille 2018
• CS:GO Asia Championships 2018
• BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2018^[61]
• StarSeries Season 7, 2019
• IEM Katowice 2020
• ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe 2020
• BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020
• DreamHack Masters Spring 2021
• Starladder CIS RMR 2021
• IEM Cologne 2021
• ESL Pro League Season 14 2021
• PGL Major Stockholm 2021
• Blast Premier: World Final 2021
• BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022
• IEM Cologne 2022

EVP

• FACEIT Major: London 2018^[62]
• MLG Major Championship: Columbus, 2016
• ESL One Cologne 2016
• IEM Katowice 2019

Other awards

• Esports Awards, PC Player of the Year, 2018^[63]
• Esports, PC Player of the Year, 2021^[64]
• The Game Awards, Best Esports Player, 2021^[46]
• Player of the Year (HLTV Award), 2022^[65]
• AWPer of the Year (Panel Award), 2022^[65]
• Player of the Year (HLTV Award), 2021^[65]
• Intel Grand Slam Season 3 Winner^[66]

Notes

1. s1mple has had two loan spells with Team Falcons, one in February 2024 and one in September for the remainder of 2024.
2. Ukrainian: Олександр Олегович Костилєв^[1]
   Russian: Александр Олегович Костылев, romanized: Aleksandr Olegovich Kostylev

References

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2. "S1mple" (in Russian). Retrieved 27 June 2019.
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8. @s1mpleO (2 March 2018). "Bro, i watched 100 markeloff demos when I played CS 1.6 and CSGO, I respect him more than anyone and he will always stay my idol in this game" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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