All news: s1mple CS:GO (Oleksandr Kostyliev)

The star of Ukrainian and world Counter-Strike was born on October 2, 1997. From an early age he was fond of computer games, and since 2013 his path of becoming one of the best in history began.

s1mple's early career

The first mix of the future world champion was LAN DODGERS, where s1mple played until February 2014. After the first experience, he moved to Courage Gaming, with whom he marked himself at the first events for himself.

As part of Courage Gaming, s1mple mainly played at local events and qualifiers for various tournaments. It was not possible to collect success, and for the first time he came to the Ukrainian sniper as part of a different, not much better team - Hashtag.

The first championship for s1mple was the victory in the Voronezh Cup. Then, together with B1ad3, WorldEdit, z1 and Pr1zrak, the team won $4,150, and Alexander himself received a boost for development.

The next significant place in s1mple's career was the HellRaisers club. s1mple joined HellRaisers in September 2014.

s1mple in HR and F3

The period in a career from 2014 to the end of 2015 can be called “search for yourself”. The Ukrainian sniper was clearly stormy, because in a little over a year he changed 6 teams in one way or another, and several times moved from the inactive camp to active games.

Two teams can be singled out from the entire list: HellRaisers and FlipSid3 Tactics. Alexander joined the first in September 2014.

As part of HR, s1mple took 2nd place at Caseking of the Hill 9 by Alpenfohn, where he first met the giants of the world CS represented by Fnatic. He and his teammates lost to them in the final.

Later, HR took the 2nd place at the Game Show League Season 1 and were selected for ESWC 2014 as part of the Ukrainian team. Before the start of a major international event, Alexander and his team played at the Fragbite Masters Season 3 S-class tournament, where they took 9th-12th place. At the ESWC itself, s1mple took TOP-8 as part of the Ukrainian national team.

Towards the end of 2014, Alexander goes to the first major in his career. It was DreamHack Winter 2014, where HR entered the TOP-4, having lost to NiP in the semi-finals.

After a rather prominent debut for HR, s1mple became a FlipSid3 Tactics player in early 2015. He played for the team for a little over six months, and from the significant results of getting into the middle of the table at major S-tier tournaments: TOP-4 at ESWC Cup 2015, TOP-6 at DreamHack Open Tours 2015, TOP-8 at DreamHack Open Summer 2015 and TOP -4 on StarLadder StarSeries XII.

Having not satisfied even then big appetites, s1mple returned to HellRaisers, with whom he tried to win the qualification for DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015, but failed.

From that moment on, s1mple unsuccessfully tried to find a team, as a result of which he went inactive for 4 months. Team Liquid managed to break it off by inviting Alexander to North America.

s1mple in Team Liquid and name graffiti on Cache

January 1, 2016 s1mple becomes a member of Team Liquid. In fact, immediately after moving to a new organization, Alexander and his teammates go to MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016.

At the major in America, s1mple and the company took TOP-4, which was the best result in the player's career at that time. Further, the performance increased.

After the TOP-4 at MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016, Team Liquid got a place at ESL One: Cologne 2016. As part of the German Major, the Liquids made it to the grand final, where they lost to SK Gaming with a score of 0-2.

Although the championship cup remained in one series from s1mple, the Ukrainian sniper shone at that tournament. Many agreed with this, including Valve.

CSGO developers celebrated Alexander's individual game, perpetuating his highlight in the history of the game. s1mple received a personal graffiti on the Cache map, where in the semi-final against Fnatic he killed dennis in a jump, and then got his teammate Krimz, initially being turned back to him.

s1mple's performance for Liquid could not be called mediocre, but she could not keep the sniper in Team Liquid. Before the start of the tournament, s1mple announced that he was playing as a stand-in at Cologne. He kept his words, after which he moved to NAVI.

NaVi.s1mple and becoming the best player in the world

In August 2016, s1mple becomes a NaVi player. At the same time, s1mple gets his first big win.

In October 2016, NaVi won ESL One: New York 2016, beating Virtus.pro in the grand final. However, s1mple still did not reach the coveted major, and Alexander finally managed to become the world champion only in 2021.

Before the coveted triumph, s1mple was in the TOP-8 at ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017, TOP-14 at PGL Krakow Major 2017, TOP-4 at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Natus Vincere were closest of all at the Faceit London Major. Astralis interfered.

Later, NAVI played at Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Katowice Major 2019, where they lost to Ence, StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 in the semi-finals, where they finished in the TOP-8.

Between majors, s1mple played in different iterations of NAVI rosters at other equally prestigious tournaments. Alexander became the champion of StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, Intel Extreme Masters XIV - World Championship, BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020, Intel Extreme Masters XVI - Cologne and ESL Pro League Season 13.

The Gestalt Simpl managed to close on November 7, 2021. At the Swedish Major, Born to Win consolidated their outstanding results with an unconditional championship. In the playoffs, the team did not give up a single map and, as a result, S1mple became the world champion after 8 years of his career, strengthening his status as one of the strongest performers in the world.

Famous for his tenacity, and unconditionally loving Counter-Strike as a game and competitive discipline, s1mple did not want and does not want to stop. Still: the best player of the decade, won only 1 major, when there are examples of four-time champions from Astralis.

It was almost possible to repeat the success of Stockholm in Antwerp, when NAVI took TOP-2 at PGL Antwerp Major 2022, losing in the final to FaZe Clan with a score of 0-2. After that, there was the Brazilian IEM Rio Major 2022, when NAVI flew out from the hosts of the arena from FURIA, with a score of 1-2.

Personal awards and records s1mple

Having played CSGO since 2013 and at the highest level since 2016, s1mple has managed to acquire a huge list of personal awards. In addition, Alexander keeps records in several planes.

s1mple awards

• TOP-4 in HLTV rating for 2016
• TOP-8 in HLTV rating for 2017
• HLTV Player of the Year 2018
• Winner of The Game Awards 2018 in the nomination “Best eSportsman”
• TOP-2 in HLTV rating for 2019
• TOP-2 in the HLTV ranking for 2020
• HLTV Player of the Year 2021
• Winner of The Game Awards 2021 in the nomination “Best eSportsman”

s1mple records

• Record holder for the number of MVPs (21 awards)
• Record holder for most HTLV awards in a calendar year (8 awards)
• Most HLTV Player of the Year awards (2 awards, tied with ZywOo and coldzera).
• The only player in history to qualify for the Major final with three different rosters (Team Liquid, twice NAVI)
• Most clutches at “Big Events” (19)
• Most aces at “Big Events” (4)

Over a significant period of time, s1mple managed not only to earn awards and set records, but entered the annals of CSGO history as a versatile personality. There are interesting facts and stories associated with the s1mple persona.

Interesting facts about s1mple

• At the start of his career, s1mple risked ending it.

In February 2014, s1mple received a ban from the ESL tournament operator. The reason for the blocking was suspicions of using cheats and third-party software. ESL then banned the novice player from participating in their tournaments. Alexander was supposed to not appear at the ESL Championships for 2 years.

Such a blow could destroy s1mple's further esports fate, since the situation was resolved. Several esports organizations, including HellRaisers and FlipSid3 Tactics, turned to ESL with a demand to remove all restrictions from Alexander and allow him to develop further. After reviewing the situation, ESL removed the ban and s1mple continued to play.

• s1mple has graffiti on map cache

Alexander is one of the few who bothered to paint his graffiti on the game map. The crosshair image on the B-site of the cache map refers to Alexander's highlight in the semi-final against Fnatic, killing dennis and Krimz.

• s1mple became the protagonist of the NaVi documentary “s1mple formula”

In honor of the fifth anniversary at the position of a sniper at Natus Vincere, the Ukrainian club made a documentary film about the history of the player's formation. In 2022, s1mple extended his partnership with the Born to Win for another 3 years, which will make him one of the record holders for playing for one club.

• s1mple does charity work

Since the start of the armed invasion of the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine, s1mple has been financially supporting the country. He donated over $100,000 to UNITED24 fundraising platform.

How much did s1mple earn from prize money

During his playing career, s1mple has earned over $1,600,000 in prize money. The player earned the lion's share playing for NAVI.

Alexander's biggest one-time winnings remain $1,000,000 million with NAVI. In terms of total prize money, s1mple ranks 5th in the ranking of the richest CSGO players with an income of $1,676,721.98. In the overall ranking of rich esportsmen, s1mple is ranked 68th.