A S1MPLE ISSUE

Aleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev, one of the most talented players in the world, #1 in HLTV.org's player of the year ranking –and not to forget: One of the most toxic.

S1mple started his career at a very young age of 15, impressing at Starseries IX with Courage Gaming, this was the first time s1mple stepped into the light.

Due to internal problems (s1mple toxic?) he left the team and joined HellRaisers, playing alongside veterans like X-GOD Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov and Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov the team had everything to succeed and showed what they were capable of by beating fnatic at DH Winter 2014 and topping their group, before falling short to the, back then, legendary NIP roster in the quarterfinals.

Mounted with tons of experience in the form of legendary players like Emil 'kUcheR' Akhundov, this team looked like it had top requirements to climb up the ranking, but the next heavy blow against s1mple did not wait long to come.

In early 2015 the Ukrainian was handed an ESL ban for cheating in Counter-Strike 1.6 before the ban was lifted he started playing with another account and was banned once again. Unfortunately, this was just the tip of the iceberg as s1mple once again showed how immature he is, as he offended Germans by saying THIS live on Twitch.

Being banned from ESL competitions s1mple joined the predominantly Ukrainian Flipsid3 Tactics, but also this time, it didn't last very long as he left the organisation a few months later in July 2015 due to — again — internal problems.

s1mple repeatedly showed his character by insulting his teammates, even when talking to long-established Counter-Strike players like Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov or Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy.

(Not long enough in the Counter-Strike scene to remember? Check this out: s1mple talking about his teammates)

After going separate ways, Markeloff said the following about his former teammate in an interview with Aftonbladet.se: “I do feel really awesome that he left, we all feel much better. Now we can concentrate on our personal and team game instead of fighting with a toxic kid.“

After a short stint for HellRaisers & Team Liquid, the Ukrainian joined the ranks of Natus Vincere
in August 2016.

At the start their path was hard and rocky, the team tried to find success, but it didn't work out until mid of 2017 when Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács and Denis 'seized' Kostin stepped down from the 

 active lineup.

GuardiaN mentioned his lack of motivation, and it seemed like he had no regrets leaving Na'Vi with this statement which is directed to s1mple: „Several times I asked [Na'Vi] to lower my salary since I felt I do not deserve it. [A] Year and a half I was really unhappy. My game was restrained by new in-game leader [Seized] and new player [s1mple] about whom was everyone overexcited. They wanted to keep me, but I told them I don't want to continue playing with some specific teammates.“

After adding Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko and Denis 'electronic' Sharipov as new players alongside Mikhaylo 'Kane' Blagin as the new coach to the end of 2017 the team looked promising and showed an upswing, most notably their semifinal run at the CS:GO Major in Boston in January 2018, placing 2nd at the Starseries Season 4 and maintaining a solid 3rd place in the world ranking over the course 

of the year.

It got quiet around s1mple throughout 2018, but the silence shouldn't last long:

In early February, one month prior the first CS:GO Major of 2019, HLTV.org interviewed the Ukrainian in-game leader Zeus, and he said the following: “There are individuals, and they have personalities - these personalities haven't changed and it will take years for any change to take place. Personally, I have no interest in raising these people, or working on relationships.”

s1mple unfollowing Zeus on Instagram afterwards underlines the fact that he is the one who is causing troubles.

Zeus continues: "It feels like we're treating the Major like just another event".

A curious fact: The team had no bootcamp before the Major and one thing which makes my thoughts wander how intact the team is.

It seems like Na’Vi has some tremendous internal drama, and s1mple — once again — did what he can do best.