Iconic Ukrainian Counter-Strike player, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, has decided to take a break in his esports career, announcing his decision to step down temporarily from Natus Vincere’s starting lineup. The decision marks the first time in seven years that s1mple hasn’t won the yellow and black of Ukraine’s most famous organization.
In announcing his decision, s1mple said in a statement that he wished to take a break to focus ‘documents and take care of other people in my life’ and that he was willing to entertain offers from other organizations.
s1mple also mentioned that he will work on his own CS2-related project and promised to reveal it later.
In a statement, Natus Vincere spoke of s1mple’s accolades with NAVI:
“With him, Born to Win became champions at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, successfully completed the $1,000,000 Intel Grand Slam, and reached the podiums of the most prestigious tournaments multiple times. During his time in NAVI, s1mple became HLTV.org’s Player of the Year three times and earned 21 MVP medals.”
HLTV’s sources say that NAVI wants to hire Sprout’s Ukrainian AWPer Ihor “â w0nderfulâ ” Zhdanov to fill the vacant place and they are close to signing the contract.
NAVI are currently:
- Valerij ‘B1T’ Vakhovsjkyj
- Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen (In-game leader)
- Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius
- Ivan ‘iM’ Mihai
- Andrij ‘B1ad3’ Ghorodensjky (Coach)
