S1mple and the marathon against Astralis
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is the best Counter-Strike player in the world, and arguably the best of all time. All superlatives used and all superlatives justified.
S1mple has played at the highest peak I’ve seen of any CS:GO player in history. Unfortunately for s1mple, his peak has come under the shadow of Astralis. Normally, when players reach the status of number one player in the world, the victories start to pour in. S1mple may be the greatest player of all time, but he competes against Astralis, the greatest lineup of all time.
S1mple’s performance has been unrelenting as he consistently puts up peak levels of play at every tournament he attends. However, that hasn’t been enough to knock Astralis off the throne. If s1mple is to supercede Astralis, he will have to make this a test of endurance, a marathon. In this race of excellence, one of them must inevitably give out, as no one can be number one forever. For s1mple, this is the marathon of his career.
Making your own luck
No one can predict when or how a dominant team will fall. It can be due to internal issues, a meta shift, or key players taking a dip in form. This fall is something completely out of a rival competitor’s control, and so they must leave it to luck. In order to get lucky though, you need to create circumstances that allow you to have as many rolls of the dice as possible. Drawing pocket aces in any single Hold’Em hand is impossible, but what about ten thousand? That’s what s1mple is banking on with Na`Vi.
When the Na`Vi lineup first came together at the end of 2017, it struggled during the outset. The team meandered through the first parts of 2017 as they tried to solve role issues. They eventually got it right as Egor “flamie” Vasilyev took a back seat to allow Denis “electronic” Sharipov to take on a star role. They then put Ioaan “Edward” Sukhariev and Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko in more sacrificial roles as the entry and small site anchors. During this period, s1mple shocked the world with monstrous performances at LAN after LAN, with StarLadder i-League Season 4 being so awe-inspiring that he was given the MVP award despite Na`Vi losing the finals.
As Na`Vi continued on into 2018 and 2019, struggles continued to pervade the squad. Edward and Zeus were individually having the worst performances of their careers. Electronic rose up in the summer of 2018 as a top five player in the world, only to drop off in the last quarter of that year. The team’s map veto had Zeus consistently pick inferno only to lose out on the map. By the time the Major came around, Zeus openly stated in an interview that, “It feels like we’re treating the Major like just another event.” Multiple vlogs came out from Na`Vi revealing the team’s internal problems, such as Zeus and Mykhailo “kane” Blagin’s frequent arguing over tactics.
In this kind of situation, most players would have lost motivation or lashed out. Both Spencer “Hiko” Martin and Jacob “Pimp” Winneche lost their motivation to play due to the massive internal problems that Liquid faced in 2017. If this was the old s1mple he would have likely lashed out (as he did back in his flipsid3 days) but the new s1mple seems to be a changed man.
He no longer berates teammates for not living up to his standards, and instead he hones himself inwards. After this change, he seemed to understand that as the best player in the world, he had to take responsibility on himself. He could not control how well his teammates played on any given day, but he could become the best possible player imaginable. That’s exactly what he did throughout the last year-and-a-half.
When his team was knocked out from StarLadder, he continued to grind countless hours on CS:GO to keep his individual game sharp. If Na`Vi ever got it together, then he’d be ready to carry them to the top. This mentality has continued for the last year. As Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund points out in an interview, “Every night I see [s1mple] play. Most players go to sleep after practice and he goes to play some FPL mixes.”
S1mple has been hoping for his team to come together, and at StarSeries i-League Season 7, we saw glimpses of that. Edward and Zeus played at good levels, with less overall individual mistakes. Electronic got close to his summer 2018 form. Na`Vi as a squad came together during this event and their new esports director, Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy, is starting to put together the infrastructure to take the team to the next level.
“Now we’re trying to get a new system with B1ad3 and we’ll try to get new people into our team, a dietologist and a psychologist as well,” S1mple said in an interview. “We just want to see what’s going to happen when we are at 100 percent preparation and work that we’re going to put in in the next month.”
S1mple has waited a long time for Na`Vi to come online, but even if it does, it may not be enough. In any other age, Na`Vi could have been competing to be the best team in the world, even with their struggles. But instead, they live in the age of Astralis.
Under the shade of Astralis
The Age of Astralis started in the midst of 2017 and has been unchallenged so far, with few exceptions. They won 15 international titles, including two Majors. Beyond that, they’ve hit a level of consistency and dominance that is unprecedented in CS:GO history. They also hold two of the greatest map records with an undefeated streak of 29–0 on Nuke and a 45–10 record on Inferno.
If s1mple broke the idea of what it means to be the best player of all-time, then Astralis have broken the idea of what it means to be the best team of all time. The Astralis machine has no apparent weaknesses. In terms of overall role balance and tactics, they are the best we’ve seen. If we’re talking about team play, they’re top 2–3 in contention with Fnatic, NiP, and the LG/SK lineups. While they don’t have the raw firepower of the best lineups in history, they have a good spread of it across all five players. Astralis have been paradigm shifters, as their utility-focused style has defined the meta.
Finally, what makes Astralis so dangerous is that they haven’t slowed down. From LAN to LAN, Astralis consistently improve upon their ideas, setups, and tactics. Unlike some hegemonies of the past, they don’t seem to be content with being the best and coasting on it. They consistently improve themselves, and this has increased the gap between them and their would-be challengers.
For s1mple, this is the greatest hurdle he faces. In order to win tournaments, he must usurp the greatest lineup to have ever touched the game. He cannot do it alone, and so he must continue running at a breakneck pace in hopes that Na`Vi will one day become strong enough to overtake Astralis. S1mple has to break historical norms to make it happen, though, and that makes it seem just a little impossible.
Defying History
List all of the best CS:GO players of all time. You have players such as Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, Marcelo “Coldzera” David, Nicolai “device” Reedtz, and many others.
GeT_RiGhT was the world number one for the first 1.5–2 years of CS:GO (depending on who you ask). Olofmeister was the best player in the world for about 1–1.5 years (depending on how you rated kennyS in Titan). Coldzera was the best player in the world for about one and a half years, too. Regardless of who you pick out, this the trust that history has given us: No player can be the best in the world for longer than two years. You can be an incredibly consistent player like device, but to be the best in the world is a weight that no one has bared for long. S1mple is currently one year and four months into his time as the world number one.
The question remains — how much longer can s1mple keep this up? S1mple seems poised to break history as he’s actually improved his own individual play in the last year. All of history shows us that even the greatest must fall. Not only that, but s1mple’s playstyle is one of the most demanding we’ve ever seen.
S1mple is someone who goes out of his way to get all of the hard impact kills. He finds entry picks on rifle rounds, deagle kills on eco/force rounds, wins pistols, and wins clutches. A s1mple highlight reel from one tournament is better than a career highlight from most other pros. For s1mple, this is the hardest part of the race.
The Marathon Against Time
In many ways, s1mple’s very existence is an anomaly. A transcendent esports player who has broken the bell curve of his game. Someone who can only be compared to indomitable greats like Lee “Faker” sang-hyeok or Lee “Flash” Young Ho . Faker is the greatest League of Legends player of all time, the centerpiece of the most accomplished team in the world. And Flash is the greatest Brood War player, who set a level of dominance in the hardest era of Brood War competition. For his achievements, the Koreans gave him the nickname ‘God’. What s1mple has done in his 2018–2019 run will go down as one of the single greatest individual runs any player has pulled off in esports.
For s1mple, that isn’t enough. He needs to win titles, and in order to do that, he and Na`Vi must usurp Astralis. To do that, he must continue doing the impossible. He has to continue playing at the highest levels of play anyone has seen and hope that Astralis fall on their own. For s1mple, the campaign of 2019 is a marathon against Astralis to see who will give out first: Astralis or him.
