The e-sports player s1mple is one of the most successful players in the history of Counter-Strike. Now he is taking a break and considering putting the AWP aside.
Who is it about?
- Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev has been active for Natus Vincere (NaVi) since 2016 and is considered one of the best Counter-Strike players of all time. He was awarded the best player title in 2018, 2021, and 2022.
- The 26-year-old Ukrainian won several prestigious tournaments with NaVi, including the Intel Grand Slam in September 2021 and the PGL Major in Stockholm a few months later.
- Before his time at NaVi, s1mple played for HellRaisers, FlipSid3 Tactics, and Team Liquid.
On the evening of October 26, 2023, s1mple announced on Twitter that he would take a break – he had been planning this for some time. He needed to fix documents and take care of people in his life (via Twitter).
Furthermore, the Ukrainian wrote that he never thought about leaving NaVi and changing organizations, but is interested in looking at offers.
s1mple is considering putting the AWP aside
Will s1mple switch weapons? In his post on Twitter, s1mple not only stated that he is open to offers from other teams. He also considered switching to a “Rifle” in the future.
s1mple is primarily known as an AWP player and has performed this role for NaVi excellently for years. The Rifles refer mainly to the AK47 and the M4A1-s/M4A4 – fully automatic assault rifles.
Why does s1mple want to switch weapons? s1mple did not specify an exact reason. In his post on Twitter, the celebrated professional simply wrote that the AWP in the new game does not feel as “impactful” as in CS:GO.
Some players feel that playing the AWP in CS2 is frustrating. One of the biggest problems is the so-called “Peekers-Advantage,” which makes holding an angle generally much more difficult than in CS:GO (via Reddit).
Peekers-Advantage can have various reasons. In the case of CS2, for example, one player writes: “Most people believe it’s due to poor interpolation settings or a subtick. But we don’t know for sure (via Reddit).”
Whether Peekers-Advantage plays a role in s1mple’s consideration to switch weapons is unknown. But in the CS2 community, it is indeed a factor that is discussed when playing the AWP.
Whether s1mple will actually replace the AWP with an assault rifle after his break remains to be seen. Currently, the Ukrainian is generally not very satisfied with the state of the CS:GO successor. Just recently, s1mple harshly criticized the tactical shooter and said you shouldn’t play CS2 right now.
One of the best Counter-Strike players of all time says you shouldn’t play CS2 right now
