Ukrainian Oleksandr “s1imple” Kostliev (24) is the best “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” player in the world. He is an AWPer for the team Natus Vincere, the current world champions in CS:GO (Steam), and he was awarded by the leading eSports site for CS:GO as the best player in the world. Last night, s1imple made a desperate plea to Russia: Please, please, stop, I can’t take it anymore, we all need peace. This is not CoD Warzone, this is reality.
Who is s1mple?
- The 24-year-old Ukrainian is a stoic type who has long been considered the best or at least the second-best CS:GO player in the world. Over the years, there have always been discussions about whether he is the best or his rival, a Frenchman, but in 2021, s1mple won the world championship title and is currently leading once again.
- s1imple streams occasionally on Twitch, he is rarely seen there, but when he does stream, it is an event. In one scene, he was so caught up in professional gaming, that he forgot he was alone in his room. He started giving his professional teammates commands next to him, even though they were not there. He had a brief lapse and thought he was in a match. The Ukrainian has been banned multiple times on Twitch because he used a word in his language that he believes is perfectly fine, but which Twitch sees as a terrible swear word.
- However, yesterday there were no jokes and good mood. s1mple reached out to the world public with pleading tweets. His homeland is under attack.
s1imple tweeted yesterday: Actually, s1mple has been in a good mood on Twitter lately: On February 21, he proudly showed off his award as the best CS:GO player in the world from HLTV.org. He shared pictures of himself and teammates, joked around, and was in a good mood.
This changed abruptly with the escalation of the Ukraine conflict yesterday, Wednesday afternoon. The first tweet was still: “This news is exhausting me.”
Then he pleaded in Russian: “Please, please, stop, I can’t take it anymore, we all need peace.”
In the afternoon, the tweet came: “They are dropping bombs on my city” – s1mple hails from Kyiv.
A few minutes ago, s1mple tweeted: “This is not Verdansk, this is reality – Don’t be fooled.” He shared a map of Ukraine, with marked Russian attacks.
Verdansk is the map from “CoD Warzone,” a popular military shooter.
“We cannot pretend that everything is okay – It is not”
This is what his team says: s1mple plays for the world champion in CS:GO, Natus Vincere, a team made up of 3 Russians and 3 Ukrainians. They are also reaching out to their fans and saying: “We cannot possibly pretend that everything is okay. It is not. We are devastated.”
Here are the reactions: The appeal in Russian to end the war has now received 70,000 likes and over 6,000 retweets.
For many following CS:GO and gaming, Ukraine and Russia feel far away. However, because someone they know, like s1mple, is so directly affected, it becomes evidently more real.
Time and again, catastrophic events in the real world also reach players in MMORPGs:
Players in WoW and Final Fantasy XIV meet spontaneously and quietly to remember Paris
The tweet about bombs being dropped on Kyiv has even garnered more attention.
– Putin attacks Ukraine (via spiegel-online)
– War in Ukraine: Russian troops take over Chernobyl, Great Britain decides on extensive sanctions against Russia (via nzz)
– Vote in the Russia crisis (via auswaertiges-amt )
Many wish for s1mple and his family to be safe. People are reassuring each other that s1mple is currently in Katowice, Poland, but overall there is a somber atmosphere on social media.
For many following CS:GO and gaming, Ukraine and Russia feel far away. However, because someone they know, like s1mple, is so directly affected, it becomes evidently more real.
Time and again, catastrophic events in the real world also reach players in MMORPGs:
Players in WoW and Final Fantasy XIV meet spontaneously and quietly to remember Paris
