History of the #1 player – Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev

History of the #1 player – Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev

If you play CS:GO and have never heard of “s1mple”, then you have probably been
living under a rock and it’s time to crawl out. And if you have heard of this nickname,
you are likely a fan, right? If the latter is closer to you, then it’s not surprising, as
Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev has been surprising the public time and time again
lately. He is achieving more and more successes. But what is the success of this
player? And who is he, where did he grow up, and what did he do? These are the
questions we will answer today.

First game in Counter-strike

Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev was born on October 2, 1997, and started getting
interested in the world of CS too early.

We believe that each of you shared a computer with your older brother in childhood or
reached a compromise with a friend by playing separately with a keyboard or mouse.
Well, s1mple had a similar situation. It was 2001, our e-sportsman was 4 years old,
and it was at this age that Alexander’s older brother, Alexey, showed s1mple CS 1.6.
At that time, their family had only one computer for two, and they shared it, playing
separately on the keyboard and mouse. Our e-sportsman played with the mouse while
his older brother pressed buttons on the keyboard. Perhaps “mouse-only play”
contributed to his amazing aim now, take note!

Overall, Alexander Kostylev talks little about his childhood. We can say that it did not
stand out in any way; he spent a lot of time at the computer and received from his
parents, who made him study. In general, a normal childhood, except for getting to
know CS at 4 years old.

Teams before NAVi

Sasha’s first team was LAN DODGERS in 2012. We don’t know if it was his actual first team, but it was where s1mple started making a name for himself. The team lineup was as follows.

• Teddy

• S1mple

• ReTrik

• A R C H I Z D A K II 74

• Smike

At the time, Alexander was only 15 years old and his success was noticed by older esports players. For example, Blad3 (a professional player in CS 1.6), who noticed s1mple’s skills and eventually invited him to the Kuraj Gaming team. Alexander Kostylev didn’t stay there for long, and due to his difficult character, he decided to simply leave. He decided to return to his old team, with whom they won STARLADDER and convincingly beat the Poles in the final. In this team, he achieved even more success, which helped him a lot in the future. He stayed with this team until September 2014, and then joined the new Hellraisers team, where he was the youngest player. The composition of this team was as follows:

Markeloff (considered the best sniper in the world in CS 1.6),

Angel (former teammate of Blad3),

Kucher (former teammate of Blad3),

Dosia (a legend of Russia in CS 1.6),

S1mple (young and promising).

Together with this team, they defeated Fnatic in the round of 16. But he only stayed with this team for 2 months. Towards the end of his time with the team, a conflict arose regarding cheating, in which Aleksandr Kostyliev came out unscathed, as the entire CIS community stood up for him.

The next team he joined was FLIPSID3, with some old acquaintances like Blad3 who had noticed his potential. However, a conflict started between him and Markeloff due to S1mple’s “toxic” personality, and he left the team due to disagreements.

Later, he got to know HIKO, which led to Liquid inviting S1mple to join their team.

Big esports

Alexander Kostylev’s big esports career started with Liquid. He had to make a difficult
decision and leave his hometown to go to America. Together with this team, they
showed themselves well at MLG Columbus, where they made it to the top 4 but lost to
Brazilians. However, he also left this team. According to Hiko, it was due to
disagreements within the team, and if he hadn’t left, he would have been kicked out.
Sasha returned home. After all his experience in his career, he decided to write to
NaVi. But NaVi knew who S1mple was, so without hesitation, they kicked Zeus and
brought S1mple on board. Within a month, they won ESL One New York. But
unfortunately, that was their only success. The team’s results were poor, and it
seemed like the team was capping Simple’s potential, as he was a top 4 player, and
after, even top 8, so it’s safe to say it wasn’t S1mple’s fault.
And then, the unexpected return of Zeus and the arrival of Electronic made NaVi
successful. In 2018, the team showed real results, winning three major tournaments
and losing to Astralis in the final at IEM Katowice.
And now, we come to the present time, which many already know. Alexander
“S1mple” Kostylev year after year becomes a top esports athlete. And the global
audience rejoices at the sight of Sasha.

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