Oleksandr Kostyliw

Oleksandr Kostyliw
Player information
Full name	Oleksandr Kostyliw
Nickname	s1mple
Date of birth	October 2, 1997
country code	Ukraine
game	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
team	Natus Vincere (2016-present)
Former teams	LAN DODGERS (2013–2014) HellRaisers (2014–2015) Worst Players (2015) Flipsid3 Tactics (2015) Team Liquid (2016)

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliw ( Ukrainian Олександр Костилів , also Alexander Kostyliev or Sasha for short; born October 2, 1997 ) is a Ukrainian player from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . He currently plays for the Ukrainian organization Natus Vincere .

Career

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliw appeared for the first time in 2013 with the Ukrainian team LAN DODGERS . On February 1st, 2014 Kostyliw was banned by the ESL for cheating until February 1st, 2016. After further stints with smaller clans , he made the step to a top team in September 2014 when the HellRaisers organization signed him. With this team he took part in his first major tournament, the Dreamhack Winter 2014 . The ongoing ban of the ESL before the ESL One Katowice 2015 was one reason why the contract with the HellRaisers was terminated at the beginning of 2015.

At the beginning of February 2015 he moved to the Ukrainian team FlipSid3 Tactics . However, due to his suspension from ESL events, he often had to be replaced by other players. In June 2015, he left the team despite an ongoing contract and announced that he wanted to retire. However, he revised this statement a few days later and played for the Evolution , Worst Players and HellRaisers teams, despite the contract that still existed . In October 2015 the contract between FlipSid3 and Kostyliw was terminated.

At the beginning of 2016, Kostyliw moved to the United States. After the Team Liquid player Spencer "Hiko" Martin already appeared as a replacement for Liquid at the ESWC 2015, Liquid announced on January 2, 2016 the commitment of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliw. With Team Liquid he achieved participation in the MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 . After Liquid was eliminated in the semifinals, he played in the All-Stars-Match for the All-Stars Team America against the All-Stars Team Europe before the final . By reaching the semi-finals on the MLG Major , Liquid qualified for ESL One Cologne 2016 . Liquid also made it to the semi-finals of this tournament and met the Swedish team fnatic there . After a victory on the Map Cobblestone , Kostyliw finished off the remaining two opponents without zoom using the AWP in a 1-on-2 situation on the Map Cache . The move was honored on the Map Cache by Valve with a permanent graffiti on cache . Liquid won the semi-finals, but was eliminated from SK Gaming .

Kostyliw has been playing for the Ukrainian organization Natus Vincere since August 2016 . Since then, winning the ESL One New York 2016 in October 2016 and the semi-finals at the Eleague Major: Boston 2018 have been among the greatest successes .

Kostyliw was named fourth best player in its discipline in 2016 by HLTV .org and eighth best player in its discipline in its top 20 list of the best players of the year . He topped that list in 2018. In 2020 he and his team Natus Vincere won the IEM Katowice , which had to be played in front of empty stands due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

Successes (excerpt)

This is an excerpt from the successes of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliw. Since Counter-Strike is always played in teams of five in competitions, the personal prize money is one fifth of the total prize money won by the team.

year	space	competition	team	Personal prize money
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
2016	3rd to 4th	MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016	Team Liquid	0$ 14,000
2016	2.	ESL One Cologne 2016	Team Liquid	0$ 30,000
2016	1.	ESL One New York 2016	Natus Vincere	0$ 25,000
2016	3rd to 4th	EPICENTER 2016	Natus Vincere	00$ 8,000
2017	1.	WESG 2017 Europe Finals	Team Ukraine	00$ 8,000
2017	1.	DreamHack Open Winter 2017	Natus Vincere	0$ 10,000
2018	3rd to 4th	Eleague Major: Boston 2018	Natus Vincere	0$ 14,000
2018	2.	Star Ladder & i-League StarSeries Season 4	Natus Vincere	0$ 10,000
2018	1.	ESL One Cologne 2018	Natus Vincere	0$ 25,000
2019	3rd to 4th	IEM Major: Katowice 2019	Natus Vincere	0$ 14,000
2019	1.	StarSeries & i-League CS: GO Season 7	Natus Vincere	$ 50,000

Web links

• Kostyliw on Twitter
• Oleksandr Kostyliw on Twitch
• Article by Kostyliw on Liquipedia, accessed on February 11, 2018
• Entry by Kostyliw on 99Damage.de, accessed on February 11, 2018
• Statistics from Kostyliw on HLTV .org, accessed February 11, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ESL profile Kostyliw with spell-reference ( Memento of 30 November 2014 Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Luis Mira: Official: HellRaisers add s1mple. hltv.org, September 18, 2014, accessed on February 12, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Luis Mira: markeloff, s1mple out of HellRaisers. hltv.org, January 14, 2015, accessed on February 12, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Luis Mira: s1mple: "I'm sorry for my actions". hltv.org, January 15, 2015, accessed on February 12, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Michael Puttler: dAT team changes to Flipsid3 Tactics. Change: The Ukrainians find a new organization. 99Damage.de, February 1, 2015, accessed February 13, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Luis Mira: s1mple announces CS break. hltv.org, July 15, 2017, accessed on February 13, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Kostyliw exchange stations on cybersport.ru, accessed on February 13, 2018 (Russian).
8. ↑ Luis Mira: FlipSid3 release s1mple. hltv.oeg, October 23, 2015, accessed on February 13, 2018 (English). 
9. ↑ Matthias Holländer: s1mple on Team Liquid. Change: The Ukrainian superstar goes to America. 99Damage.de, January 2, 2016, accessed February 13, 2018 . 
10. ↑ MLG All Star match coming up. Hltv.org, April 3, 2016, accessed on February 13, 2018 (English). 
11. ↑ Michael Puttler: s1mple is immortalized on cache. Scene: Double-NoScope at ESL One Cologne 2016. 99Damage.de, July 13, 2016, accessed on February 13, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Milan Švejda: s1mple replaces Zeus in Na`Vi. hltv.org, August 4, 2016, accessed on February 13, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Zvonimir Burazin: Top 20 players of 2016: s1mple (4). hltv.org, January 17, 2017, accessed on February 13, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Luis Mira: Top 20 players of 2017: s1mple (8). hltv.org, January 11, 2018, accessed February 13, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Top 20 players of 2018: s1mple (1). Retrieved February 21, 2019 .