I Would Be Better Than NiKo With a Rifle - Reflections with s1mple 2/2 - CSGO / CS2
105,470
Published 2023-12-26
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Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev, currently inactive long-time star of Natus Vincere, is the star of the 332nd Episode of 'Reflections'. This episode is part two of two about s1mple's career.
s1mple is widely considered the greatest player in CS:GO history and was voted ESL Player of the Decade. He has three times been awarded HLTV number one player of the year (2018, 2021 and 2022) and twice ranked second on their list (2019 and 2020). s1mple's journey to the top was a winding one, though.
After breaking out with HellRaisers at Dreamhack Winter 2014, he soon found himself under B1ad3's tutelage in FlipSid3. Team-mates making mistakes frustrated him and saw him parting ways with the team after some successful runs, including a top four run at ESWC 2015 with Hiko standing in.
Hiko would help get s1mple into Team Liquid and the results were immediately explosive, as Team Liquid were on map point in two games during the semi-final of the MLG Columbus major, bombed Dreamhack Malmo and saw s1mple soon heading out of the team only to return as a stand-in and help the side reach the ESL One Cologne 2016 major final.
This run caught the attention of Na'Vi and got s1mple the call up he had been waiting for his whole career. Despite winning a number of trophies in Na'Vi and the team being considered dangerous throughout it wasn't until 2021 many considered the line-up worthy of s1mple's talents. Na'Vi had lost two major finals with him in their ranks, despite him being considered already CS:GO's greatest talent.
As the online era came to a close, Na'Vi gave s1mple the platform to show himself the game's best ever star. Na'Vi would win the Intel Grand Slam, sweep the PGL Stockholm major without a single map loss and s1mple's numbers at the biggest tournament in many years cemented by so many called him the best to ever do it.
Na'Vi was still an elite team in most of 2022, but in-game leader issues denied them many titles. 2023 has been a much more troubled year, with a bizarre international line-up pivot around the summer and with the release of CS2 s1mple has decided to take a break from competitive play.
In part two, s1mple discusses B1ad3 as a coach, B1t's arrival into Na'Vi, the 'what if' of the 2021 line-up, if NiKo could be considered the CS:GO G.O.A.T, his rivalry with ZywOo and his plans for the future.
This interview was recorded on the 4th of December, 2023.
► Time-line of topics discussed:
00:00 Prime device
02:28 How does he keep grinding?
03:33 Team concept
04:48 B1ad3
07:42 B1ad3 moving s1mple off the AWP
09:11 B1ad3's vision for Na'Vi
11:02 The 'what if' of the 2020 line-up after the Katowice stomp
12:37 Online period
13:36 Rotation style
14:37 B1t
18:04 Na'Vi 2021
18:48 Na'Vi dossiers
21:18 Getting frustrated with team-mates
23:35 Na'Vi dominance interupted by military conflict
27:59 If Na'Vi wins PGL Antwerp does Boombl4 stay?
28:31 Playing with Aleksib
30:48 ZywOo rivalry
34:44 NiKo
37:52 Does he think he is the G.O.A.T?
39:19 If we made s1mple win MLG Columbus would it have changed his drive?
41:17 Thinking he might not win the major?
42:34 Should he have won HLTV top spot in 2019 or 2020?
43:49 Will he be number one again in the future?
44:30 What does he think of CS2?
45:46 Playing in international line-ups
47:14 Dealing with 2022
48:57 Best s1mple match
50:24 Beef with me?
51:44 Final words
Part one:
• Hardest to Accept Team-Mates Can’t Pl...
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#s1mple #ZywOo #Thorin
All Comments (21)
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So nice of thorin giving new and up and coming players an interview. What a goat.
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Banger episode. I love how thorin and Simple can dig at eachother and still laugh and not take it serious
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"Sometimes we're friends. Sometimes we're enemies." As a fellow Slav, I can entierly endorse this mindset. Great stuff thanks Thorin for the content.
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CS is sadly missing a Character like u on the desk. Hopefully we will have u back on CS2 where u truly belong.
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In recent times, I've not seen anyone able to get s1mple to open up. Well done mate, it's a massive banger.
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The game of thorin’s life would be called GOAT Simulator. He hasn’t missed with the videos lately.
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Love s1mple’s reflection and humility here 11:44 if we’re nitpicking yes Katowice with no crowd is still an asterisk. Him nitpicking here shows why he has such a winners mentality.
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The b1t story about hair comb is hilarious
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People like to call s1mple toxic, but you can clearly see in this video how he respects the people he plays with. He says that b1t has better mechanics than him and that he could even be better than NiKo, that Blaide is a genius in cs, that aleski is the best igl he played with ecc... From these statements you can understand the reason behind his flaming in matches. He wants the best from his teammates because he knows that they can play better and make fewer mistakes. It's just his way of showing it.
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Dude its amazing your ability to empathize and help people explain their point of view when you know they are somewhat misunderstood on an issue. Thanks for everything Thorin, I thought we wood never have such an insightful approach from Simples carrer by himself.
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Thanks for this amazing Reflection episode Thorin! Since s1mple's appearance in HLTV Confirmed, I was convinced that there is nobody that could get a decent interview out of s1mple. But, Thorin of course delivered an instant classic!
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Thorin saved the best for the end, literally
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I am so incredibly happy Thorin made this possible. Great interview! Thank you
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Real journalist. Best player. Awesome interview.
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What a privilege to have this type of work out there, archiving CS history forever.
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This video is filled with so much “Master the fundamentals” energy. Show this to every young cs player please 🙏. The ethic and mentality on display is why he is the goat
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The interview of the year! Great questions by Thorin, insightful responses from s1mple.
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This reflections series is amazing, I watched every single one of them and was really hoping you would do one with simple. Thank you.
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Banger reflections, the only thing i wished was a part 3 but these 2 hours have been amazing
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I hope s1mple can achieve what he wants to in that closing comment. Would love to see him in a team pushing to have an era in a new game.
