Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is the undisputed GOAT when it comes to CS:GO — there really is no contesting it.
His freakish abilities saw him shine at unprecedented levels even when his teams would consistently be letting him down, and his longevity in doing so is unrivalled. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut may have had more of a shout if CS:GO had not been replaced by CS2 or never had an online era, but both of those things did happen, so s1mple is and always will be the GOAT of CS:GO.
However, with the Ukrainian still having played only a single game in CS2, will he ever be considered a GOAT candidate during the current era of Counter-Strike?
Time away
There’s no question that time away from the game can result in performance dips. Match fitness might not be a thing like it is in traditional sports, but there is still some warming up required when it comes to playing team CS after an extended break.
For someone as naturally talented as s1mple that time is likely to be shorter than other players, but it will take the right team in order to speed up the process.
However, there is precedent for time away during a transitional era in Counter-Strike being a killer for a player, so is there a need to worry about s1mple?
Martin “trace” Heldt was one of the best players in the world during CS 1.6, but when he couldn’t find the same love for CS:GO as he could the previous iteration of Counter-Strike, he stepped away.
trace would briefly return to competitive play years later and while that team may have always been doomed to fail due to the age of its players, it doesn’t bode well for the return of s1mple - especially given what we saw during his incredibly brief period as a stand-in for Falcons.
Of course, trace wasn’t quite at the level of s1mple in his iteration of Counter-Strike. He was one of the best players in the world, sure, but he wasn’t the undisputed best player in the world, and that could be the key difference when s1mple returns.
Past his best
However, one thing to consider is that s1mple didn’t end Global Offensive as the undisputed best player in the world. That title belonged to ZywOo.
In fact, despite HLTV awarding s1mple the title of the best player of 2022, his decline had already begun in that year as he fell from a 7.3 rating in 2021 to a 6.6 rating in 2022.
As pointed out by NER0 in his article, players often peak in CS between the ages of 21 and 24, with the true peak typically coming at 24. At 26, s1mple is already past that supposed peak.
With that in mind, is it unfair to even view s1mple as a potential candidate to be in contention for GOAT status upon his return?
Finding the perfect team
Another obstacle in the way of s1mple is the struggle that will come as a result of needing to find a strong team. A player with his reputation and expected level of performance won’t want to dip too low, but the teams that could afford his services don’t really have a place for him.
When you look at the top teams, they almost all already have AWPers. Complexity could be an option after Hakon “hallzerk” Fjaerli recently revealed his contract will soon expire, but it feels likely the North American organisation will want to keep him given how he performed during ESL Pro League Season 19.
Liquid could be a shout given the recent report they may look to part ways with Casper “cadiaN” Moller, but unless they revert back to a European core it feels unlikely that s1mple would want to spend considerable parts of the year in North America playing qualifiers for events.
Role confusion
That leads us to the final point - will s1mple even come back as an AWPer?
He has previously said that he would be open to returning to CS as a rifler and did so in his game with Falcons, however, if he does decide to return as a rifler, it will likely be even harder for him to throw himself into the conversation for the best player in the world.
There’s no doubt that in his prime, s1mple would have remained the best player in the world had he transitioned to a rifle. We saw during 2019 when Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs was on NAVI that he was still unstoppable with an AK-47 in his hands, but there’s no doubt that AWPing is more favourable to player ratings than rifling is.
Returning as a rifler could open up more possibilities for s1mple, but it would also open up the need for even more adaptation when he returns - he wouldn’t just have to adapt to a new team, but also a new role as well.
It’s a hard sell
All of this to say is that it’s not impossible for s1mple to return and be back to his best, but it does seem incredibly unlikely.
Who knows, s1mple could be entirely refreshed by his time away and come back better than ever - but we just don’t see it. Finding a team capable of challenging for trophies will prove incredibly difficult, and being that team’s AWPer will be even harder.
Although we like the signing of blameF by fnatic, their team is still a long way away from being competitive, and when that looks like the best option, what hope does s1mple have?
We don’t want to see s1mple retire, he’s a legend of the game and he certainly has a lot left to offer, but it’s hard to see where he can offer it right now, so maybe it is best for him to call it a day and become a streamer. We sadly live in a world where people only remember things that happened in the last three months, so it would be a sad day when s1mple unavoidably tarnishes his legacy by returning and failing to play at the level people quite wrongly still expect of him.
Comments