Professional Counter-Strike player Alexander "s1mple" Kostylev gave an extensive interview about his career to Duncan "Thorin" Shields. The Ukrainian esports athlete discussed his salary at HellRaisers in 2014, his ban from ESL tournaments, working with coach Sergey "starix" Ischuk, his famous highlight on the Cache map, and much more.
Salary at HellRaisers
Kostylev talked about the amounts he received while representing HellRaisers in 2014.
I couldn't play in ESL tournaments until 2016 - [the ban was lifted] just before I was signed by Team Liquid. [Dreamhack Winter 2014] was my first major. I even remember the qualifiers for this tournament and the salary I got then. When we won that qualification, HellRaisers raised my salary by $200 or $300, and I started earning $800. Yes, at that time [for me] it was a good amount. I also remember that before Dreamhack Winter 2014 we asked B1ad3 to become our coach. I remember that the team had a boot camp in the Inferno Online computer club in Stockholm. There were also players from iBUYPOWER. Everyone went to the tournament in Jönköping from Stockholm on the same bus, it was great. I remember that everyone was discussing that flusha was a cheater, and much more.
s1mple played for HellRaisers in 2014-2015. With him, the team participated in several international tournaments, including DreamHack Winter 2014. The team finished in 5-8th place, losing to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the first round of the playoffs with a score of 0:2.
Ban from ESL
s1mple explained why he couldn't compete in ESL tournaments at the start of his career. He stated that the reason for the ban was the use of cheats in CS 1.6.
I couldn't play in any ESL tournaments. People still don't believe me - there are many topics with whole investigations on Reddit. The truth is, I tried to quit playing CS 1.6. Then I invited a friend over and downloaded a regular OpenGL cheat, and I also had ESL Wire and MyAC anti-cheats installed. In the end, I was banned after just a couple of rounds. I could see the small models of opponents through walls, and that's why I was banned. When I switched to CS:GO, I completely forgot about that situation. I played in the qualifiers - at that time, I even made a highlight with a P2000. B1ad3 called me to that team and he always tried to keep me in the team: he knew that I had a ban from ESL, but understood that I could play in other tournaments. Instead of me, DavCost and Shara played.
In any case, people still don't believe that I got banned because of that situation in CS 1.6.
Kostylev also mentioned that ESL extended his ban because he tried to avoid the blockade by creating a second account.
I was very happy after that highlight [with the P2000]. And the next day I woke up and saw that ESL extended my ban for using a second account [trying to bypass the blockade]. It was sad.
ESL unbanned s1mple in early 2016 - until then, he couldn't participate in tournaments from this company, including majors. For this reason, Kostylev was excluded from HellRaisers, and FlipSid3 Tactics played in ESL championships with stand-ins.
Leaving FlipSid3
The Ukrainian professional player mentioned that he wanted to exclude Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodensky from the team or move him to a coach position. He proposed this to the team after losing to Natus Vincere in the semifinals of the Electronic Sports World Cup 2015. In the second pistol round, B1ad3 had a chance to easily defuse the bomb in a 1v1 situation against Daniil "Zeus" Teslenko, but he didn't take it.
Right after that round, I sent an ellipsis in the chat. After the match, I said that I would never play with B1ad3 and markeloff again. Then I went to the hotel, wrote a post in some social network, and suggested the team exclude B1ad3 or make him a coach. Some teammates agreed with me. Later we discussed this with the whole lineup and the top management of FlipSid3, including Dana and Hector. They told me they wouldn't remove B1ad3 from the lineup. I replied, "Why? We just discussed that we need to do this to become stronger." Then I published that post and left the team.
s1mple added that even at that time, he understood the value of B1ad3's advice. However, in his opinion, the other team members didn't train hard enough.
At that time, I was a player capable of destroying opponents on the server, but at the same time, I realized that B1ad3 wanted to teach me to look at the game from a different angle and read the opponent. I am sure that not all of my former FlipSid3 teammates understood this and didn't train the way I did. I like to play a lot because that way you learn different situations and gain experience that can be used in tournaments.
Kostylev also mentioned that his FlipSid3 teammates didn't want to spend much time on CS, even during tournaments.
I remember we played at StarLadder, and I saw that markeloff was sitting in a bar with friends and drinking beer right before the match. I couldn't understand it. Other teams, like olofmeister, dennis, and JW from Fnatic, always played together on FACEIT immediately after tournament matches or before bed. It made me sad that no one from the team played with me because none of them wanted to do it. They didn't understand that they needed to spend a little more time on the game to have a better chance of beating NAVI or other strong teams of that time.
About the Highlight on Cache
s1mple talked about the double no-scope kill in the semifinals of ESL One Cologne 2016, which became the basis for the graffiti on the Cache map.
[No matter how impossible that shot seemed], I still felt I would hit it. At that moment, I thought I would be instantly traded. I don't even know why that didn't happen - they came out of the vents together... Anyway, it was an amazing moment. It's just a pity that this moment was not shown [from my perspective] live. Right after that, I heard that the audience was shown a replay, and everyone was shocked. After that, Fnatic went on tilt and ran to B, and Hiko buried them.
Kostylev added that he really trained jumping shots and learned to control the weapon a bit better even without using the sight.
[Thanks to training] you just feel the right moment to shoot [in a jump] better. Yes, of course, in the end, it's all about chance, but I think you can increase your chances of hitting if you train such incredible shots. Just like Stephen Curry, who practices shots from the other end of the court.
About starix as a Coach and Excluding Zeus
In the interview, the esports athlete also shared his opinion about starix's work as a coach and the change of captain with Zeus's departure.
seized likes to say that [after replacing Zeus] there were no other candidates for the captain's position in the team, [except him]. But I think he just wanted to become an in-game leader because it was he and flamie who wanted to exclude Zeus. Then seized realized that someone had to take his place.
According to s1mple, coach starix became useless when Valve prohibited coaches from communicating with players outside of timeouts.
starix became useless. He never worked like B1ad3, peacemaker, or any other coach. Honestly, he was just resting. Because of this, [the team] had a hard time.
s1mple joined NAVI in August 2016. At that time, the team captain Zeus was excluded, and his duties were transferred to Denis "seized" Kostin. In March 2017, the team parted ways with coach starix - his place was taken by analyst Andrey "Andi" Prokhorov.
Comments