Natus Vincere's CS2 sniper, Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostylev, shared his views on the rumors spread by various insiders about the reasons for his absence at IEM Sydney 2023. The Ukrainian esports player emphasized that none of these rumors corresponded to the real situation.

You know what was funny? Reading this so-called analysis from all these insiders. Basically, OverDrive says, 'Missed the plane.' I have a 10,000 [currency] ticket, and I missed the plane, [crazy]. Harumi, underage [nonsense]: 'Got drunk, smoked.' I'm not drinking or smoking at all right now, none of that. [Idiot]. What else? RuFire: 'NAVI without s1mple is a breath of fresh air, no pressure, positive vibes.' What are you even talking about, fool? You don't even know what's happening in the team, what positive vibes can you talk about. In short, also a fool. But if OverDrive is [sick], Harumi is a [weirdo] minor, then RuFire is just a fool.

Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostylev

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At IEM Sydney 2023, instead of s1mple, the team's mentor Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy played. Along with the coach, NAVI took 9th-12th place and earned $5,000 in prize money.