On the evening of December 26, 2023, the second part of an extensive interview with former Natus Vincere sniper Aleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev and renowned English-speaking analyst Thorin was released.
We've selected the key points from the second part of the interview for our readers:
From the outset, s1mple talked about how he prepared for matches against Team Vitality sniper Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut:
"When I played against ZywOo, I always watched his demos. I got so distracted by Mathieu that the other four players from his team would dismantle us, like shox on Overpass. I don't think ZywOo is better than me. Definitely not this year. I feel like I'm lacking the practice that I could apply and the team around me. Our team will always be better than Vitality. I feel they are getting better with FlameZ, mezii, and Spinx, but I know that we have a better understanding of the game and better individual play than they do."
Thorin recalled how Astralis dominated all tournaments, and device collected all the MVP awards. However, even device agreed that s1mple was the best player:
"device is a very cool player. I watched a lot of his demos. He showed excellent play in the most crucial games. If I had to choose between 'Winning 4 majors' and 'Being the best player in the world,' I would choose the first. It's much harder."
s1mple also spoke about NAVI's current coach, Andrii 'B1ad3' Gorodenskyi:
"The amount of time he spends on creating his own meta is just unimaginable. Many people don't understand that he discovered such players as me, electronic, or flamie."
s1mple talked about where he got the motivation to continue training, as he practically won nothing from 2016 to 2017:
"In 2016 we didn't win a single tournament, and only one in 2017. My motivation was that we were winning almost nothing. I constantly asked myself, 'Why? Why do we keep losing again?'"
He added that B1ad3 became the coach of the team when he said they needed three months to build a system and start winning. s1mple recalled how he persuaded B1ad3 to stay with them at the boot camp, give advice, and help them improve, even though kane remained the main coach.
With the arrival of B1ad3, we took an example from Astralis. The Danes showed that to win, you need to wake up on time, watch your health and nutrition.
The main rule for creating an era, according to s1mple, is the ability to combine friendly and working relationships:
"When you trust your teammates, you become friends, not just professionals playing together. If you properly combine friendly and working relationships between players, then you can create an era."
s1mple also touched on the signing of Valerii 'b1t' Vakhovskyi:
"When Valerii joined the team, he was like a newborn to this world. He didn't know anything about this world. At the boot camp, he used a comb for the first time and was amazed at how beautiful his hair now looked. It brought a positive atmosphere to our team. Valerii's aim is incredibly good. He shoots better than flamie, Edward... even me. Like NiKo at his prime. Initially, electronic, Boombl4, and I helped Valerii adapt to the team and gave him advice on what to do during the round."
Kostyliev believes it's better to spray than to shoot one-taps:
"I understand shooters. If I start sweating in Call of Duty: Warzone now, I'll be good there too. You need to be able to listen to the game, watch the radar, hold your sight. I would never play like NiKo, I don't like his style. He often tries to make one-taps, and I think that's not quite right, because you can miss."
It should be noted that s1mple previously announced a temporary departure from active play to focus on personal issues, but also expressed interest in possible offers from other esports organizations. During this time, Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov took over as the sniper for NAVI.
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