Considered by many to be the best player of the CS:GO esports era, Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, has stepped down from Na'Vi's starting lineup and is taking an indefinite hiatus from CS2 esports.
Less than an hour after rumors surfaced that Na'Vi was in talks with Sprout AWP player Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov, s1mple took to his Twitter account to confirm that he is indeed taking a hiatus. He added that it's time to take care of some other things and people in his life, and what he kept silent on is that this is probably the right time until Valve does some more work on CS2, since according to many pro players there is still stuff which need to be ironed out so that everything is as it should be at the highest competitive level.
When it comes to moving to another team, s1mple stated that he has never thought about it, but that it would be interesting to see offers, and that in theory he would be willing to play with the guns and leave the sniper who, according to him, is not making that much of an impact on the outcome of the game as was the case in CS:GO.
Finally, he added that he will be working on his own CS2 project during the break, but that it is too early to talk about anything concrete.
S1mple has spent the past seven years playing for Natus Vincere, joining the team in April 2016 as a huge signing from Team Liquid, and during his career he won 21 MVP titles, making him the absolute record holder in the CS:GO version of counter esports. three titles of the best player in the world (along with two second places) as well as one Major trophy.
He didn't hide from the very beginning that CS2 didn't suit him, and in the end he missed the first big CS2 LAN tournament IEM Sydney 2023, for which the reason for his absence has not been confirmed to date.
CS experts generally agree that taking a break might be the best decision for him at the moment and that s1mple needs to find a new source of motivation to continue being a fear and awe for all opponents.
For now, we can only guess which teams could fight for him, and of course the first one that comes to mind is the Falcons, a wealthy Arab esports organization that is determined to gather the biggest stars of CS2 esports and become a leading world power in the future.
