Ukrainian AWP master Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev has been named CS:GO Player of the Decade by ESL, formerly known as the Electronic Sports League and one of the largest esports organizations in the world. He is one of the most personally successful professional players in Counter-Strike history, and while he didn't win a major with the Natus Vincere until 2021, his AWP (Counter-Strike's expensive one-shot glass cannon, a match-winning weapon) His complete domination resulted in countless legendary performances.

S1mple's professional career began in 2013 with the wonderfully named Ukrainian team LAN DODGERS before breaking into the big leagues with the HellRaisers. He then joined Flipsid3 Tactics and several other teams before moving to Team Liquid, where he reached the semi-finals at MLG 2016.

Na'vi has been s1mple's CS:GO team since 2016, and the player recently re-signed until 2025. This major award was unfortunately poorly timed, as the Na'vi team suffered an unexpected upset at the IEM Rio Major, and s1mple won the award shortly after they were eliminated. But in a way this epitomizes s1mple's career: he is an outstanding and consistent individual performer, but CS:GO is a team game, and that is where the awards are won. 5]

According to the CS:GO liquipedia, s1mple's has won a "record 21 HLTV MVP medals, Major and Intel Grand Slam trophies, and numerous other S-Tier trophies, and were runners-up for Best Player in 2018 and 2021 and Best Player in 2019 and 2020."

According to the CS:GO liquipedia, s1mple's "won a record 21 HLTV medals, a Major and Intel Grand Slam trophy, and numerous other S-Tier trophies.

After winning the award, s1mple recalled that 10 years ago "I was banned for cheating," and after a pout, he said, "The game changed my life. I want to play, play, play." The player later took to social media to acknowledge the broader context of his career and the award.

"And don't forget to support your country.

Perhaps s1mple's most iconic moment came at ESL Cologne 2016, where in a 1v2 situation he was the only AWP against two Fnatic players raiding a Cache B bomb site. Here is the ESL video on this play:

S1mple approached the site, jumped from the top platform, against all common sense and orthodoxy in CS:GO, noscoped the player below while falling, and noscoped the second player in the distance almost immediately after. It is simply unbelievable to the point of coughing." You can't do that s1mple!" shouts the commentator." This is not the FPL (CS:GO's minor league).

The play became so famous that Valve added graffiti to CS:GO's Cache celebrating the play.

Last year's Na'vi documentary featured s1mple's first five years with the team; the IEM Rio Majors ended this weekend, with Outsiders beating Heroic 2-0 in the Grand Final.