s1mple: "Only when we are playing great CS I can show what I'm capable of"

We spoke to Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev after he was crowned the Most Valuable Player of BLAST Premier Fall Final.

Natus Vincere emerged victorious from BLAST Premier Fall Final after not dropping a series in the double-elimination bracket, with their tournament run culminating in a three-map victory over Vitality, who ended the CIS team's 20-game winstreak on Nuke.

After the match, HLTV caught up with s1mple for a brief interview and to hand him his MVP medal, which he earned after ending the tournament as the highest-rated player (1.39 rating).

The Ukrainian star shared his thoughts on tying device's record for most MVPs won in a year, and described what NAVI's goals are heading into their last tournament of the year, the BLAST Premier Global Final.

This is your ninth title of year, and the fourth in a row on LAN, how are you feeling coming out of that series?

I'm feeling good, feeling well deserved. So many teams have started reshuffling, like what happened when Astralis was dominating, so we just want to try to use our chance to win more trophies while we have really good form.

Your winstreak on Nuke got ended during this grand final. What happened on that map, and does it take some of the pressure off now that you don't have to worry about holding on to that streak?

It took some pressure off after we lost it I guess, because I was mad not that we lost, but how we lost, because our game plan was wrong I think. I'm really happy that we had the chance to discuss it, to forget about this Nuke, to remove this pressure and just play our A+ or S game on Inferno.

Boombl4 has said that you need two more tournament wins to start your era. You have one here now, and then you have the BLAST Global Final coming up. Is that also what starts the NAVI era in your mind?

People I think will realize when it starts. I think we can do even more to say that we started an era, you know? Like for example, I remember how Astralis won three LAN tournaments in a row, how NAVI 2018 won three LANs, but when you've got five or six, that's when an era starts, especially LAN tournaments. So our next goal will be to win even more in a row.

Going into BLAST, what sort of preparation are you going to have, because teams are obviously preparing hard against you?

We're just going to have a break for one week as always, because we didn't have a lot of time after the Major, and we're just going to prepare like we usually do. Maybe we'll do some bootcamp again, but who knows. We'll be ready for the next BLAST Finals.

This is your 18th MVP, you've now tied device's record for most number of MVPs in a year, and you're one away from tying him for overall number of MVPs. How does that feel?

It feels good. I wanted B1T or maybe electronic to get it, but after I thought we need to break this record you know, or at least tie it. My whole team, only because of my team I played so good right now.

Only when we are playing great CS I can show what I'm capable of. Everything is thanks to my team and organization, without them I wouldn't get one... okay maybe one, but still. Just big work, all of us are doing 100% work to achieve what we achieved now.