s1mple on return: "NAVI won the Major, so some plans have changed"

In an interview about the now postponed launch of his academy program, s1mple also talks about his possible return to competitive play.

Since Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev announced that he would take a break from competitive play last October, the future of the Ukrainian superstar when it comes to Counter-Strike competition is still up in the air.

The only time we've seen him back on the server was in a short-lived stint with Falcons during the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown in early March, but since then there has been no indication that he is readying up for a return. Instead, he has put his focus on an academy program he is working on with his brother, producing Counter-Strike courses, which is due to launch next month.

HLTV spoke to s1mple about the program and also had an opportunity to catch up with him about his plans for a return. You can watch the interview in full on YouTube or read the transcript below:

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It's been a while since we've had the chance to hear from you properly, you've been away from the pro scene. We heard from you at the Awards Show a bit, but there's not a lot we've been able to find out about how you've been doing. So first of all, tell me how you've been doing with not being super active around the pro scene?

I'm okay. I'm fixing a lot of things outside of Counter-Strike. Of course I miss competitive Counter-Strike and I watch every game of CS, but yeah, this break was needed.

Tell me about that break — you've been away for so long, what have you been doing?

Doing documents so I can officially stay in Europe. [I'm] living already for eight or nine months here, in Warsaw in Poland, so basically just learning a new city [laughs]. Just chilling from CS.

Back when you missed Sydney there were some issues with your papers and staying in Europe, has that been resolved then?

Yes, of course.

During this time you've been working on this project that you've hinted toward a couple of times, it was also in your recent vlog. Can you tell me what you're working on with this and what we can expect to see from it?

Yeah, so basically our project is Counter-Strike courses, so everyone who wants to play better CS, not only competitively but playing with friends, trying to find a team, or just to learn something new from me, they'll have this opportunity. We'll provide a lot of tools and techniques so that players can succeed in CS.

What does that actually mean in terms of what somebody could get from the courses? How does it differ from just watching YouTube videos?

First of all, I will share all my knowledge and all the experience that I got since 2013. Back in the day, it was much harder to gain all this experience because everything was different, and now there are a lot more opportunities to share. We will provide a deeper understanding of the game, we will improve their skills, and I feel like we will transfer all the experience I have, and not only me, but other esports players.

We will explain the psychological aspects, all of the stuff about how to work better with the team, how to be a better player not only mechanically, but with a much better understanding of the game. Because I feel players still do mistakes, and YouTube is not helping them. Of course, as you said, there are a lot of tools on the internet, but even with those tools players forget about this. They still do the same mistakes and don't focus more on progressing, so I will try to explain to them how to progress faster and not forget.

Is it individualized coaching from you?

Yes, yes.

Something like that obviously takes a lot of time, does that mean it will take away time from you potentially being on a pro team or returning to competition?

I feel like my break and the project was really good timing, and I've been doing a lot of work with this break. That's going to be the first part of this project, and definitely when I come back in the competitive scene, I feel like I will still be able to do this project in my free time. First of all, the most important thing is to record those lessons, that's what we've been doing since I took a break. I don't think it will distract me from playing competitively.

Touching on the time away and how much effort you've put into this project, were you basically entirely unfocused on CS2 during that period?

Yes, definitely. I mean, I've been watching all tier-one games, like every tier-one tournament, just to be in meta so I can see how players play and how teams play, but besides that, of course, I took time out from playing CS just to make this project even bigger. So I put a lot of time... yeah, I mean, your question is like, 'You just stopped playing CS?' right? While doing this project?

Yeah.

I mean, I'm still playing, but not like before. As you can see I'm not streaming as much as I did before because there have been a lot of things to do about this project.

Coming back to playing the game a little bit, like you had this tournament you played for Falcons briefly, did you find it difficult to transition back into the game?

Yes, I mean I was a bit nervous because it was my first official since October, since we lost the finals against MOUZ at ESL Pro League. But overall, we had only four days of preparation, and I felt like we fucked up a bit with our map pool with the Overpass pick. Sometimes it happens. And yeah, of course to be in really good shape you need to play more and more, it's not only four days of practice with the team. It's bootcamps, it's traveling, fixing all the small details, especially if you have a brand new roster.

When you stopped playing CS and you took a break from the game, you said you weren't really a fan of CS2. Obviously there have been a bunch of updates and some stuff has changed, so how do you feel about it now and the state of the game?

It's better! Especially when they did the jump fix after the Major — I don't know why they couldn't do this before the Major — but as you can see, it was a bit random on some maps, on some positions. Same with CS:GO when it came out in 2012, it will, at some point, be better and better, and we'll be back at a CS:GO-[level] stable game.

For the time that you've played it now, does it feel like it's gotten close to that level, or are you still not feeling fully invested in the game?

I still feel they can do much more about this game, especially like... one of the examples is anti-cheat, right? What is this, no one can play Premier because of a lot of cheaters and nothing is being fixed.

Considering you're making a course on how to play Counter-Strike and to help players get better: When you haven't been playing Counter-Strike 2 as much, and haven't played [full-time] in a professional team in the game, how do you see yourself being able to coach players and help them in a title you haven't played as much professionally in?

No, nothing has changed [smiles]. Just the smokes, actually it's just the smokes. The understanding of the game is still the same, and this understanding of the game and how to make the right decisions is not only in CS, but in other games as well. Like clutch situations, for example, I feel like in VALORANT or in Rainbow 6 [Siege], it's basically the same.

The decision-making and reading your opponents, using the right mechanic in-game, allows you to win those crazy clutches, and that is my main point. To let people understand how to outplay your opponent, how to read your opponent in game, how to be one step ahead. Same with rotations and all of this stuff.

You say not much has changed. There are some, for example, you mentioned the changes with the smokes, with some of the ways grenades interact with them now. With this brief stint you had on Falcons and now that you've played the game a bit more, how are you feeling about how it plays compared to before?

I feel it's the same, to be honest. The thing with smokes and the smokes in molotovs, so you can go right behind the smoke and stay between the smoke and molotov-

Yeah, SPUNJ calls it edging [laughs].

Yes, edging. That's the main difference between CS:GO and CS2. Everything else is the same. And of course, the movement they fixed, the jump bugs and all of this stuff, but eventually it will be better like in CS:GO, I'm pretty sure. As we can see, they did an update to fix it, but I still feel like there will be some new bugs that they need to remove. But overall, as I said, it's only smokes and molotovs, blowing up smokes, edging.

If everything is the same, or a lot of it feels the same, does that mean that you're going to come back, are you going to make a full return to professional Counter-Strike now?

Oh, as B1ad3 said, it's a secret. Nobody knows [smiles]. No one knows. Everything depends on details, everything depends on results. As you can see, NAVI won the Major, so some plans have changed. Everything depends on who's ready to pay a buyout, everything depends on what other professional players will be able, and we need to wait for the player break I guess. Because usually, before, the roster change was right after the Major, but right now I feel there is a season and you need to wait for the end of the season.

Yeah, we haven't seen too many changes come in, even though a lot of teams were waiting to make changes after the first CS2 Major. So it seems like we're waiting for the break, even for news about you, is that right?

Yes, yes. Right now it's really good contracts, and organizations don't want to sell players, so yeah.

You say organizations don't want to sell players, are you including yourself in that?

No, no. I'm telling about other teams, because when you sell a player you need to find a replacement for him, and sometimes it's really hard to do this.

You mentioned that NAVI won the Major and so plans changed, what do you mean?

[laughs] Oh, it will be secret.

Ah, that's a secret too! [laughs]

[laughs] Yeah, of course! Everything [about] what's happening around NAVI is a secret [smiling].

When we asked B1ad3 [on Confirmed] about s1mple, I think he said, 'It's a secret only s1mple knows.'

[Smiles again] Yeah, yeah, that's a secret only B1ad3 knows [laughs].

[laughing] Okay. In that case though, with that Major win that NAVI had, can you tell me how you felt watching the team win without you?

In the final, I was saying a lot to people that my ego was for FaZe, but my heart was for NAVI. Before the start of the first map, I decided to cheer for NAVI, and that was a bit nervous, you know? When they're playing a Major final. I just know how much it meant for Aleksi to win this, to win the whole thing, and I was so proud of them for doing this. They're the first five players, six with coach of course, who won a CS2 Major. That's definitely history.

Your ego was for FaZe, was that because you wanted to see them beat NAVI without you?

Not beat NAVI, but not let NAVI win the Major without me. That was the ego. But I'm glad that I destroyed this ego right before the game.

So it didn't hurt you at all when you saw them win without you in the end?

No. I was proud of them, of all of them, and I knew how much it meant for them to win this tournament. It's not just Cologne or Katowice, it's the Major, and I understand how happy they were.

There were some pictures or videos of you hugging b1t as well, and some moments where you clearly showed you did appreciate that result. Can you tell me what happened after that win and some of the interactions you had?

I just congratulated Valeriy. He was a bit shocked with how they destroyed them, and I was just proud that he is the first Ukrainian player who won two Majors in different games. Valeriy was always the guy who was practicing the most with his mechanical skill, and when I played, he got an English teacher twice per week just to understand teammates better, and understand English better, and I understood how much work he put in. I was so happy for him.

With that international transition that NAVI had, it seemed like that happened, and you played for a very short amount of time with that roster and then ended up leaving. What was it like for you to communicate in English again in a team, and how does that tie into your potential comeback?

It was easy to communicate with them. They were new for me, like iM, Aleksi, and Justik [jL], they were new for me and that was interesting, to know each other. Like what they like to do, what their is mood like. As you can see, Justik likes to say hi to the camera and die during the round [laughs], so yeah, sometimes I don't appreciate it and I was telling it to him [smiling].

What was Aleksib's leadership like from your perspective? B1ad3 had mentioned in an interview that he had a lot of work he had to with him when he came into the team.

He's a real IGL, I would say. He's a leader outside of Counter-Strike as well. He's a really smart guy, full of energy, and even when something bad happens inside or outside the server, he knows the right way to explain it without saying any rude words, you know? It was really nice to play with him.

Going back to you, now that we've had this period where NAVI has won the Major and you said some plans have changed, there's a lot of secrets, we're waiting for the player break — what is the future looking like for you as we move forward into the rest of this year?

We will finalize the project, and let's see what happens after. Basically, the main idea is focusing on the project, and waiting for good news.

When are you expecting to finalize the project?

That's going to be in one week [Editor's note: This interview was conducted on April 19 and the launch has been postponed to May]. In one week, we're going to give two free lessons, and at the beginning of May we're going to release this.

When you say release 'this,' what do you mean? What is 'this,' is the whole course, a pack of lessons?

Yes, the first part of the whole course.

And then is the rest of the course made, or is it something that, let's say you return to playing for a team after the player break, is it something that you're going to continuously work on throughout the year?

Yes, it's not made fully, like the second part of it, because we're going to involve... it's hard to explain, because we have a lot of staff and a lot of people working on this. It's not like it's only me and some people, it's around 20 people, and other celebrity esports- [laughs] celebrities — esports players or celebrities, they will be in this project as well. So basically, we need to understand the community opinion about the first part, so what we can add, what we can remove, what we can fix for the second part, because we want it to be even bigger.

I'm pretty sure in any project there are some mistakes, and that's why we are doing two parts of this project and we want to hear from people. For example, we'll have the first two free lessons, and after people can decide if they would like to buy it or not. They can write what they want to fix, or maybe everyone says it's fucking trash, I don't know [laughs] and we will see, 'Hmm, what did we do wrong?' Doing the second part, we can even release it now, we have a lot of information, I was working on this a lot as well, and we want to make the right decision in terms of making lessons one by one, each week. We'll have two lessons per week and we want to see the community's reaction.

Do you think this will take away from your time to play the game professionally at all?

No, not at all.

Because when you played, you were super active, you'd put in a lot of hours, you would also stream a lot. Can we expect to see that back after the player break?

Hopefully, hopefully. Everything depends on a team, to be honest. Everything depends on a team.

Touching on that topic of finding a team in this player break and these secrets, has it been difficult for you to try and find something during this period?

No, not at all. I had around three or four invites for other teams but... some teams are not that good, to be honest [laughs]. Some teams don't have enough money. So yeah, everything depends on the team and roster behind it, you know? Because I want to have a system, and if there is no system, I want to try to build a system, but with the right people.

What kind of system are you looking for?

A professional system, like NAVI has.

So were the offers you were getting not have the kind of system you were looking for?

Maybe they have, but it's a fucked up system [laughs].

The offers that you did have, you say that some teams didn't have money, and others the systems or teams weren't that great. What between that are you looking for? Obviously a team has to match your buyout, but what specifically are you looking for as we go into the player break and there are teams trying to make shuffles?

I'm just looking for strong players, if someone will create a team or want to create a team around me for example, or around someone else. I just want to see professionals who will be able to put a lot of work in, who will stay at a bootcamp for months just to grind back and become better.

When we originally switched to CS2, there was this conversation about whether you were AWPing or rifling, you said you were okay with a role switch. Is that still the case, are you still leaning towards wanting to be a rifler, are you looking to pick up the AWP again, what's the situation with that?

It doesn't matter, to be honest. It would be nice to have an AWP because when you play the AWP, you always have the chance to play rifle whenever you want. This fits more for me. But when you have a really good AWPer, of course I would let him play with this weapon, because I know that I can remove guns as a rifler in very good and different spots on the map.

So you're looking to be more of a hybrid or a rifler if the right AWPer is there?

It's... [laughs] I don't know, it's hard to say. Everything depends on the team, as I said. Even your individual performance depends on the team as well.