s1mple, donk, and ZywOo talk battle of the best ahead of Austin Major playoffs

"All of the top-one players since 2018 are playing this Major [playoffs], so it's fun to see," ZywOo says.

In the last seven years, just three players have been named the best in the world by HLTV: Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

And all three of them are set to compete in the playoffs of the BLAST.tv Austin Major in a scenario that was unimaginable at the start of the year.

s1mple had been sidelined for a year-and-a-half on Natus Vincere's bench — save for two brief loan spells with Falcons — and had played just 16 official maps in Counter-Strike 2, across which he averaged a 1.04 rating.

The player many considered the Greatest of All Time in CS:GO had looked a shadow of himself, didn't seem to be enjoying CS, and questions surrounding whether he would ever make a proper return began to materialize.

Those questions have been silenced in Austin.

The three-time best player in the world has warmed up under the hot Texan sun, going from a 1.08 rating in Stage 2 to a 1.35 rating in Stage 3 to earn FaZe a playoff berth. There, he joins ZywOo and donk, the best players of the past two years, and somehow has a chance to challenge for the trophy.

"I would like to meet any of them if we manage to make the finals — it doesn't matter who we face," s1mple tells HLTV on the media day ahead of the playoffs. "The final is a 50-50 game. It would be nice to face them in the final, it would be good for viewership, for the fans, and everyone will have their moment to shine."

"It's kind of interesting because all of the top-one players since 2018 are playing this Major, so it's fun to see," ZywOo adds. "It shows the potential that players can bring to this playoff, so I'm looking forward to see what we can bring individually."

FaZe have the benefit of the easier side of the bracket, one which features a newly international — but impressively in form — FURIA, a The MongolZ side that has struggled under the bright lights of the stage and FaZe already beat in Stage 3, and paiN, playing in only their second big arena and in only their third event with Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia.

To say it's a favorable draw to make a run to the finals is an understatement, but s1mple isn't taking anyone lightly.

"Any team can surprise, and I feel like maybe The MongolZ will play differently in term of maps," s1mple says. "FURIA is scary, as well. They went 3-0, and we played them in practice and they were really, really decent, and I mean, paiN can surprise as well.

"It feels good not to be the main contenders, everyone expected two of NAVI, Vitality, and Spirit to be in the final, so it's nice that they'll fight on the other side of the bracket."

The bottom half of the lopsided playoff bracket features MOUZ and the winners of the last three Majors in Vitality, Natus Vincere, and Spirit, with Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's men looking for their seventh straight trophy and their second Major title under the French organization's banner.

Their first came at home turf at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, where favorites falling early meant Vitality had an easier run to the final, but that won't be the case this time around.

"Winning in this way, with this bracket, beating teams like NAVI, Spirit, maybe FaZe or The MongolZ in the final, we don't know, that would be more challenging for us," ZywOo says.

"Because in Paris we played Into The Breach, Apeks, and GamerLegion, so it wasn't the best teams we've played, but it was still... Like we said afterwards, it's not our fault if the strongest teams fall off from the tournament.

"Obviously, it would be the most enjoyable moment to beat these kinds of teams at the Major, in the playoffs, so I'm excited to play because I think we're still in good shape. We lost against Legacy in the first map of the group stage, but that didn't mean anything for us, to be honest. We still have the potential to beat anyone. I'm looking forward to see what happens in the playoffs."

But to earn a potential match against donk or s1mple, Vitality will first have to beat Natus Vincere in the quarter-finals. The surprise Copenhagen Major champions have had a lackluster first half of 2025 but have shown flashes of their old selves in Austin, so Vitality aren't counting them out.

"They're a strong team, I think they can beat us," ZywOo says. "I'm not really thinking about donk and s1mple. They obviously had a great group stage, but for me, I'm just focusing on myself and my team for now."

Whether Natus Vincere can repeat their Cinderella run from Copenhagen is anyone's guess, but Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius remains a believer.

"We can win again, and now we play a lot better than we played in Copenhagen — we just have to do it consistently," he states. "We can't have five rounds where we play really well and then two rounds where we completely fail and lose a full buy where money is on the line.

"We can't afford those mistakes, although of course they will happen, but when they happen, we just shouldn't fall down the spiral of negative emotions and just focus on the next round because the game is not done."

Natus Vincere are an outlier in this battle-of-the-best, lacking a true star player akin to s1mple or donk, but have a Major crown in hand that came by way of strong teamplay and different individuals stepping up across their run.

"It never had an effect on us," jL says when asked about Natus Vincere's lack of a true star. "It's fair to not have a star player because there's no pressure differential on any player, you just have to do your best and that's it.

"Everyone has to do their best. Aleksib with his calls, I need to do great lurks, iM has to make space and create entries... We all know our roles, and if everyone does their role well, we're going to win the game as a team. And if someone is slacking, someone can pop off a bit more. It's a team effort, and that's how tournaments are won."

Spirit are looking to go back-to-back as Major champions, having won the Perfect World Shanghai Major in December, but resilience will be key for a team that has shown signs of frustration while struggling against MOUZ and Vitality in 2025.

The former will be the first team that Spirit face in the Moody Center, and though they have lost to Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin's side in both of their meetings this year, MOUZ look ripe for the picking after a troubled group stage run in Austin.

"We see ourselves as one of the favorites," donk asserts. "We understand that, and it's a normal state for us because we're a top-four team, or top three, at every tournament. It's the usual for us. During the break we didn't do anything special, we just did the same as we usually do if we have some days off. We just try to freshen up our game, find some new strats, and just fix our mistakes to get better."

The reigning champions won PGL Astana in May to head into the Major with their second trophy of the year in hand after BLAST Bounty, but with a Valve championship already under their belts, donk states the pressure is off.

"We have less expectations, I guess," he says. "We're more chill with the playoffs than other teams because we already know how it feels to win a Major and we have less expectations. It's the last championship before the break, so we're pretty chiil."

Asked about the star power in playoffs and facing the likes of ZywOo and s1mple, donk remained confident.

"There are a lot of stars in every playoffs. In Shanghai we had G2 with m0NESY and NiKo, apEX and ZywOo in Vitality, FaZe, and us. There were four teams, and every team could beat each other. Right now it's like always at the Majors, the best teams in the world make it to the playoffs and it's always exciting to play Major playoffs."