Is S1mple Coming Back To Professional Counter-Strike?

CS: GO’s greatest player of all time has yet to make an official return to CS2. Despite numerous times hinting at his comeback, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev’s return has not guaranteed a comeback to the scene.

S1mple’s Break From Counter-Strike

On 26 October 2023, the Ukrainian announced he would take a break from professional Counter-Strike. 

Before the announcement, S1mple was already complaining about Counter-Strike: 2’s underwhelming performance. There were many gameplay bugs, and the game’s movement felt off. 

Still, he found an additional reason for his hiatus: fixing important documents and taking care of important people in his life. He mentioned looking into offers upon his return and seeing what the future holds.

So what’s next, time to take break as I wanted but that’s only half of story
Need to fix documents and take care of other people in my life
About switching to other org : never thought about it but would be interesting to see offers, maybe on rifle since awp a bit not impactful…

— Sasha (@s1mpleO) October 26, 2023

After taking an extended break, big shoes had to be filled in the Na’Vi roster, which was when Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov replaced the 26-year-old and proceeded to win the first CS2 Major. 

What Has He Been Up To?

It has been six months since S1mple announced his pause from professional play, and he has been enjoying life recently. 

The 17-time MVP worked on a new “Play Like S1mple” project. In this project, the star player is looking to produce educational Counter-Strike content with the goal of teaching players an entirely new understanding of the game and how it should be played.

The project outline would provide members with courses for people looking to play CS2 casually or competitively. The community would also feature fun tournaments and frequent giveaways. 

Sasha wants to give back to the community that created him and aims to change the Counter-Strike industry by ensuring everyone performs better in games. An overall improvement of the community skill-wise will benefit the game in the long run. 

Other than the “Play Like S1mple” project, the main character of the story has been embracing brain rot by spending hours a day scrolling through Instagram Reels and Twitter Videos. 

He has also dabbled into getting a diet to get fit, streamed himself playing games on Twitch, and wanted to get into music but was too busy with his schedule. 

So, When Is S1mple Returning?

Despite the professional Counter-Strike scene being extremely competitive, fans dearly missed watching the greatest player in the game perform his magic. 

S1mple was already registered as Natus Vincere’s sixth man during the PGL Copenhagen Major but was not needed for the organization to lift the trophy. Even though he wasn’t a part of the Major-winning roster, Sasha was incredibly happy for the team, especially Valerij “b1t” Vakhovsjkyj.

The Intel Grand Slam winner had a short tenure at Team Falcons, where he played his first official CS2 match. However, the results did not go according to plan. S1mple was forced into only four days of preparation, and the map pool was not quite ready to produce meaningful results.

When asked about his comeback, S1mple mentioned a change of plans after Na’Vi won the Major in Denmark. He claims his return is still a secret, and it depends on which teams are ready to pay his buyout and the players on the recruiting team. S1mple continues to mention he would not mind playing as a rifler if he has a reliable AWPer on the team since he is confident in his rifling skills. 

What’s Holding Him Back?

Right now, S1mple’s primary focus is on finalizing his educational project and waiting for some good news. He plans to release the first two lessons sometime in May and provide two weekly lessons.

He also mentioned that he had three of four invitations from other teams. However, some did not have appealing players, and others did not have enough money to pay for his buyout. 

S1mple is mainly looking for a team with a clear system. If the organization lacks a proper structure, he is willing to build one but will need the right people. He is committed to looking for motivated players ready to put in the effort and spend extended periods bootcamping. 

Header: S1mple’s Instagram