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S1mple returns to BLAST Premier Fall Groups: Knockout Stage

After a short break due to personal reasons, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is ready to continue his performance in the... Daria Belous | 23. August 2022

After a short break due to personal reasons, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is ready to continue his performance in the professional CS:GO scene. Today, he announced on his Twitter account that he is flying to Denmark, where NAVI are attending the BLAST Premier Fall Groups. The team started the competition with Danyyl “headtr1ck” Valitov from NAVI Junior as a stand-in.

The Natus Vincere star AWPer missed the first part of the group stage, which served as the team’s pass to the next stage of the elimination bracket during Play-In. S1mple announced on his Twitter account that he was flying to Denmark, just in time for the end of BLAST Premier Fall Groups. That means he’ll most likely join Natus Vincere for the knockout stage of the tournament.

Is headtr1ck ready for top-level play? 

S1mple’s substitute at BLAST Premier Fall Groups headtr1ck showed a great performance so far, proving that NAVI are perfectly capable of winning without s1mple. The youngster scored 1.12 points in Group B, beating Complexity, G2 Esports, and Team Liquid to claim first place in the group stage. In the first round, the team started the tournament with a loss to Complexity, but they managed to recover and enter the finals of Play-In.

Despite his promising performance and excellent skill set, coach Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi doesn’t think headtr1ck is ready to face high-level opponents. In an interview for HLTV following the conclusion of the group stage, he commented:  

“I think headtr1ck is not ready to play comfortably enough against the top level yet.” 

Will NAVI qualify for Finals?

Thanks to the first place finish in the group stage, NAVI got directly into the third round of the knockout stage. The tournament itself will continue on Thursday, while the Ukrainian team will play its last day of the knockout rounds on Saturday, August 27. They will face G2, BIG or Vitality, depending on which team passes on.

If NAVI place among the top six, they will advance to the BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2022 scheduled for November 23-27. If they place seventh or lower, which seems unlikely, they will advance to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, which will provide another opportunity to qualify for the finals in November.

photo 2022 08 23 16 03 30

s1mple on his Instagram stories

BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2022 takes place from August 19 to 28 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 12 CS:GO teams compete for $177,000 in prize money and six spots in the season finale.

Header credit: BLAST | Jak Howard