Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player in the world and it isn’t just because of his amazing aim. He also just makes incredibly smart plays.
Case and point is a stunt he pulled in the Epic CIS League. Playing against Gambit Esports on Train’s CT side, s1mple found himself in a fortuitous situation as he came up behind Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, who was carrying the bomb near showers. While most players would’ve been happy just to take the free kill, s1mple took things one step further.
.@s1mpleO did you make the bomb carrier turn on purpose to make the bomb fall towards you with that pistol drop? pic.twitter.com/7Hc9MGnZx2
— Nick G. (@mdnNSK) May 25, 2021
Instead of just emptying his M4A1 into Ax1Le, s1mple pulled out his pistol and tossed it forward before he started to fire. This prompted Ax1Le to turn around.
s1mple still got the kill without incident but, because Ax1Le had turned, the bomb fell into the showers with s1mple rather than out towards Ax1Le’s Gambit teammates. Though s1mple got traded not long after making this play, it set Natus Vincere up to extend its early winning streak, take the map, and close the series out 2-0.
2-0 against @GambitEsports
FEELS GREAT! play off SECURED! #navination
— Sasha (@s1mpleO) May 21, 2021
The play was incredibly crafty and showed s1mple’s confidence and ability to do small things to help his team get ahead. That doesn’t mean s1mple wasn’t able to help his team with gunslinging, though. He had a strong 41-33 score at the end of the series and made more than his share of highlight plays.
The Epic CIS League is still ongoing and Na’Vi is set to make its playoffs debut against Akuma.
