Vladislav “xiELO” Lysov, a player for the CS2 team GUN5, recently offered his perspective on Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev joining FaZe Clan. He also commented on the strength of Team Vitality and which team might challenge them.
When asked about FaZe`s signing of s1mple, xiELO remarked, “I don`t think anything (laughs). But overall, it`s cool, s1mple is back. I hope he carries hard. But generally, I haven`t formed a strong opinion yet. But it`s definitely a 100% upgrade.”
Despite acknowledging s1mple`s break from competitive play and the availability of other players like degster, xiELO maintained his belief in the move`s positive impact. “For me, s1mple right now is a 100% upgrade for FaZe. Maybe degster would have been better, but in any case, I believe it`s an upgrade.” He didn`t see it purely as a move driven by hype.
Regarding Team Vitality, xiELO described their roster as “unbalanced” and predicted their dominance would likely continue for the next year. He specifically anticipated them winning the upcoming event in Austin.
When queried about potential challengers to Vitality, he pointed towards teams like Falcons, suggesting that further roster strengthening could make them contenders. He drew a parallel, imagining a rivalry between Falcons and Vitality becoming like the famous “El Clásico” between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
s1mple`s temporary move to FaZe Clan on a loan basis was announced on May 5th. The Ukrainian AWPer is expected to play for FaZe at two upcoming tournaments: IEM Dallas 2025 and BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025.
Finley Holt