This day finally arrived! Exactly six months after his last official CS2 match, Oleksandr `s1mple` Kostyliev returned to the professional scene. This time, he`s not with a “veterans` home” roster, but with a team aiming for victories at top tournaments. Let`s be honest: everyone was eagerly anticipating s1mple`s debut with FaZe Clan. The insane viewership numbers prove this, with the peak stream reaching over 803,000 people.
s1mple`s name alone propelled IEM Dallas 2025 into the top 6 tournaments by peak viewership this year. Unfortunately, the match didn`t go as smoothly as expected. While s1mple demonstrated he still has the desire and, crucially, the ability to shoot and hit his shots, his team`s performance was far from optimal. This article delves into the esports player`s performance at tier-1 and FaZe`s problems.
Before looking at s1mple`s form, it`s important to note that the team couldn`t possibly show its full potential in their very first match. Firstly, the team simply had no time for practice. In just a week, teams can only polish basic defaults; synergy is out of the question. Secondly, unfortunately, Håvard `rain` Nygaard wasn`t at the tournament, so FaZe was effectively forced to play with two players who knew nothing about the team`s established strategies.
Felipe `skullz` Medeiros took over the Norwegian anchor`s positions, while s1mple settled into Håvard `broky` Saukants` spots – FaZe decided not to reinvent the wheel before their first tier-1 tournament. But even with the core players in their usual roles, two substitutions still hit the roster hard. s1mple joining FaZe differs from m0NESY`s transfer to Falcons; while zonic`s club was on the rise and just needed one piece of the puzzle for success, s1mple arrived to delay the “Titanic`s” sinking. He wasn`t in a position to completely prevent it. This is precisely why we didn`t see a dramatic transformation of the roster.
The team has confidence in s1mple and gives him carte blanche for any actions. This impression is formed after watching the pistol rounds, where Kostyliev adopts a “tank” role, playing with first armor and non-default pistols. For instance, in the first round on Ancient defense, the sniper played with Dual Berettas, and on attack, with a P250. On Inferno, however, he often stuck to just a flash or armor – but despite this, in the attack pistol round, s1mple proved why he was brought into the team.
By returning s1mple to his natural role as a freestyle player who constantly changes positions, he was always one of the first to encounter opponents. The esports player never stayed still during the match, constantly watching mid, then A site, then B. This led to moments where enemies would seemingly walk right into his crosshair, just like in NAVI`s best days.
On Inferno, s1mple had a more modest role: on defense, the player guarded point A, occasionally starting by reinforcing B. Yet, the map was still interesting. In the sixth round, unfortunately, skullz and s1mple demonstrated that FaZe at IEM Dallas 2025 was little more than a mix. Left in a 2v1 situation against Twistzz, Kostyliev and Medeiros couldn`t coordinate to play together. Judging by s1mple`s webcam, the sniper was actively making calls to his teammate but then pushed for a 1v1 duel without waiting for skullz. The result: Liquid winning two rounds in a row.
Also on Inferno, Kostyliev showed that he doesn`t have problems with reaction time. In one round, s1mple reinforced “apps” along with skullz. Snipers often miss such shots and need rifle support as backup. However, here, the teammate`s help wasn`t needed. His reaction speed was measured at about 0.27 seconds. Of course, at BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals, Kostyliev, according to the blogger Ryze, set a reaction record and killed an enemy 0.17 seconds after spotting them, but given how long we haven`t seen s1mple on the professional scene, this slight decrease in reaction speed isn`t critical.
Finley Holt