s1mple (Oleksandr Kostyliev) is a Ukrainian streamer, esports athlete, professional Counter-Strike player, widely considered one of the greatest snipers and most decorated esports players in the world. In 2021, as part of Natus Vincere, he became champion and MVP of PGL Major Stockholm 2021. Born on October 2, 1997, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Crimea scandal
In 2019, during a livestream when a viewer asked "Crimea is Ukraine or Russia?", Kostyliev replied: "Russia". Following a wave of public backlash, the streamer sought to clarify the situation and justify his answer:
In the video from the broadcast, I'm warming up in practice with bots and simply answering donation messages on autopilot. People ask—I reply «yes» or «no», things like that. And to that question I replied without really thinking, simply assuming that the person asking in English was inquiring about the factual situation in Crimea at the moment: for example, what laws de facto apply there right now for foreigners, travel, and so forth.
s1mple's stance on the war in Ukraine
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kostyliev published an anti-war post on X (Twitter) with the message "we all need peace":
s1mple also wrote about the bombardment of Kyiv and admitted that he was terrified for his family while being in safety in Poland.
He addressed the global situation from the stage at IEM Katowice 2022 in CS:GO, stressing an "outside of politics" stance:
Esports is outside of politics. Many players have no chance of changing their governments' decisions. Throughout my entire career, I have played with American, Russian, and Ukrainian players. All of them are great guys. Right now I am with my best friends. We win together, we lose together. All of us want peace for Ukraine and for the whole world.
On February 27, 2022, Oleksandr moved from words to tangible action and donated 1.5 million UAH to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
s1mple also donated 1 million UAH + $15,000 for the AFU to Roman Zozulya's charitable foundation, and transferred $100,000 to the UNITED24 platform to purchase an ambulance.
In early March, he streamed a broadcast where he sought to show the reality of the situation in Ukraine, reach Russian audiences, and dismantle propaganda narratives. At the same time, he defended continuing to speak Russian and asserted that "Russian people are not evil; there are many civilians who do not want war and understand that Russia is attacking Ukraine."
In September 2022, he sarcastically commented on mobilization in Russia:
Hilarious, I expect all the motherfuckers who posted swastikas in the form of Z to pass their medical examinations as soon as possible. I KNOW THAT FOR YOU «THERE IS NO WAR», but damn, turns out you can just arbitrarily be slammed with mobilization, so don't get upset.
Match with Russians
In February 2024, s1mple gave an interview in Ukrainian for Players, declaring:
I would never move to Cloud9 when they have 4 Russian players. I don't know whether Ukrainians understand this or not. I think every Ukrainian should understand this. There were no talks whatsoever.
Yet in September 2024, s1mple participated in a showmatch against a Russian squad organized by Ukrainian streamer Evelone192. In one of the matches, s1mple played alongside Russian streamers and players OverDrive, Buster, Skillz0r, and Stanislaw. This act provoked indignation among Ukrainian esports fans and media, as s1mple had previously claimed he would refuse to play alongside Russians.
Disqualification by the Ukrainian Esports Federation (2026)
In June 2026, the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) banned Oleksandr Kostyliev for one year. The grounds for the suspension were his participation in official competitive matches on the same team as Russian players. At that time, s1mple was competing for the BC.Game organization, where his teammate was Russian player Denis "electroNic" Sharipov.
Он явный *етник
Из того,что добавить можете дописать,что Саня был напротив,чтобы Электроник (ру игрок,жена которого за "сво") перешёл к нему тиммейтом в бс гейм, даже написав в иксе "time to shine". Уже многие укр кастеры (сеня или олси) начали его кенселлить. Поэтому задумайтесь,правильная ли у вас висит плашка