Top 20 players of 2021: s1mple (1)

With some of the highest peaks of all time and an unrivaled level in nearly every facet of the game, Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev earned the #1 spot in the Top 20 players of 2021 ranking, powered by GG.BET.

Top 20 players of 2021: Introduction

At 16 years old, s1mple first appeared in HLTV.org's records in late 2013 as a representative of Ukraine in the European Champions Cup 2013. It was there that he first teamed up with Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy, who would then help the youngster enter the semi-professional scene, get his first international experience in Courage, and give him several chances to show his worth in future teams.

Building up a reputation for being a difficult player to work with, s1mple did not last long in many of his teams, and the fact that he received a long ban from ESL for attempting to dodge a previous ban for cheating in 1.6 didn't help his career early on either, as it caused him to miss several of the top organizer's large events including two Majors in 2015. His potential was undeniable, however, as with virtually no prior experience he immediately put up remarkable numbers against some of the world's best teams with HellRaisers and FlipSid3, averaging a 1.18 rating in 2014-2015.

It was in early 2016 that he made a massive step in his career, moving to the United States to join up with Liquid. It proved to be another short stint, with homesickness seeing the Ukrainian star leave the team in less than six months, but not before he helped the North American side reach the semi-finals and the grand final of the two Majors of that year, MLG Columbus and ESL One Cologne.

It was inevitable that a talent like that would end up on historically the region's best team Natus Vincere. That happened later that year, as s1mple replaced Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko on the roster and soon won his first big international tournament at ESL One New York, getting his first MVP award in the process. Although that was the only highlight of the latter part of the year for s1mple and the team, along with his notable performances at the Majors it helped him make his first appearance in the top 20 in 4th place.

A difficult year 2017 saw NAVI be unable to compete for big titles despite making several deep runs, and it wasn't until Zeus returned and the team brought in another star in the making in Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov that they were able start recovering from the slump late in the year. s1mple was named the 8th best player, and we were yet to see him at his best.

In 2018, the Ukrainian prodigy became a true phenomenon. Astralis rightfully earned the crown as the world's best team while Natus Vincere played second fiddle, picking up a few titles along the way, but no player could match s1mple's unbelievable individual output, which earned him the title of the world's best player. He went on to display similar performances in the less successful 2019 and 2020 and continued to rack up an MVP tally outmatched only by Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz at the time, but in both years the Ukrainian superstar lost out to Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut in the race to #1 — by a significant margin in the former and after a near-tie in the latter.

The beginning of 2021 saw NAVI still in flux. Although Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy was slowly getting to play more maps, Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev was still very much the main fifth player, and the team played out the first three months of the year in that setup.

Their campaign kickstarted with the BLAST Premier Global Final, where the main favorites were the big trio that had competed for titles against one another in the final stretch of 2020 — Astralis, Vitality, and Natus Vincere themselves. The CIS squad didn't get off to a good start, with a loss to Liquid sending them straight to the lower bracket, but from there it was relatively plain sailing for s1mple and company as they beat five out of the seven other teams in attendance to clinch their first title, including the French and Danish rivals in the final two stages of the event.

s1mple himself was a menace as usual in the 2021 debut. A slow map in the opening loss saw him drop below the 1.00 mark, but the disappointing start seemed to light a spark in him as he posted fantastic performances in each series from that point on. He topped the charts in virtually every one of the main categories with numbers like 1.41 rating, 72.4% success in opening duels, and 0.45 AWP kills per round, earning the first of a record-breaking eight MVPs in 2021.

The Undertaker continued to put up similar stats despite NAVI's results taking a hit at the next couple of tournaments. After qualifying for the BLAST Premier Spring Final in somewhat of a shaky Groups showing, they went out in 5th-6th place in IEM Katowice, suffering their first of several losses at the hands of the new CIS powerhouse Gambit. The second came in ESL Pro League right after, in a tournament where Natus Vincere barely escaped elimination in the groups and went out in the first round of the playoffs, courtesy of Complexity.

Having claimed a couple of EVP nods from the two events after what you might call an 'average' performance in his books (still putting up ridiculous tournament ratings for just about everyone else's standards at 1.31 and 1.30, of course), s1mple clinched the second MVP medal at DreamHack Masters Spring. Natus Vincere had completed the switch from flamie to b1t just before the tournament and seemed to reap the fruits immediately. Powered by massive performances from s1mple, especially in the playoffs series against FURIA, Heroic, and Gambit, NAVI stood on the top step of the podium for the second time in 2021, finally taking down their perennial nemesis following three consecutive losses to them in the previous two months.

Despite another win over the Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov-led squad at EPIC League CIS, the first Regional Major Ranking tournament ended in disappointment for NAVI. They placed only fifth at the event, with Spirit sending them home in the playoffs. s1mple had recorded his worst map of the year there, a 0.20 rating in a 2-16 loss facing the controversial team Akuma, but other than that it was another solid tournament from the Ukrainian superstar, and he earned one more EVP mention for his efforts.

"[Did I ever feel like I wasn't up to par with my usual standards?] Probably not, haha, maybe the game against Akuma where they were aware of every move I made. They were playing with a radar hack and that really worsened my rating. I remember that game, I thought that I was out of shape, that they were reading me on Mirage wherever I went - they would throw a flash at me at the start of the round and I couldn’t stop their aggression.

"The funniest thing is, those fools had the nerve to say that we underestimated them. Imagine winning in an unfair way and then saying that your opponents underestimated you. That was rather a funny moment, because you try to think what went wrong after such losses, fans think that you’re losing your grip, and I wanted to prove otherwise."

The BLAST Premier Spring Final was up next in mid-June, and it once again put a twist on the NAVI-Gambit rivalry. This time, Gambit came out on top in two separate meetings with s1mple and company in the double-elimination bracket after NAVI had some close calls with FaZe and G2. Second place was far from a disaster, however, as was one more EVP award going the way of the ever-present s1mple, and things were only about to get better.

NAVI came out on top of the second RMR event after a grueling run, meeting Gambit a whopping three times at different stages of the tournament and finally beating them when it mattered most, in the best-of-five grand final. It was a classic s1mple performance through and through, featuring a 40-bomb in a 2.57-rated map against Spirit as a highlight, rewarding him with his third MVP medal of the year.

The fourth came next when LAN finally returned after almost a year and a half of LAN-less drought at IEM Cologne. Perhaps spurred on by the prospect of playing on location, s1mple was at his absolute best in Germany. He put on a show for the ages as he led NAVI to their fourth title in one of the best individual performances we have ever seen, scoring mind-blowing numbers over 14 maps against Renegades, Vitality, Astralis, FaZe, and G2 — three maps rated above 2.00, a 1.51 average rating, a 1.70 impact rating, and 0.96 KPR, as well as a record-breaking four aces. It was an astounding showcase of the Ukrainian's sheer firepower, and it was made even more impressive by the fact that it was far from an easy route: NAVI lost a map to each of their first three opponents and the final against the French-Balkan squad was a close affair, as well, despite the CIS squad winning 3-0.

"I would say the toughest challenge was when we were figuring things out after bringing Valera to the team. It was hard to find our game again, teach a young player, find the synergy and chemistry between all of us."

"I think we fully reached our potential after we found our game with Valera [b1t], and of course we received a real boost with the return of LAN events because we started spending more time together not only at the tournaments but also on the bootcamps before them."

NAVI then went into the off-season after clinching back-to-back titles, and when they returned to play in the online ESL Pro League Season 14 they were ready to pick up their third consecutive trophy. At first, it looked like it would be a straightforward victory for the CIS giants, but after a convincing group stage showing they ran into some tough opposition in Heroic. s1mple stepped up to the plate as he posted over 90 kills across three close maps to pull Natus Vincere over the finish line against the Danes, and he capped off an amazing tournament as his team's standout player in the best-of-five victory against Vitality, who gave NAVI a run for their money as well.

Next on the calendar in late September, BLAST Premier Spring Groups ended up as one in just three events where s1mple didn't reach the 1.30 rating mark throughout the entire year. With a 1.18 rating, he looked almost human but was still his team's best player, helping NAVI qualify for one of the big final LAN events of the year after victories over OG and Complexity.

s1mple went on to earn another EVP award on the way to a second-place finish at IEM Fall CIS. Natus Vincere had already been confirmed to advance to the PGL Major, but they still had the Legends spot to play for there, which they claimed after advancing from the group stage without too many issues. With not much more on the line other than bragging rights, they brushed Virtus.pro aside and got swept by Gambit in the grand final.

That turned out to be the last time NAVI lost to their biggest rivals for the rest of the year and in fact one in only two matches that they conceded in the final four events. PGL Major Stockholm was up next, and it was there that arguably the best Natus Vincere we had ever seen turned up, and so did s1mple with another display of his godlike prowess. With their frontman leading the charge as always and the supporting cast all in great shape, NAVI clinched the Major title looking unbeatable. Only on two occasions did they look like they could lose a map, with Vitality and G2 coming close enough to threaten the CIS team's Nuke streak that was still alive at the time, only to falter at the last minute as Natus Vincere pulled off two big comebacks each time — both spearheaded by s1mple — and became the only team in history to win a Major without losing a single map.

"The best tournament that we won was obviously the Major. No one can imagine how long I’d been working towards it, how sweet that victory was. But what a path I walked to hoist that trophy in front of 10,000 people, feel the energy of the arena, the support of viewers and fans."

s1mple received the one award that had been missing in his ever-growing collection, an MVP from a Major, on the back of a performance rivaling the one that he had put up in Cologne, even racking up some year-high numbers such as 93.8 ADR, 79.5% KAST, and a 1.63 CT rating.

It was almost unbelievable then that he was able to maintain such form at the final two events of the year, as well, particularly when it came to his unmatched level on the CT side and his ability to somehow step it up even further when it came to the Big matches — a tendency he had shown almost all year long. The BLAST Premier Fall Final and World Final saw s1mple round out the year with two more MVPs as the leading man in NAVI's two title-winning runs, adding up to a total of a record-breaking eight in a calendar year and matching device's 19 medals in total. And once again, some of his highlights performances came in the late stages of the tournament, against Vitality in the former and against Gambit in the latter, where NAVI finished the year just like it began — by coming back from an opening loss to Liquid to win the whole thing from the lower bracket.

"My best memory is winning all the LAN tournaments that happened at the end of the year, even without viewers.

Why was s1mple the best player of 2021?

As you can imagine, there was never any doubt over who the best player of 2021 was, as s1mple's level went unmatched last year and was miles ahead of the competition.

As NAVI's best player at every single event they attended and earning at least an EVP each time and a total of eight MVPs, the 24-year-old recorded some other-worldly numbers, such as a 1.35 rating (#1), 0.88 KPR (#1), and 88.2 ADR (#1). He was able to post these statistics in large part thanks to his unrivaled floor level and consistency, putting up a 1.21 or higher rating at each event and recording at least a 1.00 rating on 89% of maps (#1) as well as 76.0% KAST (#2).

"I want my team to keep progressing, I will always help them with that. I know that I will keep performing at a high level, this is my game and I’m not going to stop, I’m not going to relax and regress because I want the whole world to know about NAVI."

s1mple was also the most impactful player overall with a 1.43 impact rating, which in large part stemmed from his ability to score multi-kills and opening kills, as he was the best player at the former (23.6% of rounds) and at least one of the best at the latter, with the 3rd-most opening kills (1.15) and the 3rd-highest success rate (66%). You could even make a case for the Ukrainian superstar to be the best at opening, as after filtering out players with below-average opening attempts, he would then have the highest success rate. Meanwhile, you can also see just how influential he was on the team's success from his numbers in NAVI's round wins alone, as he scored 1.18 KPR (#1) and 113.9 ADR (#1) in those.

s1mple's statistics look even more fantastical when you consider that he managed to become even better with the more pressure there was on, as he put up a 1.40 rating in Big matches. His highest peaks also came at the most prestigious events of the year, which also meant he significantly surpassed his overall average at the 'Elite' events alone (1.43), with his IEM Cologne and PGL Major Stockholm performances in particular ranking among the best of all time.

With a resumé like that, an argument can even be made that this was the strongest year anyone has ever had in the history of the game. Considering s1mple having the highest floor, highest peaks, highest impact, and earning a record-setting number of eight MVPs, this was likely the most convincing #1 placing in Top 20 history, surpassing Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund's dominant year 2013.

"2021 was my best year, not just individually but team-wise as well. I tried to improve in all aspects, but the most important thing to me is consistency, which depends on each of my teammates, it’s the structure and plan of our team. I wouldn’t have surpassed my 2018 results without them. Also, I’ve established my own training system in the past 2 years."

Bold prediction by GG.BET

For the final bold prediction of 2021's Top 20, s1mple closed out the list with another pick of the newest G2 addition Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov.

He also gave a honorary mention to Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield, who didn't quite fit the 'under 20 and has not played for a top 20 team before' bill but nonetheless stood out in s1mple's mind as someone who could make the list in future years.

"m0NESY - It’s boring and unoriginal, he won’t make the top 20 only if G2 play worse than they did in 2021, and I don’t believe that will happen," s1mple said.

"smooya - even though he is over 20 and has already played on a top 10 team, he’s never been on this ranking."

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With the revelation of the best player of the year, the top 20 ranking of 2021 is complete. You can take a look at the Introduction article to see the full list and learn more about how it was made. This year's ranking is supported by:

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