Stuchiu\u2019s Standpoint: The s1mple Question StarLadderThe great shame of Na`Vi\u2019s 2018-2019 run is that they had the greatest player in history and never became the best team in the world. Oleksandr \u201cs1mple\u201d Kostyliev is the greatest prodigy that Counter-Strike has ever produced. We\u2019ve seen players like Ladislav \u201cGuardiaN\u201d Kovacs, Kenny \u201ckennyS\u201d Schrub, and Nikola \u201cNiKo\u201d Kovac be the best in the world without being on the best team. However, no one has reached the levels of peak consistency that s1mple has. As Na`Vi transitions out of the Danylo \u201cZeus\u201d Teslenko system, they have to ask themselves the s1mple question. What is the best way to utilize s1mple? If they can answer that question correctly, Na`Vi could be the best team in the world. Transitioning from Zeus to B1ad3 This is the best time to ask that question as Na`Vi have made a clean split from the old Zeus system. Zeus has retired and Na`Vi have replaced their coach, Mykhailo \u201ckane\u201d Blagin, with Andrey \u201cB1ad3\u201d Gorodenskiy. B1ad3 joined Na`Vi in March 30th as the esports director. From interviews, it sounds like B1ad3 was setting up the foundations for the future team as he helped set up training and scouted players. The biggest example of this was when Na`Vi added Kirill \u201cBoombl4\u201d Mikhailov. S1mple described what b1ad3 did in an HLTV interview, saying: \u201cB1ad3 watched a 100 demos of Boombl4 and he watched the position of Edward as well, he compared all of this, he watched other players too and gave us three options. In the end, we decided that we want this player because he is like a leader, Boombl4, he talks a lot in-game, he is an entry fragger, but he can lurk as well\u201d With Zeus retirement, Na`Vi needed a fifth player. They had two choices: a rifler or an AWPer. The choice depended on what role s1mple was going to play in the future. Whether he was going to be the primary AWPer or a hybrid player who could secondary AWP. This is a question that has defined s1mple\u2019s entire career. The s1mple Question When you look at s1mple\u2019s game, there are a few things that stand out about him. The first is that he has one of the highest mechanical ceilings of any player in the game. He has incredible flick speed, aim, reaction time, and precision. His versatility is unmatched. He can play every gun and on any given day is the best AWPer in the world, best rifle in the world, and best pistol in the world. Throughout his career, he\u2019s played a variety of different roles. I\u2019ve seen him be the lurk, the entry, and the AWPer. He plays passive positions, aggressive positions, and has good teamplay. What\u2019s brilliant about s1mple is that in this last iteration of Na`Vi is that he has taken on two of the hardest responsibilities of any player. He is responsible for aggressive opening picks and for closing out rounds in the clutch situations. With this level of talent, the question becomes how to use him. In s1mple\u2019s career, we\u2019ve seen two approaches. The first approach was almost mathematical in perception as teams used s1mple\u2019s talent to try to maximize the firepower potential of the team. This defined s1mple\u2019s time in Flipsid3 and Liquid. The second approach was to maximize s1mple\u2019s own potential. While not wholly accurate, this second approach characterizes s1mple\u2019s time in Na`Vi 2018-2019. The two approaches to s1mple While subtle, there is a fundamental difference between these two approaches. To understand what I mean, we\u2019ll have to take a look at Flipsid3 2015. The team at the time was: s1mple, B1ad3, Georgi \u201cWorldEdit\u201d Yaskin, Yegor \u201cmarkeloff\u201d Markelov, and Vladyslav \u201cbondik\u201d Nechyporchuk. Before joining Flipsid3, s1mple was the primary AWPer of HellRaisers and had impressed the world with his stunning debut performance at DreamHack Winter 2014 Major. In that tournament, he knocked out Fnatic in the group stages with an awe-inspiring performance that foreshadowed the player he\u2019d eventually become. So when he joined Flipsid3, the team had a choice to make. Should they continue with WorldEdit as the AWPer or give it to s1mple. They decided to give the AWP to WorldEdit. In basic terms, the calculation they made was that WorldEdit\u2019s level was about 7\/10 with the AWP. If you put him on anything else though, his form dramatically dropped. S1mple could be 9\/10 on the AWP, but he was also 9\/10 on the rifle, so Flipsid3 decided that for the betterment of the team, they\u2019d rather have s1mple be the star player on the rifle. This is an oversimplification as there were other factors that probably led to that particular decision like B1ad3\u2019s structured style, comms, and personality. Even so, this basic model is something that I\u2019ve seen a lot of people use when it comes to roster construction around s1mple. This pattern repeated itself again in Liquid and later on when he rejoined Na`Vi. Na`Vi is the more pertinent example considering how many roster changes happened during s1mple\u2019s time in Liquid. When s1mple joined Na`Vi in 2016, the team also had a choice to make between Ladislav \u201cGuardiaN\u201d Kovacs and s1mple. This choice was far harder as GuardiaN was still an elite AWPer at the time and s1mple hadn\u2019t proved himself to be at that level, so it made far more sense for s1mple to stay as a hybrid player. In 2017, GuardiaN left Na`Vi which allowed s1mple to once again become the primary AWPer of his team. This is where we get into the secondary approach, maximizing s1mple\u2019s potential. Late 2017 Na`Vi was the first time since HellRaisers where s1mple had a relatively stable lineup and the chance to be a primary AWPer. During this period, s1mple grew quickly. Zeus returned to the team and implemented his system. It looked terrible to begin with, but ironically, it may have forged s1mple into the world breaker that he eventually became. The system still relied on long defaults which gave maximum time for the AWPer to get a pick, but outside of s1mple and Egor \u201cflamie\u201d Vasilev, there were too many vulnerabilities on the team to make it work properly. Zeus was never a great individual player, Denis \u201cseized\u201d Kostin had lost all of his form trying to lead the team, and Ioann \u201cEdward\u201d Sukhariev hit a slump he never recovered from.With such a heavy load to bear, the situation became a hyperbolic time chamber for s1mple. S1mple was dedicated to winning and the only conceivable way for s1mple to win was through sheer individual force. S1mple put himself in theoretically bad positions for an AWPer where he either made the shot or died. This greatly increased the risk of failure, but it also greatly increased the reward. If he died, his team would be down a man. If he got the kills, his team either won the round or created enough space for his team to close the round. S1mple mastered this aggressive style to such a degree that he had fewer deaths than the average typical AWPer. S1mple\u2019s style essentially created a consistent way for Na`Vi to get the power play advantage and for Na`Vi to use s1mple to win the post-plant situations. If one were to grade s1mple\u2019s play on the mathematical scale of the earlier model, he\u2019d be 12\/10. S1mple broke the role of AWPer to the point where what he does cannot be recognized as AWPing. Nicolai \u201cdev1ce\u201d Reedtz once described this in an HLTV interview. \u201cI think s1mple is just, undeniably, the best player in the world. I can study a lot of players and learn from them, like FalleN, GuardiaN, and so on, and take something from their game and implement it in my own,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when I look at s1mple demos, it\u2019s really hard because sometimes, he can be in the worst situations and still get like a 4k.\u201d Comparing the approaches For Na`Vi, this is where the crux of the situation. Which approach is better? Theoretically, no one can blame Flipsid3, Liquid, or early Na`Vi for putting s1mple on the rifle instead of the AWP as no one could have foreseen what s1mple would become if given the chance. But at this point in time, we have seen it. S1mple with the AWP has become the greatest player in Counter-Strike player in history. If someone were to ask me, I\u2019d favor the second approach. While on paper, it makes more sense to have more talent across the lineup, putting s1mple on the AWP essentially breaks the game and forces every other team to play a different game when they play against s1mple. However, Na`VI may have decided to revert back to the first model. After Zeus retired, Na`Vi recruited GuardiaN. It makes zero sense for Na`Vi to recruit GuardiaN if they don\u2019t want him to primary AWP. This is a surprising move, but one that has partially come from s1mple himself. After Na`Vi lost to NRG at StarLadder and placed 6th at BLAST Moscow, s1mple tweeted: \u201cTime to rethink everything and make the right decision.\u201d In a recent HLTV interview, he expounded on his thought process more saying: \u201cIf there was going to be a better sniper, a real sniper, of course I was going to give him the AWP. I feel confident with rifles, I wanted this before, there is more freedom when you play as a rifler.\u201d Wait and see Na`Vi\u2019s decision to bring GuardiaN back into the mix is a strange decision from the outside. While GuardiaN is a legendary player, he hasn\u2019t played at that level for a long time. Even so, there are still multiple factors that could tilt Na`Vi\u2019s success one way or another. For instance, what type of system and tactics do B1ad3 and Boombl4 want to utilize? When B1ad3 had s1mple and WorldEdit on Flipsid3, he sometimes used double AWP strategies on the T-side. Perhaps they will let s1mple pick up the AWP over GuardiaN whenever they feel like it so that they can surprise opponents with their different styles of play. The biggest factor to me will still be s1mple. S1mple\u2019s broke all of the standard rules of AWPing and created a unique way of playing that only he can wield. If s1mple were to somehow replicate that feat, but with a rifle, Na`Vi could reach even greater heights. For now, the world will have to wait and see. If Na`Vi can answer the s1mple question correctly, they will become the world\u2019s best team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stuchiu\u2019s Standpoint: The s1mple Question StarLadderThe great shame of Na`Vi\u2019s 2018-2019 run is that they had the greatest player in history and never became the best team in the world. Oleksandr \u201cs1mple\u201d Kostyliev is the greatest prodigy that Counter-Strike has ever produced. We\u2019ve seen players like Ladislav \u201cGuardiaN\u201d Kovacs, Kenny \u201ckennyS\u201d Schrub, and Nikola \u201cNiKo\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}