s1mple: ‘I think ZywOo is closer to my level than anyone’

At the end of the group stage of ESL One Cologne 2019, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev had a chat with HLTV about the new member, Boombl4, and potential rival ZywOo, and the ridiculously funny ‘chym’ (knife).

Na`Vi defeated mousesports in the rematch of the opening game to qualify for LANXESS Arena, along with new member Boombl4. As usual, s1mple scored a super high rating, 1.31.

HLTV sat down with s1mple to hear more about their decision to replace Edward with Boombl4, and what the team should expect from Cologne, as well as the ‘knife’ defeat to Liquid.

Let’s start with the roster change first: how did the team make the decision to part ways with longtime Na`Vi member Edward?

After the loss, we discussed whether things would be better if the team changed one member, because Na`Vi had been playing with this roster longer than any other team at the time. Everyone decided that they needed more shooting skills and it was a difficult decision for the members. Then we asked B1ad3 to help pick out new people. He watched the demos of all the new players and then asked what kind of players they needed. After watching the demo and listening to the opinions, B1ad3 said that Boombl4 is a good choice for the team.

Does having B1ad3 outside in charge of finding members, instead of letting one person on the team decide who to choose, helps? Can you share more about the selection process?

Yes, B1ad3 watched 100 demos of Boombl4 and he also tracked Edward’s position. He compared them all, looked at the other players and gave us three options. In the end, the team decided to take Boombl4 because he’s more of a leader: Boombl4 talks a lot in the game, being both an entry-fragger and a lurk player. Not to mention, he’s not always at the forefront of the game.

You’ve been playing with Boombl4 for a month, what’s your first impression of him?

The first impression is that Boombl4 is very active and helps create a lot of space for the team, wherever we go, Boombl4 will create space. Boombl4 talks a lot, plays a lot and he’s always trying to improve every now and then. On scrim, Boombl4 has only one problem, he sometimes plays too aggressively after gaining an advantage, but that probably comes down to experience. I think Boombl4 will play much better after a month or two, just like electronic when they first joined.

In previous years, when the team competed in major tournaments almost every two weeks. This year, the team skipped several tournaments. How does that make you feel? Do you remember the feeling of playing in tournaments all the time?

I feel strange going into this tournament with the team. I see the top teams are very different, everyone is different, everyone behaves differently. I see the tweets and everything, I see those teams think they’re strong, but some are still at the same level as before. It was difficult because all the teams we met played in recent LAN tournaments. FURIA wins over Astralis, mousesports improvement process. I must say I am quite nervous. Two months without a tournament, adding new members, you don’t know what to expect. You try to stay calm, play focused like before, but sometimes you forget how focused you need to be because two months have passed.

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Like I said, he didn’t play much. On the rankings, the team dropped to 13th place and Na`Vi is no longer considered a candidate, but everyone expects the team to perform well. What did the team think when they arrived in Cologne?

Our goal and expectation is to play as many maps as possible, to gain experience and new members before the Major. We understand a lot that the team has been playing together for a long time and they have experience from previous events, and we are new to practice. But everyone knows that Na`Vi can win this tournament because it’s a completely different lineup. It could be the best Natus Vincere lineup ever. Of course, I think the 2016 lineup with Zeus, GuardiaN, seized is still the strongest, but I believe this time around can do better.

Let’s talk about the group stage, Na`Vi beat mousesports twice, BO1 then BO3 and made it through the losing bracket to enter the playoffs. Did you see what you did?

I think the team got off to a pretty bad start because everyone was nervous and didn’t know what to expect. The first game, we always lost every first round. After the opponent beat us in the first round, they shouted so loudly and we argued that we were tired of hearing them scream like that. We were winning backwards in scrim and knew how to counter them, and Boombl4 said, “Why are we here if we can’t come back?”. So everyone fought hard, played to their best, played freely and made a comeback, 16-14. It’s a difficult game. Mousesports think they’re better at Train thanks to their 11-0 winning streak. But the problem with mousesports was that they didn’t know that we practiced a lot and that was Na`Vi’s strongest map.

Speaking of everything that happened, Na`Vi could have gone undefeated in the group stage, especially the game Liquid. Let’s talk about the knife situation, because if that hadn’t happened, the team would have won Dust2, won 2-0…how do you look back on that situation?

I don’t know, I just want knife because I just want to. I know nitr0 won’t check behind, I know he’ll jump to the left of the X-box, but when I look at the top mid while nitr0 jumps… I hit it, and thought he had 45HP left, I don’t know for real Turns out it’s only 15. I don’t think they can come back, you know, we were much stronger than Liquid, the better team at Overpass, at Dust 2, and of course, Mirage didn’t go well…

People condemned this phase a lot, but it was just a mistake. I understand it was a mistake and won’t let it happen again. I really thought I was going to win that 1v3, I saw Boombl4, electronic, me… Really unlucky round, and really sad for me. Same thing with coldzera on Cobblestone, that game doesn’t matter. After that game, I said to everyone: “Sorry everyone, we were stronger, but unlucky at Mirage, and I think the team deserves to be in the playoffs. I apologize for not allowing the team to advance to the playoffs.” I think that’s the biggest mistake, that you don’t let your team into the playoffs. The team understood they had a chance to kill nitr0, but it was a team game, and what happened already happened, I’m glad the team responded at Overpass. It’s one of the strongest maps for the opponent, with a win rate of 88% pre-match, and we simply played better. Liquid has a comeback, but overall it’s a great game. I’m so sorry about the knife situation.

At the end of the conversation, one of the recent players compared to him is ZywOo. You fought Vitality once, at the last Major, but what do you think of ZywOo?

I think ZywOo is closer to my level than any pro. He moves smart, does a lot of what I’m doing, and I can easily see that. I just need more experience at LAN, and he already has a lot at ECS, cs_summit…I think he’s playing really well and just needs to stay at his current form. ZywOo should not be relaxed, never should be, even if the team is winning. He should always be ready. I wish ZywOo luck, he’s at a good level. ZywOo is actually the only player I’ve seen that plays very smart, and not the kind of intelligence you need to outplay your opponent, but rather smart in gameplay, nade, flash usage. It’s hard to explain, but that’s what I see.

Do you get more motivated when you see a player like that? Does that motivate you more so that ZywOo doesn’t catch up with you? Of course you still want to stay as the best player in the world?

I understand it’s going to be difficult for him to catch up with me if I’m in top form all the time, if I’m playing a lot – and I usually do. But I understand there will be more players like him soon because the game is getting bigger and bigger and all the players need to do better.

They need to understand that they need to quit continuously 12 or 15 hours a day, like every sport, football, basketball. You need to put all your time into what you want to improve. If you want to improve nade, you need to go to an empty map, if you want to improve aim skill, you need to play aim_botz, deathmatch. If you want to practice wallbang, you need to train server, turn on sv_cheats 1 to see if wallbang can. Figure out what nades need to retake, after the bomb situation, and you need to practice this way, all the time. And only then can you be better. And after all, you have teammates that you need to understand, you also need to help them get better, correct their mistakes, and upgrade yourself and become better. With more experience, more skill, more players will like Counter-Strike.