FaZe Clan pulled the plug on the quintessential feast-or-famine player, broky. In the Latvian’s stead will be s1mple, stepping in to fill the role at IEM Dallas 2025 and the BLAST Austin Major. This is a sinking ship adding a first mate who may have been one of the finest in history but has been ashore for the last six months. Desperation is meeting a questionable hunger.
Despite being the greatest player to ever grace Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, s1mple did not have the most straightforward route to cementing his legacy. According to HLTV, s1mple logged serious time with four different teams during CS:GO (HellRaisers, FlipSid3, Liquid, and Natus Vincere). However, if you look at all his time standing in for rosters (not including showmatches), he’s played for at least 16 teams. This essay will zoom in on some of the most memorable stand-in moments of his career, which has spanned over a decade.
When looking at HLTV match histories for players, the instability of rosters may look alarming, but what future historians and fans need to realize is that it is entirely normal for players to bounce around the lower divisions of Counter-Strike as their hunger drives them from team to team in pursuit of proving themselves among a sea of talent. No one will notice you if you’re the best player on a team that doesn’t even make it to Closed Qualifiers. Proving yourself must be done against the highest level of opposition, and the only way to get a crack at that level is by standing out on a team that can at least support your talent.
For example, junior (of former FURIA and Complexity fame) had his second-ever official match on a 5-man stack that I put together with other players in our ESEA Main Division. We got destroyed by cadiaN and Hiko’s Rogue 16-1 back in 2017. I never played with junior again. s1mple has numerous instances of these types of stand-in situations for online cups. I will not be focusing on those.
s1mple’s first notable stand-in situation was with HellRaisers in September of 2014, as they tried him out in place of AdreN. Across FACEIT League EU Season 2 and GameShow CS:GO League, s1mple played four Bo1s with HellRaisers before they added the Ukrainian prodigy on a full-time basis. In these four Bo1s, HellRaisers went 2-2, but s1mple posted a 1.13 average (Rating 1.0). He was the highest-rated player on the team during his short stand-in tenure. In HLTV’s article welcoming s1mple, ANGE1 was quoted as saying that s1mple “looks like an ambitious player, and I am sure the quality of our team will improve.”
HLTV’s World Ranking was not available at that time, but over the next three months, s1mple and HellRaisers were able to defeat NiP, Cloud9, Fnatic, Titan, and Virtus.pro. Following his time with HellRaisers, he began playing with FlipSid3 Tactics. Within four months, s1mple famously said after EWC 2015 that he would never play with B1ad3 again. Down 14-1, B1ad3 had a defuse kit and a smoke in a 1v1 and never smoked or stuck the bomb on a pistol round. s1mple once again stood in for HellRaisers and rejoined them following this.
Ironically enough, one of the most impactful stand-in situations surrounding s1mple was not him playing for another team but an American playing alongside him. Hiko joined FlipSid3 in s1mple’s final event with the organization at EWC 2015. The two built a lifelong friendship, which resulted in s1mple joining Team Liquid.
In February of 2016, s1mple signed with Liquid, backed by a strong vouch from Hiko. After just two months, s1mple left Liquid, with the organization citing “internal issues and severe homesickness.” After only a month away from the team, he returned as a stand-in to replace American adreN. It’s actually comical that two of the most important stand-in moments in s1mple’s career were both replacing AdreN and adreN. His first event back with Liquid was the ECS Season 1 Finals in London, which led to an uneventful group stage exit.
History was made at his following and final event with Liquid as a stand-in. At ESL Cologne 2016, s1mple carried Liquid through their Quarterfinal and Semifinal playoff matches versus Na’Vi and Fnatic. Play-by-play caster Dinko recently pointed out that the last time s1mple stood in at a Major (at ESL Cologne 2016), he had a graffiti moment with the falling noscope Cache 1v2 against Fnatic. This play brought Liquid over the line, marking the first time a North American core ever made it to the Grand Finals of a Major. Unfortunately, the journey did not have its fairy tale ending, as the Brazilian SK were able to claim their second Major in a row in convincing 2-0 fashion.
Despite a lengthy period of stability with Na’Vi, s1mple had several stand-in appearances with NIP, MOUZ, and Falcons. “Ninjas in Pyjamas s1mple” does not look like a phrase I should ever be reading, but the tweet from s1mple was as concise as: “Gonna play for @NiPGaming as a stand-in today” (June 8, 2017). He and flamie both joined for a single day of play as Na’Vi was not attending ECS Season 3 Europe. There was never an official statement from NIP regarding this stand-in, but the circulating rumor was that friberg and f0rest were attending a music festival. s1mple dropped a 1.40 (Rating 2.0) average across both maps and beat G2 in the two Bo1s. He was the highest-rated player on average across both maps.
s1mple’s other notable stand-in situation in CS:GO was with MOUZ. Both times he filled in, he was still under contract with Na’Vi (he’s technically still under contract with Na’Vi as of the time of writing). He played one day of the LOOT.BET Cup 2 cs_summit 2 Qualifier in 2017, standing in for Czech AWPer oskar. MOUZ used multiple stand-ins in this tournament, notably dennis, lmbt, and s1mple. He played two Bo3s, winning both with the highest average rating among teammates suNny, ropz, chrisJ, and STYKO. I could not find any reason as to why he stood in for MOUZ here, but it seems oskar was unable to attend the qualifier.
However, s1mple filled in a second time for MOUZ at ECS Season 5 Europe in April of 2018. This was for STYKO, who was advised by doctors to get rest. In what is a rare historical moment, suNny actually had a higher rating across the two winning maps than s1mple — the first of these instances where s1mple was not the highest-rated player while standing in for a legitimate organization. suNny had a 1.54 vs s1mple’s 1.53 across both maps.
Excluding a Bo3 in the LOOT.BET Smack My Beach Cup with “cats,” it would be nearly six years (2,155 days) before s1mple stood in again. This time it was under a loan to Falcons at the online Thunderpick World Championship 2024. Across this event, ESL Challenger Katowice 2024, and the Perfect World Shanghai RMR, s1mple would win only two of 13 maps with a dysfunctional Falcons squad. However, s1mple posted a 1.06 (Rating 2.1) with an impressive 80.9 damage per round.
Even though s1mple’s last stand-in situation netted zero wins, there is something fanatical—something religious—that is invoked when he joins the server. FaZe is a desperate team going for a “Hail Mary,” as quoted by karrigan, looking for answers. There is zero proof that s1mple’s addition to FaZe will change their trajectory, but their games with him wielding the sniper will be the most discussed at Austin.
