Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, who is standing in for FaZe Clan at IEM Dallas 2025, has had the best performance of his career in CS2 on May 20 against BC.Game.
The Ukrainian superstar delivered 21 kills while dying only six times in the match that FaZe beat BC.Game by 13-4 on Anubis, and eliminated them from IEM Dallas 2025. This almighty +15 K/D led to s1mple getting an HLTV Rating of 2.23—the 10th highest of his entire career across both CS2 and CS:GO.
This super performance comes at a time when the community is still uncertain if s1mple will ever peak as high in CS2 as he did in CS:GO years ago. The Ukrainian is well-regarded as the best player to touch CS:GO ever, but he barely played CS2 in comparison to other pros.
After all, s1mple went on an indefinite break in 2023, and only stood in for Falcons and now FaZe rather than playing full-time. However, now that s1mple is having a good tournament at IEM Dallas, many are calling him the “GOAT” again after some of his plays went viral on social media yesterday.
FaZe are by far the most popular team at IEM Dallas 2025 thus far because of s1mple. Credit: Helena Kristiansson | © ESL
Even though we’re only at the early stages of IEM Dallas, many fans, especially Ukrainians and Europeans in general, are tuning in to watch s1mple’s games.
According to EsportsCharts’ data, s1mple had a huge impact on FaZe’s viewership at IEM Dallas thus far. The FaZe vs. Team Liquid match in the opening round peaked at 789,219 viewers, and the FaZe’s series against BC.Game peaked at 547,268 viewers.
These numbers are not usual at all for group stage matches in CS2 esports, as a lot of fans only have time to watch the playoffs, which usually take place during weekends.
However, it seems that fans missed s1mple after he spent months away from competition. It also helps him that FaZe is one of the most popular organizations in CS2, having lifted many trophies over the past years.
s1mple is having fun playing with FaZe Clan at IEM Dallas 2025. Credit: © ESL
Right after FaZe defeated BC.Game at IEM Dallas yesterday, s1mple left a message for the fans and asked them to keep supporting the team.
“Hey, what’s up guys, I hope you enjoyed the game against BC.Game,” s1mple said.
“Finally, I won a best-of-three since, I don’t know, two years? I’m glad that we played so good on the CT side of Anubis. We finally played a map we’ve been practicing with skullz, we practiced only three maps, but still, we finally picked Anubis, and tomorrow is an important day. We need your support, so hopefully tomorrow, we’ll qualify for the playoffs.”
FaZe still need to win two more best-of-threes to reach the playoffs and play in front of the crowd. They’ll face HEROIC today, and whoever win will progress to play against the winner of Liquid vs. Aurora.
S1mple hasn’t played an arena match since Gamers8 2023 in Saudi Arabia, so reaching the IEM Dallas 2025 playoffs would be extra special for him.
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
EN Global 
JP 日本語