s1mple is donk’s GOAT, but who is s1mple’s?

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 29/08/2025

In an interview with BLAST, Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets revealed that Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev was his personal preference for GOAT in the longstanding comparison between the Ukrainian AWPer and France’s Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut.

“Everyone chooses the GOAT that he likes,” the Russian prodigy said, “We can take ZywOo as the most stable player in CS. We can take s1mple as the player with the highest peak of all time. I like them both. I like that s1mple was a huge difference maker in NAVI, and I also like the fact that ZywOo is super stable. So it’s a hard question.”

Ultimately, the entry demon concluded, “I think I would like to choose s1mple, because I remember watching him play and hard carrying NAVI back in 2018, so he inspired me to play CS seriously.”

Of his own credentials, while many have stated that donk is already the greatest rifler in Counter-Strike history, the Spirit rifler concluded that he needs greater achievements to be in the conversation for overall greatest, stating, “I think I need time and results. I want to become the most titled player in CS”

GOATs upon GOATs: s1mple’s idols

One of the greatest aspects of Counter-Strike is that it now has a 25-year history to pull history and inspiration from.

In that sense, we can see not only who inspired donk, but who inspired who inspired donk? s1mple may be regarded as the CSGOAT, and potentially the greatest of all time in Counter-Strike generally, but who inspired him?

There are actually multiple answers, with s1mple describing at least three players as his “idol.”

It is no surprise that the first player s1mple used that term for was fellow Ukrainian, Yegor ‘markeloff’ Markelov, tweeting “he will always stays my idol in this game”.

markeloff is considered one of the best CS 1.6 players of all time, alongside legends such as Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski and Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg

His explosive AWPing style was hugely influential, compatible in style and speed with later players such as Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub or Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov.

s1mple played alongside markeloff from 2014-2015 in Hellraisers, dAT Team and FlipSid3 Tactics where he also played under current NaVi coach Andrii ‘B1ad3’ Horodenskyi as IGL.

While their time together wasn’t always harmonious, s1mple’s respect for markeloff remained and was displayed in his tweet naming markeloff as his idol.

In 2017, s1mple named Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács as another idol, stating, “He was my idol, like inspiration, when I came [to NaVi’].” Regarded as one of the best players ever to never win a major, GuardiaN was named HLTV’s 2nd best player of 2015 in a year which saw NaVi win several Tier 1 trophies.

Yet s1mple’s comments regarding GuardiaN did not come from a happy context. s1mple made the statement in an interview in which he expressed disappointment with GuardiaN’s attitude.

In the interview, s1mple claimed that GuardiaN missed bootcamps and lied to the press about the team, undercutting team morale. In the end, s1mple concluded, “You know man, I always dream to play with Guardian and NaVi in one team and that happened and, sometimes, you just stop believe in this dream because, you see the true side of people.”

s1mple named another idol in 2018, in an AMA exchange between s1mple and then NaVi DotA 2 player Idan ‘MagicaL’ Vardanian, s1mple was asked, “Who was your idol when you started playing?”, naming NiP legend f0rest.

So there you have it, the future GOAT’s GOAT’s GOATs. s1mple did not appear from a vacuum, nor did donk. They are products of Counter-Strike’s incredible heritage.

donk will undoubtedly go on to inspire his own generation of aggressively rifling acolytes who will again push the boundaries of what is possible.

I love this game.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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