s1mple: IEM Cologne 2022 analysis

Earlier, IEM Cologne 2022 ended. In the final duel, Natus Vincere faced FaZe Clan. At the end of the match, the team of Finn Andersen was stronger with a score of 3:2. Natus Vincere sniper was named the most valuable player of IEM Cologne 2022.

Tournament results

s1mple played 15 maps in a row, only three of which he finished with negative stats. The most productive for the player was map 1 of the semifinal against Astralis, in which he reached 1.8 snipe index. Ukrainian «wizard» was also statistically the best sniper on Mirage, Dust2, and Overpass maps. 

The comparison was conducted between players in the top-18 team rankings according to HLTV.org. s1mple has finished the German championship with an average individual rating of 1.25. s1mple became MVP of the IEM Cologne series tournaments for the third time in his career (2018, 2021, 2022). Then he became the best player on the professional stage at the end of the first half of the 2022 season.

Pro's ab s1mple 

Earlier, professional players answered the question of who they are afraid to pick during matches in 2022. Nemanja Kovacs named Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut. Peter Rasmussen named s1mple but clarified that he would also prefer ZywOo's candidacy but can't do it because Herbaut is his teammate.

G2 Esports captain Aleksi Virolainen immediately named the Ukrainian player. According to Finn, Kostyliev constantly holds the angles with AWP while always realizing clearly when they want to peak him and when someone tries to trick him and force a shot. Even if s1mple misses the first shot, he knows how to quickly retreat to safety and flick from there with his AWP. 

Virtus.Pro CS:GO lineup captain Dzhami Ali shared his opinion on Alexander. During the broadcast on Twitch, Ali noted that the Ukrainian cyber athlete is not only remarkable for talent but also a high ability to work. 

«Do talents exist? I think there are, but «s1mple» is also a hard worker. He has more hours (CS) than me by a couple thousand, maybe three thousand. And that's a year and a half of non-stop playing Counter-Strike».

Statistics

His shooting stats are awesome: 0.86 kills per round, first in the world, and by a distance: 54.6% of rounds with at least one frag. And here, Alexander's gap within the top 3 is not less impressive: the same Sk0r and Sh1ro are behind by 2% and 2.2%. 

K/D (ratio of kills to deaths) s1mple with 1.44 is the third after Sensei (1.45). Kostyliev is either first or second among the top three parameters related to kills. There is a problem - the NAVI sniper is regressing. Compared to 2021, he has dropped almost all his key stats: Kills - 0.02 (0.88 ➝ 0.86). K/D - by 0.03 (1.47 ➝ 1.44). Alexander's death index per round was unchanged at 0.60. KAST is up 1% (76% ➝ 75%).  

Entry-duels success is up 3.9% (66.3% ➝ 62.4%). The decline directly affects the results. Both in Antwerp and Cologne, NaVi lost a very close final, and s1mple was a shadow of his own. Nevertheless, there is still no one next to the NaVi star. He remains unreachable to all competitors and very rarely falls out of the top 2 in the rankings. Right now, s1mple is the absolute MVP of the year.