The whole scene is out to get s1mple. That won’t stop his return.
I'm yearning for the return of the most divisive, arrogant best player in history.
Nothing draws eyes like a comeback story. Perhaps the most resounding story in sports history is of a comeback into a three-peat. We may be about to see s1mple make one of similar proportions for our game. But not because he is a loved player, beloved by everyone. That is what you may hear, the truth is wildly different.
What s1mple showed in his FaZe’s debut match against Liquid is likely to go under the radar. His stats were not monstruous, but he looked like old s1mple again. I remind all readers that a lot of the community, including some giants of the scene, were convinced he would never show his true level again. With this player, known for his toxicity, people were quick to turn on him, somewhat justifiably so. Even though he showed redeeming qualities later in his career, even heroism by being one of the only CS players to take an unpopular public stance on anything political, let us not forget s1mple has been one of the villains of CS through and through.
He is the player that called Adam ‘friberg’ Friberg an “old faggot” on stream without provocation. He did get banned by ESL in 2015 for making a racist comment against Germans. He did cause drama on Team Liquid by being a terrible, outspoken teammate insulting all players beneath him, leading to his benching.
Even well after his “redemption arc”, he repeatedly grilled a young teammate of his in interviews, tacitly implying he wasn’t good enough. This isn’t even scratching the surface – which explains why the whole scene is out to get him and say he’s not good enough. And it’s also going to make it the biggest bombshell in CS history, if and when he does return to form.
The FaZe-Liquid series @ IEM Dallas 2025
Even though s1mple has been out of the game since late 2023, what we saw in this series was, shockingly, a return to normality for s1mple in more ways than one. Actually, it’s inaccurate to say that he was out of the game, as the game he got out of was a different one: CS:GO. Now we’re in CS2. So s1mple has to overcome, first, his ring rust of not playing professionally for over a year[1], something that has already disqualified most players in history from ever coming back. Second, he has to become competent at a new game, one whose concepts are identical to CS:GO, but has mechanical and format[2] differences that have reduced the skill gap between teams and players alike. Remember, even a 1% difference in ability between pro players can make a decisive difference.
Taking all of that into account, what we saw from s1mple in this series was definitely heartening. People in the community are refraining from saying that for a simple reason: FaZe didn’t win. If s1mple had just had a little bit more help from the likes of EliGE and skullz, they might have won this series, in which case, everybody would be singing s1mple’s praises. However, I make it a point to celebrate his performance independently of the result of the series.
The S1mple we all know (and love?)
What is more s1mple than seeing him facepalm after seeing his team lose the round after he made a great play? We saw that repeatedly in the series yesterday, with people like EliGE and karrigan. S1mple, facepalming at EliGE and karrigan in 2025. S1mple had a weak start to Ancient, but soon started to put the team on his back when he saw that they weren’t cutting it holistically. He made the game individual. Rotating audaciously across the map and going for unfavorable fights all the time. He singlehandedly carried Inferno, trusting himself to hit insane flicks, and often hitting them.
This series was already reflective of the flaws of s1mple as well. Though he put the team on his back, it is famously hard to get this guy working as a team. The only time it really happened was in the Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) of 2021, besides that he always had to be the hard carry of his team, and even in 2021 the agency he had in the game was impossible to overestimate. It seemed like he was the key to every play that Na’Vi made – he was always the ace in the hole to activate – either as the AWPer in a CT Nuke setup or as the trade fragger executing onto B-site Inferno. He was a part of everything – because he inserted himself there – and that is a double-edged sword. It seemed yesterday that we were watching s1mple trying to carry FaZe to victory instead of the other way around.
The best joke about s1mple would be about his two-time teammate: He makes EliGE look like a team player.
If we contrast s1mple with ZywOo, the latter is a swiss army knife. He will fit in anywhere his team needs to. This means that you don’t have to walk on eggshells in order to get him to do what the team needs. S1mple is the total opposite in this sense: he can do everything but good luck convincing him that your way is the right way.
That is the challenge that Finn ‘karrigan‘ Andersen has to contend with, but he is the ultimate caller to take on this task (See this section of my video to understand why). Strap in folks, we may be in for another IEM Sydney 2018 and Katowice 2022 at Austin.
The Potential for a Four-Way Rivalry
All of this to say that it took just one series to show flashes of old s1mple again. Things that everybody knows in the heart and mind to be part of s1mple’s identity. Though everybody criticizes him (envies him) when he’s at large, and doubts him (hopes he doesn’t make it back) when he’s off his game, deep down everybody wants to see him again. He adds that spark of eccentricity to the mix.
And this is not to throw shade at people like ZywOo and donk for not being entertaining enough (though they ought to be considering how skilled they are). S1mple’s inclusion in the mix with them enhances the whole thing. The contrasts between him and ZywOo are endless, like the endless quarrel between heroes and villains, and donk and m0NESY are there to be the jokers in the mix, ruining their recurring story.
Overall, s1mple’s return has enormous potential to shake up the scene, and create one of those bombshells that occur only when we see multiple generational talents at once, akin to rivalry we saw between Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid with the two best players of their generation on either side. Esports rarely has rivalries like these, and I implore CS fans to fully enjoy and appreciate what they see if s1mple comes back.
[1] S1mple did play CS2 briefly with Team Falcons, when he was loaned in 2024 to qualify for the PW Shanghai Major.
[2] The switch to MR12 from MR15, for instance.