s1mple leaves NAVI to join BC.Game: "I just want to play"

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev has departed Natus Vincere after nearly nine years to sign with BC.Game this Monday, July 28th — a move so shocking that nobody could have predicted it. He'll fill the void left open by the benching of Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson in June.

Many fans thought that s1mple would spend another season on NAVI's bench after FaZe didn't buy him out of the contract following the BLAST.tv Austin Major.

But, s1mple said in a personal statement that he "just wants to play", even if it means joining a "tier-three team", alluding to what his former coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy said in an interview with HLTV earlier this year.

Dobby is free. I just want to play, BC.Game gave me the chance, and they’re serious about building a top-tier team. Let’s see what moves we make and how I can impact things. Maybe some things will change, maybe not - only results will show.

One wise man said, if you want to comeback on tier-one scene, you need to join tier-three team. I haven’t done anything for 2 years, it’s time to change that, can’t waste/lose game time sitting on bench.

This move to BC.Game officially marks the end of s1mple's era in NAVI. The Ukrainian superstar joined the organization in August 2016 and went on to lift 17 notable trophies, including the PGL Stockholm Major and the Intel Grand Slam Season 3 in 2021.

During this time, s1mple was also named the Best Player of the Year by HLTV in 2018, 2021, and 2022.

This year, it became clear that s1mple would never return to NAVI's starting lineup and that the organization would let him leave at the end of the year, when the contract expired, unless someone was willing to pay the buyout.

Out of all teams, BC.Game is the one who chose to put their chips on s1mple. And, by all looks of it, the casino-backed organization will try to rebuild around the Ukrainian. They're currently ranked 66th in global VRS, so they don't have the need to hold on to their points too much.

BC.Game are:

• Luca "pr1metapz" Voigt

• Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković

• Aleksandar "⁠CacaNito⁠" Kjulukoski

• Oleksandr "s1mple⁠" Kostyliev

• Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad (Inactive)