Who is s1mple?

• The 24-year-old Ukrainian is a stoic guy who has long been considered the best, or at least second-best, CS:GO player in the world. Over the years there’s always been discussions whether he’s the best or his rival, a Frenchman, but in 2021 s1mple won the world title and is currently ahead again.
• s1imple streams on the side on Twitch, is rarely seen there, but when he does stream, it’s an event. In one scene, he was still so caught up in the pro game that he forgot he was sitting alone in his pad. He was giving instructions to his pro teammates next to him, even though they weren’t there. He had a brief lapse and thought he was in a match. The Ukrainian has been banned several times on Twitch for using a word in his language that he thinks is perfectly okay, but which Twitch considers a nasty swear word.
• Yesterday, however, there was no joking and good humor. s1mple turned to the world public with pleading tweets. His homeland is under attack.

This is what s1imple tweeted yesterday:

Actually, s1mple has been in a great mood on Twitter lately: on February 21, he was still proudly showing off his award as the best CS:GO player in the world from HLTV.org. He showed pictures of himself and fellow players, joked and was in a good mood.

That changed abruptly with the escalation of the Ukraine conflict yesterday, Wednesday at noon. The first tweet was still, “This news tires me.”

Then he pleaded in Russian, “Please, please, stop, I can’t take it anymore, we all need peace.”

In the afternoon came the tweet: “They are dropping bombs on my city” – s1mple comes from Kiev.

Then, a few minutes ago, s1mple tweeted, “This is not Verdansk, this is reality – Don’t be fooled.” To this he showed a map of Ukraine, with Russia’s attacks drawn in.

Verdask is the map of “CoD Warzone”, a popular military shooter.

“We can’t pretend everything is okay – It’s not”.

That’s what his team says: s1mple plays for the world champion in CS:GO, Natus Vincere, a team consisting of 3 Russians and 3 Ukrainians. They too turn to their fans and say, “We can’t possibly pretend everything is okay now. It isn’t. We are devastated.”

Here’s how the reactions are:

The call in Russian to end the war has now received 70,000 likes and over 6,000 retweets. The tweet about bombs being dropped on Kiev has attracted even more attention.

Many wish s1mple that he and his family would be safe after all. People reassure each other that s1imple is in Katowice Poland right now, but generally there is an oppressive atmosphere on social media.

For many who follow CS:GO and gaming, Ukraine and Russia are far away. The fact that someone they know, like s1mple, is so directly affected by it makes it seem more real.