The CS:GO GOAT will miss the first tournament in the CS2 era of Counter-Strike esports. According to a release from his team, NAVI, s1mple will not be attending IEM Sydney, with team coach B1ad3 filling in to round out the roster. According to Dexerto’s Luís Mira, the issue has to do with his EU residency papers.
While NAVI’s statement is barebones, the alleged explanation makes sense. If s1mple were to head to the event without sorting out these bureaucratic matters, there’s a chance he would not be able to get back into the EU—an unthinkable prospect right now for a multitude of reasons. While B1ad3 isn’t new to the professional server, he has not played at this level since his days with FlipSid3 Tactics and has to be seen as a significant downgrade.
Considering some of the things s1mple has said about the state CS2 is in, a little bit of a break is a good thing for him. The stellar AWPer has a lot of problems with the game and culminated his feelings by saying, “don’t play this shit game [right now],” citing the immense amount of bugs and absurdly bad servers in the game. The online experience is certainly different than the LAN experience, but with such an unstable build online, you can expect many bugs and glitches in the first days of IEM Sydney.
Moreover, s1mple’s tilting streak has arguably returned, with NAVI underperforming heavily in the final days of CS:GO. Again, this break may not be a bad idea if all of these frustrations are bubbling over inside the team and in the server itself.
It doesn’t matter if s1mple makes the first CS2 tournament or not: He’s still one of the greatest CS players of all time, and he’ll have many a chance to fight for glory in CS2, including the first CS2 Major that’s beginning to appear on the horizon, set for March 2024.
