A StarLadder referee who’s working at StarSeries i-League season eight this week reportedly shared information about Natus Vincere, one of the first CS:GO teams eliminated from the event.
This admin allegedly sent two messages to his Telegram group about Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s toxic behavior, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács tilting during matches, and Na’Vi’s coach Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy’s toxicity toward in-game leader Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov.
“S1mple is responsible for discipline, but he’s raging at teammates,” the referee said in the first message. “And everyone is afraid to stop him. GuardiaN tilts so much, he can’t kill. Trapped in this cycle.”
The referee also said that “B1ad3 made a pause and asked Boombl4 to start being a captain and not just a player.”
Regardless of whether this report is true, Na’Vi were seemingly lost during StarSeries i-League season eight. The Russians dropped their two matches to G2 and Heroic and they were visibly frustrated during them—especially s1mple.
Na’Vi’s former captain, Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, wasn’t playing at his best individual form when he retired after BLAST Pro Series Moscow in September. Many fans thought that Zeus was holding the team back. But if what the referee said is true, Zeus may have actually been keeping the squad together.
S1mple was known as a toxic player when he was young, but then he apparently changed his behavior, which led to him becoming the best CS:GO player in the world in 2018. But according to the StarLadder referee, s1mple might have gone back to his old habits.
The referee deleted his Telegram group and StarLadder hasn’t commented on the admin’s remarks at time of writing.