Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, a world-renowned 24-year-old Ukrainian professional CS:GO player from Natus Vincere, spoke to the audience about the war in his country ahead of the IEM Katowice 2022 tournament.
Ukrainian CS:GO player s1mple’s speech at IEM Katowice 2022:
“Hello, everybody. First of all, I don’t have much to say, but I want you to know that esports is out of politics. And there’s nothing all you players, players from other teams, can do about the decisions of the state. Throughout my career I have played with Ukrainian, Russian and American players and they were all decent people. Right now, I’m standing with my friends, my real friends. We win together and we lose together. We all want peace for Ukraine and the whole world. We’re all scared. We need to show an example for the whole world in this tournament. We have to stick together with our friends, everyone who watches this tournament, and first and foremost we have to stay human. Thank you to everyone who came, I hope you have fun at the tournament.”
