NAVI Debuts ‘S1mple Formula’ Counter-Strike Documentary
With nearly 20 years of competitive history, Counter-Strike may be one of the longest running esports titles in the FPS genre. Going as far back as the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) with teams like Team 3D and the Counter-Strike 1.6 SK Gaming squad, Counter-Strike has history, and so does its players. Heck, Counter-Strike even had one of the first franchised esports leagues with the Championship Gaming Series of the late 2000s, complete with Playboy Mansion player draft and everything.
Other documentaries have chosen Counter-Strike as their subject matter, like Valve’s Counter-Strike: A Brief History or the CTV’s investigative documentary ‘First Person Shooter,’ which was actually made by CS pro shaGuar’s dad (I’m really showing my age here). However, as we enter the modern era of multiplayer gaming, new players and personalities have emerged. Aleksander ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, arguably the most talented CSGO player in the world right now, now finds himself the focus of S1mple Formula, a documentary created by esports organization NAVI about the Ukrainian player’s historic career in Counter-Strike.
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The Navi documentary interview various CSGO personalities about moments in S1mple’s career, going all the way back to his days competing at Kiev’s Cyberarena, the ground zero for much of CIS’ Counter-Strike, Dota, and World of Tanks competition. The documentary interviews players like Zeus, dev1ce, Hiko, and B1ad3. The documentary doesn’t shy away from S1mple’s personality issues, touching on his toxicity and scandals, such as when he was banned from ESL CSGO events for something he did back in the 1.6 days. Perhaps the most interesting interviews in the documentary are with S1mple’s family, who help create an image of S1mple not simply as a player, but as a son, brother, and as a young person chasing his dreams in a foreign country.
Be sure to check out the documentary on NAVI’s CSGO YouTube channel or to the right while you still can, as the organization has teased that they plan to release more parts of the documentary on Netflix. If that happens, then NAVI’s documentary or documentary series will join Valve’s Free to Play, a documentary about the journeys of three Dota players, Danil ‘Dendi’ Ishutin, Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis, and Benedict ‘hyhy’ Lim as they compete for the first International tournament for Dota 2.
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