s1mple Endures Worst BO3 Tournament of His Career: A Rare Collapse at IEM New York 2020 CIS

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has spent most of his career building a case as the greatest Counter-Strike player of all time. HLTV once described him as “the first three-time Player of the Year,” underlining a run of dominance that has rarely been matched in esports.
But even the game’s most celebrated star has had dark days – and one of the bleakest came at IEM New York 2020 CIS, in a best-of-three series that still stands out as one of the worst full BO3 performances of his professional career.

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Virtus.pro series that exposed a rare weakness

The low point arrived in the semi-final against Virtus.pro, where NAVI were swept 2-0 on Inferno and Mirage and knocked out of the tournament short of the grand final.

According to data compiled by CSGO.com, s1mple finished the series with an HLTV rating of 0.78, posting 0.73 on Inferno and 0.84 on Mirage. The site notes that it was “the worst individual index of the Ukrainian in a BO3 match since March 2017,” when he recorded the same 0.78 rating versus Astralis at IEM Katowice.

For a player whose name is practically synonymous with 1.30+ ratings at big events, seeing him anchored below 0.80 over a full series was almost surreal. HLTV’s match statistics show Virtus.pro repeatedly punishing NAVI on Banana control on Inferno and winning key clutches on Mirage, leaving even s1mple stranded without his usual impact.

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Context: a rough event despite strong numbers

The semi-final collapse came at the end of a turbulent campaign for NAVI at IEM New York 2020 CIS. The team’s run included:

• A convincing win over K23 in the opening group match.

• Painful group-stage losses to forZe and Virtus.pro, which forced NAVI into a tougher playoff path.

• A solid quarter-final victory against Gambit, where NAVI stabilized and set up a rematch with VP.

Individually, though, s1mple’s tournament was far from disastrous on paper. Over 15 maps at the event he averaged a 1.14 rating, according to CSGO.com – a mark that would be considered a star performance for almost any other player.

That contrast is part of what makes the Virtus.pro series so jarring: in an otherwise respectable tournament, the semi-final saw him post a historically low BO3 rating for the first time in over three years, in a high-pressure match where NAVI needed him most.

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How rare is a series like this for s1mple?

To understand how far this performance sits from the norm, it’s enough to look at a few career benchmarks:

• Across recent months in CS2, s1mple still hovers around a 1.20+ rating with elite scores in firepower and sniping metrics on HLTV’s player profile.

• In his 2022 Top-20 article, HLTV highlighted that his worst event of that year, BLAST World Final, still saw him average 1.10 – a floor most pros never consistently reach.

• Even later “off” series, such as his 0.87 rating in a Major playoff loss to FURIA at IEM Rio 2022, were framed as unusually poor because they sat so far below his standard.

Against that backdrop, a 0.78 series rating at IEM New York 2020 CIS isn’t just a bad day at the office; it’s a statistical outlier in a decade-long sample of tier-one Counter-Strike.

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Analysts and community reaction

Analysts at the time were quick to point out that Virtus.pro’s meteoric rise played a huge part in NAVI’s downfall. The CIS squad, powered by YEKINDAR’s hyper-aggressive entry style and Jame’s late-round calling, went on an extended winning streak that included the IEM New York 2020 CIS trophy and a run of more than a dozen consecutive series victories.

Community discussion focused on how unusually flat s1mple looked under pressure. On forums and social media, fans highlighted that this was the first time since early 2017 that he had played an entire BO3 at such a low rating, with some threads describing it as “the only way to beat NAVI – completely neutralise s1mple.” That narrative gained traction because NAVI actually produced decent performances from other pieces in several maps during the tournament, making the star AWPer’s drop-off even more visible.

At the same time, many analysts urged caution in overreacting. They pointed to the fact that, across the event, s1mple still topped the team’s rating charts and maintained star-level impact – backing up the idea that even on a “bad” event he remained NAVI’s primary win condition.

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The bigger picture: GOATs have bad days too

In hindsight, the IEM New York 2020 CIS semi-final is often cited as a reminder that even the greatest struggle. It sits alongside a handful of other rare outliers in s1mple’s career, but his body of work before and after that event dwarfs those dips:

• Multiple Major MVP-level runs and a Major title with NAVI.

• Three HLTV Player of the Year awards and a permanent place in the conversation for greatest CS player of all time.

If anything, the Virtus.pro series has become a statistical footnote that highlights his consistency. When your “worst” BO3 over years of top-tier Counter-Strike still leaves you averaging a positive K-D in the event and a 1.14 rating overall, it only reinforces how far above the field your usual level is.

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Conclusion

Framed against his legendary peak, IEM New York 2020 CIS remains one of the few tournaments where s1mple truly looked mortal in a best-of-three playoff. The 0.78 rating against Virtus.pro equalled his lowest BO3 mark since 2017 and marked one of the very few times in his career where he was statistically outplayed from start to finish in a series.

Yet the broader story is less about a fall from grace and more about the volatility of elite competition. Virtus.pro were in the middle of their own breakout run; NAVI were experimenting and struggling for consistency. For s1mple, it was a rare misstep in a career defined by jaw-dropping highs – a reminder that even the GOAT has tournaments he’d rather forget, before inevitably bouncing back to dominate the server once again.