Counter Strike’s Greatest What Ifs: S1mple Stays in Team Liquid
One of the most fascinating characteristics of history for me personally has always been the concept of reverberatory effects. For me, the idea that the whole world could be dragged into an unprecedented conflict, the likes of which had never been seen before, due to the assassination of simply one man is utterly fascinating. Similarly, if I were to be forced to pick one moment in Counter-Strike history that I felt sent out ripples through time, then it would have to be S1mple’s departure from Team Liquid.
S1mple’s tenure in Team Liquid is one that began and ended, at least in esports terms, ages ago. At the time he was a precocious young star coming over to North America from the CIS. Even then, all that time ago, S1mple stood out from the pack in a multitude of ways. Not only was he viewed as one of the games best up and coming raw mechanical talents, only Niko at that time being viewed at his level, but he also constantly reached new levels of infamy within the scene for the outbursts of toxic behavior that he would exhibit due to his innate desire for victory. Despite his reputation as the Counter-Strike world’s deadliest double-edged sword, S1mple’s tenure in Team Liquid ended up being a complete success. It could be argued, with great validity, that it even functioned as the fuel that rocketed his career to the tier one scene. After all, how could Natus Vincere keep him out of the lineup anymore after he managed to hard carry Team Liquid, at a time when North American teams were deemed Atlassian level burdens, all the way to the finals of ESL Cologne while directly beating Natus Vincere in the quarterfinals?
This article is not intended as a disparagement at Natus Vincere, after all, Natus Vincereis where S1mple took a further step and truly cemented himself as the greatest CSGO player to ever exist. S1mple cemented himself as an esports deity under the veil of Na’Vi, putting up superhuman numbers that pretty much forced people to accept his greatness even when Na’Vi didn’t manage to fully cross the finish line. However, that inability to put those finishing touches on those tournaments has been almost a disease that has plagued them throughout S1mple’s tenure as well. Too often did S1mple find himself amongst the second-best team while performing like the best in the world.
The reason that the idea of S1mple staying on Team Liquid has become so tantalizing for me over time, happens to be one of the major factors in why S1mple left in the first place. This factor is Elige, the prodigiously talented star player of the current Team Liquid lineup. If one came into the Counter-Strike scene only recently one would not be remiss if they were unequipped with the prior knowledge that Elige and S1mple actually played together under the Liquid umbrella. In esports terms, 3 years can be a millennium, and both S1mple and Elige have had Hall of Fame level careers on teams without each other. Be that as it may, as a spectator of Counter-Strike, I can only imagine how history could have been changed forever should their personal relationship not have naturally destroyed their playing relationship.
Diverging Roads Blocked Off
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost
From the outsider’s perspective, one with no knowledge of intimate relationships but only of the innate skill displayed on a server, Elige and S1mple unequivocally took the path less traveled by when they set off on different paths. On those divergent roads, it is not like they longed for capable lieutenants after all S1mple has had Electronic taking on quite a few of the star rifle roles on Na’Vi, and in Elige’s case, he has had the pick of the litter of star North American riflers by his side. Notwithstanding all those capable talents, neither Elige’s nor S1mple’s team ever managed to obtain the holy grail that all CS professionals long for, the major trophy. Both of them found that the route was blocked off by a beast that was incapable of being slain by any one superstar, Astralis.
Astralis, during the time frame that Elige and S1mple solidified themselves as some of the greatest individual talents to ever touch the game, proceeded to establish themselves as the greatest Counter-Strike team of all time. The level of dominance and consistent excellence that Astralis exhibited for the amount of time that they did was absolutely unprecedented. In fact, it was so unprecedented that not only the most skilled lineup of all time, Team Liquid, was unable to break them but also the most skilled player ever in the form of S1mple.
While on this divergent road Astralis did block off Elige and S1mple’s path far too often, there can be an argument made that they also functioned as the fires of Mount Doom that actually helped forge these two into their present-day forms. After all, are men what shape the times or are the times what shape men?
Regardless this mammoth of an obstacle is precisely why I lament the fact that S1mple and Elige ever set off on different paths. My belief is that if they had stayed together then they would have had the capability to go down as the greatest duo of all time. If anything Elige would be able to slot in similarly as Electronic does currently in Navi, grabbing the star rifle roles and executing at a level perhaps even higher than Electronic, especially when given the liberty of playing alongside the greatest Awper ever.
If one considers the heights that S1mple and Elige did reach separately, at times making it to the grand finals of majors and even capturing the quickest Intel Grand Slam Title ever, it becomes clear that a sustained partnership could have been a duo that rivaled the likes of Forest and Getright in terms of longevity and peak skill. Alas, as occurs sadly too often across most of human history, these two phenomenally talented humans were unable to find a middle ground from which they could operate. The personal side of human relationships ultimately prevented us, as spectators, from seeing perhaps the greatest show that ever touched a Counter-Strike server.
Ripples Denied
An aspect of Counter-Strike history, that is generally underappreciated, is how much fortuitous chance actually played part in Astralis’s run to the top end of the scene. Far too often do we ignore ancillary map pool changes, an effect that completely alters how best of 3’s play out. Similarly another effect, that too often goes unmentioned, is the breaking up of the partnership of two of the most skilled Counter-Strike players ever.
One claim that I do not intend to make is that, should the partnership have continued, that S1mple and Elige’s skills would have definitely overcome Astralis and stopped them from firmly solidifying themselves as the greatest team of all time. However, the beauty of Counter-Strike, and competition in general, is that results are never predetermined and that every interaction between two competitors can be its own independent event. As such while I can’t pretend to be the Oracle of Delphi and predict exactly how it would all play out, I can say with absolute certainty that I would have preferred Counter-Strike go down a timeline where the duo never breaks up.
