Natus Vincere is reportedly about to swap s1mple, the greatest CS:GO<\/em> player ever, with Sprout’s young AWPer Ihor “\u2060w0nderful\u2060” Zhdano at the beginning of CS2’s<\/em> cycle.<\/p>
The upcoming roster change was reported<\/a> by HLTV on Oct. 26 and it comes after s1mple didn’t attend IEM Sydney<\/a>, the first big CS2<\/em> tournament, with the rest of the NAVI squad. The organization was forced to field its head coach Andrij “B1ad3” Ghorodensjkyj as a last-minute stand-in<\/a>.<\/p>
S1mple reportedly<\/a> missed IEM Sydney because his EU residency papers were not ready and he could have had trouble going back to Europe if he left for Sydney.<\/p>
Later on, though, s1mple said on stream he wasn’t sure he’d attend the BLAST Premier Fall Final, NAVI’s next tournament<\/a>. This prompted fans to think the Ukrainian superstar was on his way out of the lineup, which now seems to be the case, according to HLTV’s report.<\/p>
S1mple is under contract with NAVI until October 2025 as he signed a three-year extension in 2022<\/a> and isn’t close to joining another team, according to HLTV. The GOAT has been heavily criticizing the state of CS2<\/em><\/a>, to the point he advised aspiring pros to wait three months before grinding. One source with knowledge of s1mple’s situation told HLTV he’s taking a break from the game.<\/p>