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Ukrainian CS: GO pro Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev followed up on his tweets on the Russia-Ukraine crisis with a sensational speech at the Playoffs stage of IEM Katowice 2022.
At the opening ceremony of the Intel Extreme Masters XVI Playoffs, s1mple addressed the crowd at the Spodek Arena in Poland with words of relief as his home country Ukraine was in a conflict with Russia.
S1mple's speech came as a reply to a fairly simple question from stage host Oliver James Borg D’Anastasi: "How are you, are you alright?" In this emotional address, the player tries to eliminate the feeling of hatred in the world of Esports brought about by politics.
He said:
"All of us want peace for Ukraine and the whole world. All of us [are] scared."
CS: GO star s1mple delivers a speech at IEM Katowice in light of the Russia-Ukraine crisis
Upon picking up the mic, s1mple emphasized on the dissociation between politics and Esports. Out of the 6 teams in the IEM Katowice playoffs, 4 teams have Ukrainian/Russian players in their squad.
"Esports is out of politics. All of our players, all the players from different teams and all of you have nothing to do with government decisions."
Throughout his speech, the player aimed to remove the seeds of hatred that the audience might retain for the players due to the actions of their country's government.
In one of his statements, he said:
"My whole career I've played with Ukrainian players, I've played with Russian players, and I've played with American players, and all of them great guys. Right now I stay with my friends, my real friends. We win together and lose together."
Over the course of his prolific CS: GO career, s1mple has played alongside players from various nationalities. The player reflected on his feelings of playing alongside Russian players in a Ukrainian team while a war between the two countries is in motion.
"All of us need to show example on this tournament for whole world. We need to stay together as a unit with our fans, our friends, and everyone who is going to watch this tournament. We all need to stay humans first."
He concluded the speech by reiterating his message of unity, kindly appealing to the audience to retain their humanity and eliminate all feelings of hatred for their fellow beings.
Despite the occurrences in the venue's neighboring state, IEM Katowice 2022 will proceed as planned. Natus Vincere is determined to fight against the best teams in CS: GO for a shot at an Intel Extreme Masters trophy.
NAVI is scheduled to face the winner of Virtus.pro vs G2 Esports in the semifinals on Saturday, February 26 at 9:30 AM ET/ 8:00 PM IST.
