FaZe Clan co-owner confirms that s1mple's transfer almost happened

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, HLTV's pick for World No 1 in 2018 and World No 2 in 2019, nearly moved to FaZe Clan, though when exactly this happened is unclear.

This news had been a matter of speculation for years until one of FaZe Clan's co-owners confirmed it on his YouTube channel this month.

s1mple is widely considered one of the greatest players to touch CS: GO. He is known for being remarkably consistent and single-handedly pulling his team across the finish line on multiple occasions.

A member of the Natus Vincere lineup since August 2016, s1mple has officially been on the CIS roster for over four years now, but not without turmoil.

The s1mple to Faze near-move comes as less of a shock than the 2018 discussions of his move to MIBR alongside teammate Egor "flamie" Vasilyev.

Na'Vi blocked this move with a ridiculous buyout of $1.2 million for the duo, effectively killing the deal and any roster move following it.

When s1mple almost moved to FaZe Clan

On 7th December 2020, FaZe Clan co-owner Yousef "Apex" Abdelfattah uploaded a video titled "5 People Who ALMOST Joined FaZe Clan..." on his YouTube channel.

Around the 11:55 minute mark, Apex had the following to say about s1mple's potential signing with FaZe Clan:

"The next person is an esports legend as well one of the best Counter-Strike players in the world, s1mple. If you know Counter-Strike, you know s1mple; if you don't, you're missing out. One of the best Counter-Strike players in the world, there was a point of time where he was almost going to join FaZe as well, like actually was a real discussion that also, cause of business reasons just didn't end up happening."

Shedding light on how the potential deal almost went down, he added:

"He (s1mple) reached out to a FaZe member, wanted to join FaZe, and who's not interested in s1mple, it was a mutual interest, and it just didn't end up working out. I thought that would be another crazy legend that would have joined FaZe, s1mple."

While this confirms that s1mple to FaZe was almost a reality, the time frame when it happened is unknown. Whether it was in 2018, when MIBR nearly poached s1mple and Flamie, or during FaZe Clan's tumultuous era right after Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer's departure, is a matter of speculation.