s1mple joins FaZe Clan ahead of CS2 Austin Major in a shocking roster move

In an unexpected move, FaZe Clan has officially added Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev to their CS2 roster. The announcement comes just weeks before the highly anticipated BLAST Austin Major 2025, and it has already taken the Counter-Strike community by storm. He has replaced Helvijs "broky" Smits on the team, who has faced criticism for inconsistent performances in recent months. While many fans are excited to see s1mple back on the server, this change brings a lot of questions, too.

On that note, here’s everything you need to know about the move and when you’ll see the new FaZe Clan roster play.

s1mple replaces broky in the CS2 FaZe Clan roster

The last two years have been very difficult for FaZe Clan. Even though they managed to reach the playoffs in several S-tier tournaments, their last big tournament win came in April 2024, when they beat MOUZ to win IEM Chengdu 2024, and since then, the roster has struggled to maintain consistency.

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One of the most criticized players during the 2024 and 2025 results has been broky. Once known for his calm yet amazing AWP skills, his performance has been steadily declining.

According to experts and fans alike, broky failed to deliver the level of impact FaZe needed in key moments. His rating throughout 2025 remained below average, and his decision-making often came into question. Thus, FaZe Clan had to make the difficult decision of benching him after playing for over 2,000 days together.

With broky stepping down, s1mple returns to the spotlight as an AWPer. While his legacy as one of the greatest Counter-Strike players ever is secure, his recent record has not been great.

Since the launch of Counter-Strike 2, s1mple has barely played a few tournaments. He briefly filled in for Team Falcons in 2024, but the run was disappointing, with the team not even qualifying in the playoffs for any event.

Due to this, many fans are unsure what to expect. However, fans won't have to wait very long to find out. The new FaZe Clan's first event will be the IEM Dallas 2025, starting on May 19, 2025. However, all eyes are on the BLAST Austin Major 2025, scheduled to start on June 2, 2025.

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About the author

Harshit Singh is a gaming journalist at Sportskeeda, with Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, and Marvel Rivals being his areas of specialization. A final-year B.Des (Visual Communication) student at Delhi Technological University, he is always eager to pursue creative endeavors. Harshit aims to deliver news and up-to-date content promptly to players around the globe. To that end, he acquires information from reliable forums and social media pages and religiously tracks the latest coverage of Fortnite — a game he has been playing since 2018. He is often found testing the new meta in-game or spectating competitive tournaments.

Harshit holds a deep love for video games, which stemmed from the hours he spent playing GTA Vice City, NFS Most Wanted 2005, FlatOut 2, and Total Overdose in his school days. Currently, he is veering towards story-driven, single-player games, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being one of his favorites.

Harshit is an ardent fan of esports titles like CS, Rocket League, and Valorant, with Fnatic, EDG, G2, and Astralis being a few of his favorite orgs. Counter-Strike pro Xantares and Benjifishy, an esports athlete who has mastered both Fortnite and Valorant, are inspirational figures for him.

Harshit works as a music producer under the alias Hysaze. He is extremely passionate about EDM and has garnered over 40 million streams across all platforms. He is also a regular contributor to Fandom’s EDM Wiki.

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