His Ace versus Renegades also won him the second place in the Play of the Year category.
S1mple won the Esports player of the Year at the Esports Awards after what has been one of the best years in history for Natus Vincere. S1mple was the MVP of the recently concluded PGL Stockholm Major.
NAVI has been on a tear in 2021 (and in fact right through 2020 as well). The team culminated its fabulous season with an Intel Grand Slam win earlier this year. They also won the PGL Stockholm Major, which was the biggest CSGO event in history with a $2 million prize pool.
S1mple was the MVP at the PGL Stockholm Major. With a 1.47 rating through the ten maps in the event, but as is the case with champions he is not content.
"But I'd be happy with a few more Majors and one more Intel Grand Slam. To become the first team to win two Grand Slams."
Here are the nominees for the Esports Player of the Year.
- Heo ‘ShowMaker’ Su
- Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev
- Jae-won ‘LIP’ Lee
- Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo
- Kim ‘Doinb’ Tae-sang
- Wang ‘Ame’ Chunyu
- Luccas ‘Paluh’ Vinicius Molina
- Ayaz ‘NAts’ Akhmetshin
- Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov
The nominee list features some of the best players from different games. There are two players from CS: GO (S1mple and sh1ro). S1mple’s NAVI won the PGL Stockholm Major and the Intel Grand Slam before that. S1mple was named the MVP of the Stockholm Major.
Gambit’s nAts is one of the two Valorant players in this year’s list. Gambit won the VCT 2021: Stage 3 Masters - Berlin after a 3-0 victory over Team Envy.
PSG.LGD’s Ame is the sole representative from Dota 2. Despite being the overwhelming favorites to win TI10, PSG.LGD lost to Team Spirit in the Grand finals. It was a miracle run for Team Spirit at the $40 million event. ShowMaker and Doinb round out the League of Legends side of things.
Team Liquid’s Rainbow Six Siege player, Paluh was one of the nominees for this year’s awards. The player had a heroic performance at the Six Invitational 2021 despite suffering a personal tragedy just days before the event.
S1mple's Ace at IEM Cologne Comes in 2nd at The Esports Awards
S1mple's IEM Cologne play against Renegades also received second place at the Esports Awards.
His ace helped Natus Vincere reach match point against Renegades at IEM Cologne. Navi would eventually go on to win IEM Cologne, just another tournament in their trophy-filled calendar year.
Check out our full list of winners at the Esports awards.