After the explosive and at times disturbing fallout from former Natus Vincere Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov’s divorce hit the internet yesterday, his former team mate and the world’s best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) player Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev has spoken out about the matter. A clip surfaced from a recent VALORANT stream, where he gave his two cents.

Some sections of the clip contain derogatory language used toward Boombl4's ex, which has been echoed by other CS scene members from Russia and nearby, but the overall gist of what s1mple says is fairly, well, simple. According to the Ukrainian star, Boombl4 was warned by friends not to enter into a committed relationship with his now ex-wife, Angelika "LiQueen" Mikhailova, but decided to anyway, much to s1mple’s dismay.

In the clip, s1mple also states that he knew LiQueen would attempt to blackmail Boombl4 in the event the marriage did not work out, claiming to have made that prediction a month ago. This looks like it may have come true, with what LiQueen claims to be footage of Boombl4 in compromising situations shared on her Telegram streams in the last few days.

s1mple's sadness

Where s1mple's loyalties lie is clear. When Boombl4’s departure from Na’Vi was announced, s1mple tweeted about his sadness then, adding that he hopes he gets to play with Boombl4 again one day. This has led Na’Vi fans to wonder if the former IGL could be a future IGL now his divorce is final, and he presumably is more free to leave Russia to be with his team mates, should he so desire.

Equally, with the charitable and empathetic reception most of the scene has given to Boombl4 since the story broke yesterday, his "toxicity" from a marketing point of view should not be too much for orgs to handle. Players and talent have been accused of far worse in the past and gone on to thrive in esports, so there is every chance Boombl4 finds his way back to the top if he can motivate himself to try.