s1mple wins Best Esports Athlete: "At least no one dubbed me"

With The Game Awards 2021 now complete, we have outlined all the winners. For esports fans, however, there's nothing more interesting than finding out who won the "Best Esports Athlete" award for 2021.

This year, it is also one of the most predictable, as we expect few fans didn't think the GOAT of CS:GO esports, Na'Vi's star player, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev would win the award.

s1mple had an incredible year with Na'Vi, winning the Intel Grand Slam, his first Major after a magnificent performance at the Stockholm Major, destroying everyone at the BLAST Premier Fall Finals recently, and much more.

s1mple on winning Best Esports Athlete award

While in 2019 and 2020, Vitality star Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was considered the best CS:GO player, others remained convinced s1mple is actually the best. Following this year's performance, well, we can't help but ask "Zywho?" as s1mple completely decimated the competition.

In November, s1mple also won the "Esports PC player of the year" award from The Esports Awards 2021.

Following his win at The Game Awards for the Best Esports Athlete of 2021, s1mple took to Twitter to say "At least no one 'dubbed' me, ty".

At least no one "dubbed" me, ty https://t.co/ycXGn6HGuj

— Sasha (@s1mpleO) December 10, 2021

While s1mple's message might be a bit short, there is a story behind the whole "dubbed" comment.

Back in November, when s1mple won the "Esports PC player of the year" award, the acceptance video didn't go down well, both with s1mple and the larger CS:GO community. The CS:GO pro noticed his voice was dubbed, and if you've ever heard s1mple in an interview, you would notice the pitch was definitely off.

s1mple went as far as to say via a tweet that: "It feels like they actually hate me LOL, highlight with delay, voice cracked, wish they do better show next year"

A big congratulations go out to s1mple for winning the award. It is, without a doubt, well deserved. In my opinion, the Na'Vi era has just started, and their star player might just shine even brighter in 2022 and beyond.

• Read more: s1mple makes CS:GO history as Na'Vi sweeps G2 at IEM Cologne 2021

Don't forget to check out our dedicated CS:GO esports section, filled with news, esports results, patch notes, guides and much more.

Featured image courtesy of ESL.