'CS:GO' Pro Still Gives £25K To Ukrainian Army Despite Losing Tournament

A popular Counter Strike: Global Offensive streamer and pro gamer has donated a hefty sum to the Ukrainian army, it has emerged.

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev revealed on his Instagram Stories (thanks, Kotaku) that he'd given 1 million Ukrainian hryvnias (roughly £25,000) in support of the troops currently fighting off the ongoing Russian invasion.

Russia began its invasion of the Ukraine last week, in a "special military operation" that has already killed hundreds of innocent civilians and caused thousands to flee their homes in terror.

As a Ukrainian CS:GO player for the Kyiv-based esports organization Natus Vincere, Kostyliev obviously has deep personal ties to the conflict: it's his home that's being ravaged by war.

The streamer has been tweeting about the invasion for the last week, but it was at Poland's annual esports tournament IEM Katowice that he took the opportunity of a massive worldwide audience to call for an end to the madness.

After being knocked out of the tournament and losing out on the huge $1 million prize pool, Kostyliev delivered a moving speech to viewers around the world.

“All of us are scared, and all of us need to show [an] example [at] this tournament for [the] whole world,” he said. “We need to stay together as a unit because our fans, because our friends, because everyone who’s gonna watch this tournament. We all need to stay humans first.”

Just a few days later, it was revealed by Ukrainian Olympic sports and NBA broadcaster Vitalii Volochai that Kostyliev had made a sizable donation to the Ukrainian army.

The streamer has yet to acknowledge this donation publicly, but it's not the first time he's made such a move: Kotaku notes that back in 2018, Kostyliev gave all his winnings from the FACEIT Pro League Tournament to Movember UK.