It’s not a good look for the greatest CS:GO player ever.
It's been less than two months since Natus Vincere's benched superstar Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev launched its own CS2 online course. As expected, a lot of fans bought the course in the hope of taking lessons from the G.O.A.T himself, but it's fair to say the project hasn't exactly lived up to expectations.
Throughout the morning, hundreds of CS2 fans started a discussion on the game's subreddit about s1mple's online course potentially shutting down. What led fans to think this is the fact that the lessons went private on video platform Vimeo, thus not allowing those who bought the course to watch them anymore.
Turns out there are lots of fans who bought the "Play like s1mple" course unhappy with the product in the project's dedicated Discord channel and even wondering whether they have been scammed. Esports.gg joined the Discord channel to get a better grasp of what is going on.
Bear in mind, that this online course is meant to be huge as professional players of the caliber of s1mple rarely have the time or energy to teach casuals how to improve their game and potentially go pro.
Also, s1mple even partnered with ESL FACEIT, which owns a premium third-party matchmaking platform and organizer plenty of CS2 tournaments, to assemble this project in early June. Another partner of this project is All Stars Promotion, a company owned by s1mple and his brother, which describes itself as a "revolutionary educational CS2 project"
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Fans ask how to get a refund as they don't get any answer from s1mple's team
The Discord channel for s1mple's "Play like s1mple" course is open to everyone, not only those who bought it for $149. At the time of the announcement, s1mple and ESL FACEIT promised to deliver more than 60 educational videos that would help fans master the basics of CS2, give tips on how to become a professional player, and share insights on how to break into the industry in other ways like casting.
However, people who bought the course have been having problems since nearly day one. As the screenshots from the public Discord channel show, fans were never added to a private Discord channel like the course promised, and the classes were made private on Vimeo not long after. They rarely got any answers from the All Stars Promotion staff on Discord.
Ultimately, all this confusion led fans to think that s1mple's online CS2 course is a scam. The screenshot shows some people who bought it already asked for a refund and got it, but the staff have gone radio-silent on how fans can get a refund.
What does s1mple, ESL FACEIT, and All Stars Promotion have to say about the problems with the online CS2 course?
As of the moment, none of the parties involved issued a public statement regarding customer dissatisfaction with the project or if the online course is shutting down as fans presumed.
Esports.gg reached out to ESL FACEIT, s1mple, and All Stars Promotion this morning, but hadn't heard back at the time of publishing this article. We'll update this story after we hear back from s1mple, ESL FACEIT, or All Star Promotions.
