Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev is the recipient of the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of ESL One Cologne by HLTV.org and betway.

The Natus Vincere star capped off a fantastic individual tournament with a 1.26 rating in the grand final against BIG, a series he finished with a +23 KDD.

He leaves Cologne with a 1.37 rating, his third-highest of 2018 at a Big Event after DreamHack Masters Marseille (1.52) and StarSeries i-League Season 5 (1.40). Denis "⁠electronic⁠" Sharipov (1.31 rating) was also a close contender for the award, along with BIG power duo Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz (1.18) and Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget (1.10).

s1mple wins his fifth MVP medal of 2018

s1mple was featured in the top five in 15 stats leaderboards, leading six of them, including rating (1.37), KDD (+142), kills per round (0.90) and percentage of rounds with at least one kill (56.1%).

This is the seventh MVP award of s1mple's career, the fifth since the start of the year after he also won the accolade at StarSeries Seasons 4 and 5, DreamHack Masters Marseille and at the CS:GO Asia Championships.