All those who purchased a subscription to the PlayLikeS1mple have started receiving refunds. The school by Alexander Kostylev and his brother Alexey less than two months later, an unexpected turn of events occurred.
At launch, s1mple promised to hold events and tournaments among subscribers, as well as to create a Discord server where all participants could communicate with him. Alexander wanted to see fewer bugs in the game and more teamwork, aiming for a beautiful Counter-Strike experience. However, it now seems that he either does not want to or cannot fulfil these promises fully, and we will have to wait for an official statement.
The School opened on 13 May, and for almost a month, viewers received free content. In the first days after the launch, Alexey Kostylev shared impressive project statistics: audience reach amounted to 27 million people, 80,000 users registered, and social media reached 10 million people. These figures reflect the huge interest in the project, which seemed to guarantee its success.
On 3 June, sales of paid annual subscriptions began. The cost in the first five days was $97, with a subsequent increase to $149. However, less than two months later, all users received a refund notice.
Before receiving the refund notices, project users complained that the three free video tutorials had been unavailable on the site for more than two weeks. The videos became private and could not be viewed, which may have also happened with the subscription videos.
Alexander Kostylev has not yet publicly commented on the school's closure. This leaves many questions about the project's fate and the plans of its creator.