Flash doesn’t win games. Hype doesn’t win games. Going out and executing and doing your job on a consistent basis is what wins. – Clay Helton

On April 6th, 2018 TACO left the SK lineup. This was the end of one of the best cores in CS:GO history. He along with Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, and Marcelo “coldzera” David had made legends. They had started from nothing and went to the top of the CS:GO world. By the end of TACO’s run, the team had won 2 Majors, 8 international finals, smaller tournaments, and multiple top place finishes from the end of 2015 to April 2018, two and a half years of time. In that time, each of the members made a name for themselves. FalleN became world renowned as one CS:GO’s best leaders. Fer one of the most aggressive and unstoppable forces in CS:GO history. Coldzera as one of the all time greatest players. As for TACO, he didn’t get the shine, but his glory comes from the shadows. He will never be known as the greatest player, but he is a team player. As Engin “MAJ3R” Kupeli describes them, a shadow player. Someone who was focused solely on the betterment of the team. He doesn’t get many highlight clips or great stats, but he makes sure to do his role in the system so that his team is set up to win. In return, he gets no individual plaudits, but he knows he was critical in getting his team the trophies. This is the story of TACO, the Brazilian Shadow.

TACO’s story starts the same time as the others, in the MLG X Games Aspen Brazilian Qualifier. The finals of that qualifier was between two teams: KaBuM.TD and Dexterity. KaBuM.TD had the core players that later formed LG with FalleN, fer, and Ricardo “boltz” Prass. Dexterity had many of the future members of the LG/SK lineup including Joao “felps” Vasconcellos, Coldzera, and TACO. In the end, KaBuM.TD won the qualifier and with the one chance they wowed the world with their surprise performance at the tournament.

From there they got the invite to the Major Qualifier, did a donation stream to get enough money to get to the qualifier and then get win their Legends spot. That was the launching point of the Brazilian CS:GO squad and Coldzera soon joined the team. It wasn’t until Faceit Stage 3 Finals when TACO and Lincoln “fnx” Lau entered the team. By that point, Luminosity Gaming had hit it’s ceiling and they needed a change to get to the next level. Instead of waiting for an event, they decided to make the change immediately and to build the future now.

That was the event that changed everything for the Brazilians. For FalleN it was the event where he realized that he needed to change his approach to in-game leadership. That if he had his team embody his ideals of CS:GO, he wouldn’t need to dictate what they did in a majority of actions. This allowed the team to move more fluidly and free up FalleN to become a superstar AWPer going into 2016.

As for why the got those players, the reasoning was clear. Fnx was one of the best players in Brazil and when he was motivated, he was one of the best players in the world. He had such incredible experience that it made it easy to play with him in the game. As for TACO, he wasn’t picked up for any outstanding skill, but rather for his mindset. In an interview with cybersport, FalleN explains the reason for kicking boltz,

“The boltz we played with in the past was someone who was a bit lazy when it came to evolving in-game and learning.”

TACO had no such problems as FalleN explained in an earlier interview with lurppis on splyce, “We needed someone to be our entry-killer and TACO had the right mindset for that position. Also, he is very dedicated and seemed the correct guy to pick up. He is very friendly and was coldzera’s old teammate for a long time, which helps.”

That was to be TACO’s legacy, more than anything else. A player who came to learn the FalleN system of CS. He became the tool that enabled it to happen. TACO explained his philosophy in an AMA about what the problem was in the NA Scene, “the biggest problem is that every player wants to be the star, the best NA player or w/e, and it does not work like this, at least in my mind. First should be the team, then you. But you have to REALLY believe in it. Some just pretend to believe.”

While it’s hard to know what TACO did in the team comms or the team atmosphere, we do know how he was setup in the game. During the fnx lineup, TACO was used in a few ways. On the T-side, he was most famous for being the sacrificial entry fragger. The player who got space and information for the team, often at the costs of his life.

We see this in both of his Major runs. At the MLG Columbus Major against Virtus.Pro, TACO is often used to create space by going in first. For instance, in game 1 of that series the two teams played on Cache. In the 27th round, TACO jump baits for the team so that they can get the angle and force Filip “NEO” Kubski off the angle with his AWP. At the end of the round he is left to create as much havoc and noise as he can on the B-site so that his team can hit A.

A more classic example of entry fragging to be traded comes in the overtime round from the same match. In the first round of overtime, TACO knows the player has the angle and is on site. Instead of hesitate, he wide peeks as much as he can knowingly to create some space between his dying body and his teammate so that his teammate can trade the frag and get the space needed to close the round.

When we talk about his Ct-side play, the most common things we talk about are his information play, supportive playstyle, teamwork, and sacrificial play. The same game map played against Virtus.Pro has some examples of the general ideas of what we’ve come to expect from TACO. In the 7th round of that match, he sneaks into A main using a smoke and gets the information the team needs to know that they should stack B. Later on, LG use a three man setup where FalleN takes an aggressive angle looking into A main and he can do that in confidence knowing that TACO and fnx are creating a supporting crossfire if Virtus.Pro try to pinch and kill him.

In the 12th round, we see TACO’s teamwork where he is holding nades the entire round waiting for Coldzera to call for them. As Virtus.Pro take the A site, TACO holds the angle of the flank, letting Coldzera go in and try to make the play. When Coldzera goes down, TACO steps up and gets a double kill and at the same time creating enough space to sneak fnx into quad and win the round. That is a very tense round, but TACO made the correct decisions to try to maximize his teams chances of winning that round off of teamplay.

The reason TACO can do all of this is because he came to understand positional play after joining LG. An example of this comes in the third round of overtime of the same game. Virtus.Pro went on the aggressive to try to break LG before they could get anything off the ground, but LG’s setup is such that players can get traded if they get taken down. This is what TACO does as he is able to revenge frag both Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas and Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski to turn the game from a 4v2 scenario into a 2v2 scenario.

When we talk about sacrificial play, a good example comes from his play on cobblestone. In many of the positions TACO is put in, he is put in precarious situations where he has to worry about two angles rather than just one. An example comes from a 3 man setup that LG used to use in drop where fnx played close drop and FalleN played close to drop looking towards plat. In that setup TACO has to switch positions between supporting FalleN and baiting for fnx. Another example is when he is given the secondary AWP and has to take care of both plat and any players coming from drop. While it seems strange to do that, it gets his team information, slows down any hit for rotations, and gets out utility from the Ts.

When we come to the felps SK lineup, TACO’s role changes because that is what the team needs. This was the era where they ran the 1-1-1-1-1 hyper aggressive default, especially on Mirage. In this iteration, he played a passive wing role where he makes sure to stay alive for as long as he can so that he doesn’t needlessly die and let the star players of the team the chance to make the play without worry. At the same time, if the team goes into a disadvantageous situation, he will immediately go on the aggressive to try to even up the game and give SK a chance.

An instance of this comes from the ECS Season 3 LAN. In the semi-finals of that tournament, SK played against Astralis and in the 7th round trades start happening across the map and SK look to be on the losing end, so TACO goes out to immediately try to even it out. TACO did this before depending on the map (Overpass being the most famous), but it became more prominent in this era of play. At the same time, you can see him playing correctly and not giving the advantage away in a 4v3 situation in the 12th round of the same map.

Most importantly of all is his long term partnership with Coldzera. Coldzera was rightly hailed as the best player in the world for a long period of time, but TACO was the guy who did everything he could for him. The same game shows this in the 25th round where TACO is on the rotate to get some exit kills in a 2v4. TACO got two kills and because of that they decided to go for the retake. In this scenario, TACO runs in trying to bait all of the T players to shoot him, while clearing all of the angles, and the finally defuses the bomb and baiting them in so Coldzera can kill them. He then does the exact same thing 4 rounds later in the same game.

TACO will never have the insane clutches and rounds of Coldzera, the AWP clips of FalleN, or the destructive force of fer. But he made sure to sacrifice himself so that all of them could do what they did. He was a player who truly bought into the idea of the team first and because he believed in that, he became an integral part of one of the greatest cores to ever touch the game of CS:GO.

So while he has been criticized for his lack of kills or bad games, those who watch him understand that his role isn’t easy. He isn’t playing this game for himself, he is playing for the team. This is why Wilton “zews” Prado pointed out TACO as one of the players he respected the most. As he says in the interview he will sacrifice everything for the team and do whatever his leader says.

As a player, we will never know TACO as some insane site anchor, some incredible AWPer, or incredible rifler. He has no defined style because he is willing to do whatever the team wants him to do so that the team can succeed. It doesn’t matter what you ask him to do. If you ask him to run through smokes, mollies, flashes, and HE nades to get information and drain the utility of the enemy team, he’ll do it. He will play passive, aggressive, with an AWP, in sacrificial spots, whatever is needed, because he is committed to the cause. He will never shine, but he will support from the shadow. He will never get the glory, will never get the public laudits, but it doesn’t matter because he did the job that was needed to help his team win. And victory is all he cares about.

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