Everyone loves a good ‘Cinderella story’. From the evergreen movies about the underdog who is able to overcome the odds in the name of family, love, greatness, or whatever silly concept Hollywood has come up with. Through thousands of professional athletes like the football sensation Cristiano Ronaldo, or the legendary Serena and Venus Williams, who grew up in poor families but still made it to the top of the world and became icons.
As you may already know, Counter-Strike has plenty of beautiful stories just as unexpected, inspiring and charming in their own unique way. One such tale is that of the Brazilian team that started 2025 outside of the top 50, but is currently on the list of the 15 best teams in the world. A team that didn’t qualify for the BLAST Austin Major 2025, but still made it to the third stage of the same event. And a team that could make the miracle happen twice and once again shock the world in Budapest — Team Legacy.
The first steps:
Since the Brazilian organization’s creation in September of 2023, Legacy already had a very intriguing mixture of players, having signed the ex-00Nation lineup, consisting of:
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- Marcelo “coldzera” David
- Gabriel “NEKIZ” Schenato (IGL)
- Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer
- Lucas “nqz” Soares
- Bruno “latto” Rebelatto
- Olavo “chucky” Napoleão (coach)
The team had already shown some promising results, and the trio of coldzera, latto, and dumau had already qualified for its first Major in the year prior, after making it to the IEM Rio Major 2022. Dumau and latto were regarded as Brazil’s next superstars, and regardless of being far from their best days, veterans like coldzera and NEKIZ looked like the right people to help them realize their undeniable potential, but chaos followed.
Less than a month after the organization’s founding, nqz was moved to the bench, and sold to paiN Gaming, which led to coldzera picking up the AWP, and Bruno ‘b4rtiN’ Câmara arriving to fill the void. Legacy didn’t have a bad year as they did make it to the Opening Stage of the PGL CS2 Copenhagen 2024 Major, which was a big step in the right direction for the project.
However, there was no consistency to the occasional good showings, and the team made just two more LAN tournaments until the end of the year, while also failing to book a spot into the second Major of 2024, regardless of trying to shake things up with the addition of rookie AWPer — Guilherme ‘saadzin’ Pacheco — who replaced coldzera at the end of the first season. The team was still winning some domestic tournaments and qualifiers, but was still far from being considered even a top three team in Brazil, finishing the year behind FURIA, MIBR, paiN, Imperial, and the RED Canids — coldzera’s new team.
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A new beginning:
With the start of 2025, came the time for a change. NEKIZ and b4rtin were out of the team and Legacy found itself on the market — looking for suitable options for a captain, but also a support player, who would compliment the flamboyant elements of the already-mentioned trio. And they found them.
Lucas “lux” Meneghini
After spending the last year-and-a-half of his career playing under biguzera on paiN, lux was ready to make his debut as an in-game-leader, while also ‘Playing with people that I’ve always wanted to’. lux himself shared that being a captain had always been on his mind, and the timing to take over Legacy felt like the correct one, trying to implement both the playmaker style of IGL-ing of biguzera, the lessons he’s learned from WOOD7 and FalleN, and his own identity of a ‘protocol nerd’. A young and promising in-game-leader, ‘graduating biguzera’s school’, who possessed the firepower of a young gun, as well as the love for the strategical side of the game.
Vinicius “n1ssim” Pereira
For n1ssim, his role on the team wasn’t going to be anything new, but that was a second chance. After being part of paiN’s run into making the Legends stage of the Copenhagen Major alongside lux, the support player was ‘called back’ by SHARKS, not being allowed to continue building up on what he had already started elsewhere.
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However, n1ssim didn’t play a single official with SHARKS, meaning he was just sat on the bench for nine entire months. Naturally, that made him a bit of a gamble, but with lux’s knowledge of his skillset, as well as his reputation of a reliable anchor/lurk player — his second chance was earned.
The ‘Big breakthrough’
At this point, everyone is aware of the fashion in which Legacy made the BLAST Austin Major 2025, and what happened in Texas. The team that didn’t even qualify, but had to step in to replace BESTIA was able to make it through Stage 1 and Stage 2, and was just rounds away from besting MOUZ in the 2-2 matchup of Stage 3, which would’ve booked them a spot in the playoffs. Regardless of Vitality’s Major trophy, TheMongolZ’s Grand Final participation, and even lux’s ex-team — paiN Gaming — making it into the top 4, Legacy’s story was still considered one of the most beautiful ones of the entire tournament, and that says a lot.
It finally felt like dumau and latto were able to live up to some of the expectations, being the 6th and 13th highest rated players from all three stages. Lux showed that his space-giving and ever aspiring to make players as comfortable as they could be mindset was the correct one for this young team. And n1ssim, well — he was the 15th highest rated player across all the stages, finishing off the tournament with 0.01 less rating than Vitality’s Robin “ropz” Kool. This was Legacy’s ‘Big breakthrough’. But what followed wasn’t as pretty.
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Dealing with the ‘Growing pains’
After reaching such a height and gathering as many VRS points, it was only natural for Legacy to start appearing in Tier 1 tournaments a lot more often, and they did. However, the success was not really there, and as many teams in the past (ex. GamerLegion, Into the Breach, Wildcard) they were struggling to live up to the expectations after an overperformance at a CS Major.
Being an underdog and playing with nothing to lose, and knowing that something is expected of you are two very different scenarios. And especially for such a young team — the weight of self-put-pressure could be unbearable.
The 4 months after the Major were not easy for Legacy. The early exits from BLAST Bounty Season 2, BLAST Open London 2025, FISSURE Playground 2, and ESL Pro League Stage 1 gave clear signals of the team not being able to bring the same level of confidence, energy, and bravado to their game as before. And while many people would already start writing the Brazilians off, lux and his boys didn’t think the problem was related to their in-game capabilities, but to dealing with the most dangerous aspect of Tier 1 Counter-Strike – the mental game. lux during HLTV at CS Asia Championship 2025
I think we entered into some bad vibes. After that good result, we started to pressure [ourselves] more, feeling that we couldn’t make some mistakes. Then, we weren’t as good as teammates. We need to pressure ourselves to be better, but we don’t need to be hard on our teammates
Latto also say some words for HLTV after winning CS Asia Championship 2025
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Outside the server, we were not the best teammates that we were at the Major. Then, with all the work that we had with the tech, with the psychologist, the organization, and everything, we found a way to connect the team again
Growing is painful, and every human being is aware of that fact. Whether you’re experiencing knee-pain from growing taller, or emotional difficulties in adapting to life and mindset, or headaches from studying or trying to master a new skill, you’ll probably go through some hurtful moments as you’re trying to evolve. This is what the first four months of the second season felt like for Legacy. Each year, a handful of teams and players will receive the opportunity to make the transition into Tier 1 Counter-Strike, but only the ones skilled, adaptable and dedicated enough are able to make it. And Legacy did just that.
Mentality monsters
After spending months in the pit of self-doubt, tension, and outside of the server issues, which led to poor results, Legacy did something unimaginable – they came back stronger. Heading into the CS Asia Championship 2025, Legacy was definitely not amongst the favourites to lift the trophy and go back home with the first-place prize of $150,000 (+ Club share: $250,000), but they did do it.
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Regardless of losing a map in every single best-of-three series they played throughout the event, and being 1-2 down in the Grand Final against 3DMAX, the Brazilians showed not only their usual aggressive and creative style, but also the discipline, mental resilience, and capability to reset mentally and bring games back. The way I’d usually describe this type of a phenomenon is pretty simple: These players are not just a team anymore, they are a unit, a family. lux via HLTV during CS Asia Championship 2025
Everybody wants to win, but sometimes you’re just trying to be right in the discussion, you’re not trying to win, you’re just trying to be right, and we enter into this loop. So now we are just focused on this, focused on evolution, focused on unity
The mindset of Legacy had shifted. Now the flamboyant, proactive, and mechanically gifted individuals were finally looking in the same direction — or at least trying to do so. Becoming a ‘team-first player’ requires a lot of time, and doesn’t happen overnight, especially for five youngsters, but in Legacy’s case — their performance in China was just a teaser to what was to follow.
One week later, the lux-led squad traveled to Bucharest to take part in the PGL Bucharest 2025. Despite losing series to both Liquid and B8 in the group stage, Legacy was once again able to make the Grand Final of a $1,000,000+ tournament, and even though they couldn’t take Aurora down on the last map of the best-of-five series, their performance was truly remarkable.
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Bringing back the semi-final game against SAW after being one map down, and having to fight off two match points on Nuke just to reverse-sweep the game and reach the final was already feeling like a win. n1ssim via HLTV during PGL Bucharest 2025:
We’re Vitality as well, we are a little bit like Vitality
Honestly, the inside joke of being capable of coming back into each and every game, just like Team Vitality was doing during the first half of 2025, is a little bit hilarious, but doesn’t seem unreasonable. Regardless of not being able to complete the reverse-sweep in the Grand Final and losing Nuke after winning two consecutive maps against Aurora, despite being 0-2 down, Legacy looks like a team that never loses hope. Whether it’s the captain, the coach, or the other players — there is always someone on this team to believe and infect the others with this unrealistic, utopian, and delusional idea, that every game is winnable. But this is the difference between the good and the great teams, isn’t it? And it really does sound like a specific French captain’s approach to his team’s games.
Conclusion
2025 will not be remembered by the broader audience as ‘The Year of Legacy’, and that’s only natural. With teams like Vitality, FURIA, TheMongolZ, MOUZ, Falcons, and Team Spirit around — the number of storylines is infinite. But in a sense, 2025 is Legacy’s year.
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The year in which Legacy is doing what TheMongolZ were doing towards the latter stages of 2024, and early 2025. A year of immeasurable success, failures, and rebounds. Today, Legacy has established itself as a proper “Dark Horse”. Creative, aggressive, and innovative with their playbook. Fearless, both inside and outside of the server. Not just a group of players, but a team of talented players, led by a young and incredibly skilled in-game-leader, and backed by an organization that believes in staying true to its roots and supporting a full-Brazilian lineup, refusing to follow the steps of paiN, FURA, and MIBR.
Legacy look ready to go into the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 with everything they’ve got — not as the underdogs, but as a much wiser, harmonious, and dangerous team, that’s ready to not only power through Stage 1 and Stage 2, but make it all the way into the playoffs.
