lux: "Becoming IGL was the best decision of my life and the way I can achieve more in my career"

Legacy's captain heaped praise on his teammates, spoke about his evolution as a leader with biguzera's influence, and discussed his team's goals heading into Stage 1 in Austin.

Since adding Lucas "⁠lux⁠" Meneghini and Vinicius "⁠n1ssim⁠" Pereira at the turn of the year, Legacy have been on the upswing. They qualified for PGL Bucharest through the South America qualifier and beat Liquid upon arriving in Romania, but were eliminated in 12-14th despite taking GamerLegion and Astralis the distance in best-of-threes.

Thus, it came as a surprise when they missed out on the Austin Major by finishing fifth in their MRQ, a blemish on an otherwise decent start to the year that has also seen them finish third in ESL Challenger League Season 49 NA and win Thunderpick World Championship North America Series 1.

"It was a sad occasion," lux tells HLTV on the media day ahead of Stage 1 at the Austin Major. "We didn't expect to be here because we lost, and we were just thinking about other tournaments. Now it's an opportunity and we are working a lot to represent the Americas in the best way."

Visa issues for two of BESTIA's players, the team that beat Legacy in the fifth-place decider match in the MRQ, meant that the Brazilian team were given a lifeline to the Major and scored a replacement invite as the next team in line, and they arrive fresh from a bootcamp after playing at IEM Dallas with a chance to prove they deserve to be here.

Read more

BESTIA CEO fights Major replacement after visa breakthrough: "Help me stop this injustice" *

"The Major was something that broke the good semester stuff," lux said. "I don't know if we can prove [that we should have been here all along] because we didn't earn this spot (laughs). Let's see, it's too hard to say if we would deserve this spot because BESTIA deserved it and it was an unlucky situation."

The Brazilian player, who turned to captaincy when he joined Legacy, also touched on his evolution as a leader, Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's influence on him, heaped praise on his teammates, and stated that the mindset of the rifling core is to reach Stage 3.

You can listen to an audio version of the interview here, or read it in full below.

---

What's it like being here, obviously different circumstances to some other teams.

It was a sad occasion. We didn't expect to be here because we lost, and we were just thinking about other tournaments. Now it's an opportunity and we are working a lot to represent the Americas in the best way.

What was your preparation like? How much time did you have to prepare in case you were needed?

We were already in preparation because of IEM Dallas, we weren't in vacation mode. We stayed here in the US and we practiced a lot with the Dallas teams. It was a great bootcamp.

What did you work on most at the bootcamp? At Bucharest and Dallas it was a lot of top15 teams, so what type of thing did you work on?

A lot of micro decisions, you know. On the map against 3DMAX, we had a lot of advantage to close the maps and we couldn't do it. That's one point we tried to fix, let's see if it will work. And our map pool, we need to improve all of the time. There's no certain way you can feel good on all the maps — besides Vitality [laughs], who have 100% win-rate.

With map pool, is it hard being a team that plays a lot of regional stuff, in Brazil and in NA, where you might have a really good win-rate on a map. But then you go international, so how hard is it to know you're good on a map at an international level, rather than just a national one?

It's kind of good. We can bait the teams. Maybe we're not good on Mirage, for example, but we have a 90% winrate and they're like 'Okay, not playing Mirage.'

In the last year, we were something like 92% on Anubis with paiN Gaming and we went to IEM Cologne. We were like, 'Okay, we're good on Anubis,' we had 10 wins in a row, and we couldn't do a map. It was kind of frustrating, but now we play against top teams in practice so we have a notion of which map we can play, which map we are prepping.

In terms of confidence, what was Bucharest and Dallas like? Like we've said, tough teams all the way compared to Stage 1 here, but what was the mental effect of having those events?

It's kind of different, we were playing top 10 teams there. Now, it'll be 'easier' but not 'easier' because I can't say this and go 0-3 [laughs]. But on paper, it'll be easier but every team dreams to be here and prepped a lot to be here. We can expect a better Legacy in this tournament, a more mature Legacy too.

I also wanted to ask, it's dumau, latto, and chucky's fourth Major together going back to Stockholm 2021. So what's that like for them? Internationally that duo is maybe still seen as high-potential players, up-and-comers, but it's their fourth Major so what's their mindset going in?

It's their fourth Major but they couldn't really do it at the other Majors, it was only the Challengers Stage. Now, their mindset is to be on the Legend Stage [Stage 3] at least.

One of my goals here in Legacy as an IGL is to extract the maximum potential with dumau and latto because they are young, some prodigies in Brazil. Now they are 21 and 22, not like 'prodigy', but yeah, one of my main goals is to achieve everything with them — and saadzin and n1ssim as well.

Whenever you speak to someone from Brazil they always speak very highly of latto, as someone who is very good for their roles. Do you think he's a bit underrated internationally?

He's not in the best positions, anchor some maps, other maps he plays aggressive. He's one of the best players I've been through, and played with. He can show a lot. The world will see what latto can show.

On yourself, how inspired were you by biguzera to keep playmaking and rotating positions on CT side? Does it help with calling?

I learned a lot playing with biguzera. It was the first team I could play more aggressive and be a playmaker, and he was teaching me how to mix between being aggressive and being more... I was a little bit of a nerd, with protocols and stuff, and he taught me the more instinctive way to play. I'm mixing this, the way he calls too, because I learned a lot with him and with FalleN for the one week that I played with him, WOOD7 as well. And, of course, my own way to make this mix better.

On T side as well, you and dumau are the main aggressors, how important is it for you to be a fragging captain?

It's not the way many IGLs played, they play more supportive roles. But I can call and frag as well, it's not a problem for me. It's really stressful because you need to work on your aim as well, and see a lot of demos, work a lot on this stuff. But I really enjoy it. It was the best decision of my life to become an IGL and this is the way I can achieve more in my career.

So this is long-term. Not a star becoming an IGL for six months?

No, no, no, no. I always thought about being an IGL and I thought this was the right moment to do it. I achieved a lot of experience, not a lot of, but kind of an experience being a player but now I need to go into this. This is the way.

saadzin is a player you spoke about as a very aggressive AWPer, someone you need to rein in sometimes, how is he developing ahead of the Major?

He's a different AWP. All of the AWPs I've played with couldn't be aggressive, they were too passive, too slow, and needed to improve their aggressive style. It needs to be an equilibrium, a mix. And with saadzin it's different.

He likes to [make] plays a lot, I'm like, 'Calm down, you're a support player,' but it's really good because against 3DMAX he bought an AK, opened A for us. Like come on man, we just started the round and he got two kills with an AK. He's really good, really confident, even if he's not playing well he will peek and make these plays. The future will be brilliant.

You've mentioned a goal of getting more spots for the Americas region, but what's your ambition for the team? What would you be happy with leaving Austin?

Right now it's to go through the phases, and being able to grow throughout the tournament. The other events we play, only two or three matches, this one we will start in Stage 1 and if we go to playoffs it will be a different Legacy.

All the matches, you evolve, you grow in some way, you learn something. This tournament will be so important for the semester because of the spots, the points, and for our mental as well.

With the MRQ, lots of talk about it being online, the format and things too, is this Major a chance to prove that you should have been here all along? Do you feel like that at all?

It was a great semester, we got a lot of points. The Major was something that broke the good semester stuff. I don't know if we can prove it because we didn't earn this spot [laughs]. Let's see, it's too hard to say if we would deserve this spot because BESTIA deserved it and it was an unlucky situation.