dumau: "When you get on the server, sh*t starts going on in your mind, and then you fight against it with courage and faith"

The Brazilian rifler says unity within the Legacy camp helped them secure their first playoff spot in the fall season.

Legacy came into CS Asia Championship 2025 after a period of rough form. The Brazilians won just three games across BLAST Open London, FISSURE Playground 2, and ESL Pro League S22, but something clicked for the squad in China.

Eduardo "⁠dumau⁠" Wolkmer and company breezed past Virtus.pro in their opener before outlasting 3DMAX in a three-map series to qualify for the playoffs and earn the chance to fight Liquid for a semi-final spot on Thursday.

After their victory against the French side, dumau spoke to HLTV about their campaign in China, their expectations for the tournament, and the upcoming clash against Liquid.

Listen to the interview here.

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dumau, a huge win over 3DMAX, and you're headed to the playoffs. How are you feeling?

Oh, feeling great, of course. It was an insane game, and for us to be in the playoffs is a good thing. We are trying to get more experience. I don't know if there will be a crowd or something, but it will be very nice, especially in Asia, because I think there are a lot of people who support us here. I think that's a very nice experience, you know?

It will be a very nice thing, we were looking forward to being here. [There is a lot of] improvement that we have to do still, because they weren't clean games by us, and of course we had a lot of adversities outside. Jet lag, time, it's hard to sleep for four, five hours, for everybody. I think with these things, we have adversity outside, but we are really pushing each other, you know, taking it as a unit, and I think that's something that we are working on a lot.

That's the most special, it's being a unit and trying to help each other. When we have hard times, and we remember that we are having hard times outside of the game, we have to push each other, and help each other, because nobody's perfect. That's the best thing that we are doing right now, and I think that's why we won this game, because it wasn't easy. It could be us losing the game, and we would be sad now, and everybody's head would be down. But it was them this time, that's it, you know?

You talk about these adversities. Before you came to this event, you had tough results, you went out Stage 1 at EPL, but you guys are looking way better here. What do you think is the difference maker? Even with the jet lag everything, you're doing way better than before, why do you think that is?

At EPL, to be honest, I think we did great in the first three games. Maybe not great, but we were kind of the same team we are now. Now, I think we are getting into our shape more, [in terms] of things that we can improve before the game, so we can focus more in the game, and to look at what is in front of us when we are playing.

We are just better at these things now, but I think as a team we remained the same, and what's helping us now. At EPL, after we won against FURIA, we had a great opportunity to go to Stage 2, and we didn't take too much... Pride, let's say, and we fell down. We knew that we had two things to fix a bit in the game, and if we could fix Ancient or something, we would have won against Gentle Mates or Astralis, because it was a tough match.

That's just a path, you know, that we should look forward to and keep improving, because it's hard in CS. A little detail sometimes can be the difference between us being sad now, and a 3DMAX passing to the playoffs, or vice versa. So yeah, I think CS is just great because of it.

3DMAX were probably one of the favorites to win this event outright. With that in mind, now that you've taken them out, how do you gauge your chances for the rest of the event? How far do you guys think you can go?

To be honest, we always dream about winning tournaments. We come here to win the tournament because, of course, we have other challenges and adversities, but I think it's important for us to believe and keep striving towards not only the trophy, but having this feeling of winning and knowing that you did the right thing, even if it's tier-two tournament, tier-one, or tier-three.

You just want to think that you are the best at it, and I think we are looking forward to this. But every day when you think about details and things in CS and have a lot of conversations, you kind of forget it, you know. You get too many things in your mind that the trophy is not what matters. The moment with people, the talks you have to get better, being on the same page, I think it's the most important for every team. Once you have five players that are looking to be on the same page, it's much easier. We're just trying to get better at these things, but not too much, you know.

You focus more on the journey than the destination, it sounds like.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Well, the next step in your journey is Liquid on Thursday for a spot in the semifinals. How do you feel about that matchup?

I think it will be great. Liquid is a great team. I like them. We respect all the teams that are here, there is no problem with anybody, and I think this will be a great match. We have, of course, expectations in our mind, but the truth is when you get on the server, shit starts going on in your mind, and then you fight against it with courage and faith. That's the beauty about competition. You're looking for a goal and there's a lot of adversity that comes during the time that you're playing.

Sometimes you can visualize something before, but when it starts going in front of you, you kind of deal with it, even if you're in your worst time. Now, I was feeling I'm not playing well or I'm not helping my team with my aim or something, because there was something bad in mind. I'm tired or maybe turning off sometimes, but I try to help in other ways, like with communication or motivation.

It doesn't matter if I jump first or something, but I'm looking for things to open a gap in the game. And then, as I said, things just started to flow better after, and then Inferno was very good for everybody, we played very well. For me, that was the most important.