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CS:GO – All about coldzera’s graffiti

“cold might be in trouble.” “There’s a lot of pressure on him, he needs to hit these shots.” Team... | 18. November 2021

“cold might be in trouble.” “There’s a lot of pressure on him, he needs to hit these shots.” Team Liquid had entered Apartments on B Site Mirage, where coldzera was all alone. And with that casting, he pulled out a magic trick so mind-bending that even Houdini would be put to shame.

If there’s one thing more difficult than studying Quantum Physics, it’s finding a person in the CS:GO scene who doesn’t know coldzera’s iconic AWP 4k on Mirage. Historically one of the most legendary plays to have graced us, the context and effect of coldzera’s ridiculous AWP show paint the play a whole new color.

The Buildup

Luminosity Gaming were the fourth-best team in the world at the time. They had made quite a few Grand Final appearances in the preceding months, losing twice to fnatic, once to NaVi and Liquid each. Notably, fnatic and LG had faced off in the very last tournament before the Major: IEM Katowice 2016. Fnatic had cleanly trumped LG 3-0 in the Grand Finals.

With so many deep runs in international tournaments, Luminosity Gaming had definitely cemented themselves as the best Brazilian team but winning a Major ahead of fnatic, NaVi and Astralis was a far cry from general expectations. Nevertheless, they started the Major strongly, finishing first in their group, defeating MOUZ and NiP. They started slowly against Virtus Pro in the Quarterfinals, losing the first map in overtime. But they soon picked up steam and won the next two maps with relative ease.

They progressed to the semifinals, where they met the waiting Team Liquid. Against NA’s greatest hope ever, they had put up a paper-thin defense, only winning one round in the second half and falling to a 15-9 deficit on Mirage. And then it happened.

The Play

Only a miracle could overturn LG’s sorry situation. And only an AWP God could create that miracle. So coldzera stepped up. After getting an easy kill on adreN, a jumping coldzera landed a mid-air noscope collateral AWP shot on EliGE and s1mple, creating the most iconic moment in CS:GO history. If that wasn’t enough, he also noscoped nitr0, before TACO finished off the poor Hiko, and it was 15-10 for LG.

To be fair, Liquid was terrible that round. Once they had pinpointed coldzera’s location, they should’ve directly mollied out Van. They had a lot of utility and all they used was one smoke and one flash. They all died with the rest of the utility on their bodies. That one smoke was pretty useless because TACO literally walked around it. The flash was useless because Van was not mollied, hence coldzera was able to stick around in that position.

It was an atrocious display, with a total of three Molotovs going into the grave with the Liquid members.

The Marvellous Aftermath

Team Liquid absolutely crumbled after that magical moment. coldzera’s play had seemingly frozen their heads, and the T side of Liquid went completely devoid of ideas. A dominant performance following the AWP play meant that the Brazilians would win 10 rounds in a row, winning the match 19-15 in Overtime.

Team Liquid kept on producing atrocious displays with their utility, like going for a late-round A take (with zero control of the site) with just one smoke. They barely made it difficult for the passive CT side of Luminosity to come back into the game. Team Liquid had lost a lot of confidence which meant their star-studded team consistently lost aim duels against the talented Brazilians; duels that they came to rely on to win rounds, a strategy that failed spectacularly.

If that wasn’t historic enough though, LG again fell down to a deficit on Cache, a starker one this time: 15-6. But Team Liquid evaporated in shame, as they fell victim to another for-the-ages comeback. Luminosity Gaming won 13 out of the next 14 rounds, and booked their place in the Finals with the most dramatic match the CS:GO world had ever witnessed.

Luminosity Gaming were into the Grand Finals against NaVi, who beat Astralis 2-0 in the semifinals. Not a single analyst was in favor of LG winning the match and the tournament. But the Brazilians had something else up their sleeves. After a tough start on Mirage, Luminosity activated their rock-solid CT and managed to win it out in Overtime. LG had won their map pick, and it was time for NaVi’s map pick: Overpass.

And the Ukrainians crumbled in front of the Brazilians, as Luminosity won the map 16-2, a score never seen before in a Major Grand Final.The underdogs from the neglected scenes of South America had conquered the world.

The storyline continued for the rest of the year, as LG, now SK Gaming, went on to win the second 2016 Major against Team Liquid, but that was their last big hurrah. They did not win a single tournament in 2016 after that Major but went on to have a short stint at the top, just before the second Major of 2017, but it would lead to nothing.

Team Liquid would evaporate after their Grand Final loss to SK Gaming in the second Major in Cologne. s1mple joined NaVi and this year, he finally inspired them to become world-beaters and win his long-due Major. Hiko rode his bad luck horse for the rest of his CS:GO career, but found a fair amount of success in Valorant.

EliGE and nitr0 finally created a Liquid superteam in 2019. They didn’t win a Major but won the coveted Intel Grand Slam. adreN left the team soon after the Columbus disaster but rejoined as the current coach of Team Liquid. coldzera on the other hand won HLTV’s Player Of The Year award in 2016 and 2017. and

The Legend

This otherworldly play has been immortalized on Mirage, with a much-deserved graffiti behind Van.

coldzera’s Flying AWP Graffiti

A scope-less AWP with four red skulls where the scope should be, with wings to cap off the incredible art. coldzera is so proud of this historic moment, that he got himself tattooed!

coldzera’s graffiti tattoo

DDK put the little Brazilian’s magical AWP play the best: “They needed a huge play, but that was something I’m never gonna see ever again.” And 5 years since that magical moment, we really have not seen anything like that, and I doubt we will ever see it again.