dumau: The Child Prodigy of Brazil

In the past few years, Brazil has produced some of the most notable names in Counter-Strike and has cemented itself as one of the main countries within our scene. While the likes of Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and co. aren't contending for international titles like they were in 2017, there's no denying that the level of CS in Brazil has only gotten better in recent times. 

Plenty of Brazilian teams and players have gotten opportunities to prove themselves internationally, with many moving to the United States. As Brazil becomes one of the largest esports markets globally, the country continues to breed world-class talent, the latest of which being non-other than Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer.

An early start

The Brazilian youngster played his first official maps as a stand-in for INTZ in the Gamers Club Liga Profissional in late 2017. Having been scouted out by the then captain of INTZ, Andrei "arT" Piovezan, dumau was only 14-years-old at the time. While it would be a while before he would appear on LAN again, dumau began grinding CS on third-party platforms such as ESEA and Gamers Club. He would eventually participate in LATAM Pro League, a platform similar to Faceit Pro League, where he began making a name for himself as he won weeks over other established pros in the scene. 

Evidently talented

His performances in LPL eventually led him to join NO ORG, which would get picked up by Evidence e-Sports in early 2019. Under the Evidence banner, dumau would play in the Gamers Club Liga Profissional against the likes of paiN Gaming, DETONA Gaming, W7M Gaming, and other sub-top Brazilian teams. The youngster would be a crucial part of Evidence's open qualifier runs for DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 and the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, despite the team falling short of qualifying for the main events. During his tenure with Evidence, dumau averaged a 1.17 rating, and his performances didn't go unnoticed for long. 

Enlisting in the empire

In October 2019, dumau would be personally selected by Denner "KHTEX" Barchfield, the captain of Imperial e-Sports, who was tasked with creating a roster that could win Campeonato Brasileiro de Counter-Strike Season 1. Sure enough, dumau and co. lifted the CBCS Season 1 trophy, with the youngster averaging a 1.28 rating from the semi-finals onwards. Through winning the event, Imperial qualified for StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8, which would be dumau's first international event. While Imperial placed last at the Turkish event, dumau got the opportunity to play against Fnatic as well as the domestic heroes of MIBR and gained some invaluable experience through it. The last event dumau would attend with Imperial is CBCS Season 2, where the team placed second, despite dumau finishing the event as the highest-rated player with a 1.33 rating.

Yeah, he's pretty good

At the start of 2020, dumau would join the new Yeah Gaming roster, with the amazing opportunity to move to the United States and face new and tougher opposition. The team had humble beginnings, needing to start the ESEA campaign in Open, the team won its first season with 14 wins and 2 losses, thus immediately being promoted to ESEA Advanced. The team currently sits at 7-0 in the on-going Season 35 and looks poised to qualifying for Season 36 of Mountain Dew League. What's more, Yeah has already faced many MDL level teams in North American cups and pro teams in DreamHack Open: Summer 2020 and cs_summit 6. While Yeah isn't regularly facing NA's upper echelons in officials, the practice opportunities provided by moving to the US have allowed the team to reach a higher level much quicker than it could've in Brazil. 

Star of the show

In Yeah, dumau has been the clearcut star player. He mostly plays a very aggressive lurking style on T sides, and his ability to take map control is really impressive. While he may not be doing spectacular things during defaults, dumau rarely gets caught off-guard, and his ability to stay alive is instrumental to his team's success. It's in the rounds where dumau decides to make plays that he's really dangerous, as he can get multi-kills and open up bombsites on his own. Yeah also likes faking a bombsite and sending dumau in, letting him work his magic. His seemingly supernatural abilities stem from his profound understanding of in-game rotations and impressive knowledge of off-angles. He isolates his fights and gets picks against unsuspecting enemies. In a default, dumau will usually regroup with his teammates and tends to be put in favorable positions, often the second or third man in with the sole mission of trading his teammates and closing out rounds. 

On CT sides, dumau is pretty versatile but tends to play around the same site he would be lurking near on default T sides. Sometimes he anchors the bombsite, other times he plays positions that allow him to rotate quicker or get on fast flanks. He is also usually the one to pick up the secondary AWP and has shown great prowess with the sniper rifle, though he usually prefers to use an M4A4 or AK-47.

While dumau's mechanical abilities, such as his aim and movement, are certainly very impressive, it's his calm personality that makes him an outstanding player. He rarely ever lets nerves get the best of him and seemingly treats every game with the same degree of importance, rarely ever overextending for a kill. As mentioned previously, his understanding of his surroundings is really what makes him stand out, best exemplified by how he will pick up weapons from corpses without ever directly looking at the body or gun; he knows where someone has died, what the weapon was, and decides in a split second if it's more beneficial for him to swap rather than reload.

A bright future

Currently 16 years old and living abroad, dumau has showcased incredible maturity and a great understanding of the game, especially considering his young age. He has so much room to grow and has accumulated a decent amount of experience in his few years of play. With FURIA Esports reportedly looking to sign a sixth player or MIBR presumably looking to fill the vacant spots in its roster, dumau would be an amazing addition to either team. He's already located in NA, has a decent amount of experience under his belt, has averaged an impressive 1.14 rating in his career, and has shown incredible game sense. He's a prodigy, and the opportunity to play under a seasoned captain such as FalleN or arT, alongside some of his country's best players, would allow him to grow at an exponential rate. Regardless, it's clear that dumau has a bright future ahead of him, as he has the skills and mindset to become one of Brazil's household names in a couple of years.