Coldzera: " I already conquered everything I wanted to conquer"

At his height, Marcelo "Coldzera" David was the HLTV #1 Player of the Year for 2016 and 2017. Since then his career has evolved and in 2024 he has taken on a new role as the veteran leader in Legacy. Guiding younger players like Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer, Bruno "latto" Rebelatto, and Bruno "b4rtiN" Câmara is now his full time job.

So far, he has been excellent as what he has done. Legacy is now in the 2-2 matchup today with a shot at qualifying for the Elimination Stage of the Major and giving the Americas region another spot for the Shanghai Major. All of this is a vast improvement for the nation on the international stage compared to the previous few years. Coldzera spoke with Dust2.us' Ryan Friend while in Copenhagen to talk about the team, his evolution as a player, and how he feels that the Americas is improving.

Below are snippets of the conversation while the full interview is available on YouTube.

What does it feel like to be returning to this stage of international competition, especially with this group of guys, especially with some of these younger players?

I think it’s a little bit different, right? When I joined my first team, Luminosity, I played with FalleN and Fer who were already playing in Europe. So now when I play with the kids, it’s a bit more special for me because I already conquered everything I wanted to conquer in my career. With them, it’s different, you know? I feel good playing with them, I want them to win as well, so I am trying to do my best possible. I am 29 years old now and have different priorities in my life. At the same time, I do my best to play 10, 11, 12 hours a day. I’m trying my best to make them win something or at least help them grow as a human and as a player.

I have, I don’t know, maybe one year and a half, maybe two years before I’m going to be out from competition and I want them to grow as soon as they can. I want them to grow a lot, to have the potential to win something in the future.

How has the addition of NEKIZ helped change this team?

NEKIZ is a really chill guy. The swap for me becoming a player that can help NEKIZ inside the game as a second caller was good because he can control the game better than me. I’m too emotional as well, so if something bad happens in the game, I’m going to be very frustrated which is not good when you are an IGL. So I think the change was really nice. He has a good mindset, he doesn’t tilt, he doesn’t get mad. If things don’t work, it doesn’t work, but if things work, things work, and we try to fix it if it doesn’t work. I think he’s doing a great, a really great job.

We could see the Americas RMR having eight spots for the Shanghai Major. What does that mean for our region as a whole?

I think it’s very nice. Every time that you see so many good talents in Brazil and in America that could have been in the Major and showed their ability, but they couldn’t because we sometimes have five spots or six spots. Many teams are going to be sad, so it’s good if everyone could qualify here and have four Brazilian teams in the next stage. Everything is going to be very helpful because we have to have eight spots. I think people are going to be very happy about that and you’re going to see a lot of new talents, as well as a lot of new teams.