Peacemaker to Coach Liquid

May 17 2016

In a highly tactical game like CounterStrike, a man with a bird's eye view and an understanding of strategy is essential for any top team. After several weeks of searching for a new coach, we've finally found a man with a vision who we know can take us to higher places. We are excited to introduce former Tempo Storm coach Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu as our new CS:GO Coach.

Starting as a pro player in CS 1.6, peacemaker has been around the block longer than almost anyone. Most recently, he led Tempo Storm to 1st place at CEVO Gfinity Pro-League Season 9, and helped his team take the silver at DreamHack Austin 2016. While he has only worked as a full time coach for less than a year, he has proven instrumental in the success of his teams. His ability to keep his troops focused and disciplined marks him as a difference maker against big teams, and we should be able to feel his impact immediately.

The past few weeks has been a time of change for our CS:GO team. Despite the tumultuous happenings (s1mple, and parting ways with our coach James), our players continued to show up and perform (and possibly choke a bit I know, I know), competing and winning against some of the best rosters North America has to offer. We’ve been working to create the much needed calm that will allow us to build towards becoming the world class team we aspire to be. With Luis, we bring in a talented coach who has a wealth of strategical knowledge and guidance. Out of all the candidates we had for the coaching spot it was clear to us that Luis was the way to go. It is no secret we have been searching on how to optimize our IGL role, and we aim for Luis to take that spot on the team. Welcome to the team, peacemaker!

I also want to use this opportunity to thank Steve "jokasteve" Perino for his dedication and awesome stand-in coaching at DreamHack Austin and ESL Proleague London. The team greatly benefited from your support.

-Victor "Nazgul" Goossens

Here's peacemaker to introduce himself and explain the intricacies of working as a Counter-Strike coach.

Hi Luis! Welcome to Team Liquid. First of all, why don't you introduce yourself to the younger fans who might not know you.

Wassup everybody, my name is Luis Tadeu, 28 years old, born and lived in Brazil my whole life. Been in the Counter-Strike scene as a player since 2002, obviously with a couple breaks but never really managed to get away from the game. I have always been in-game leader/captain on most of my past teams, and I've been coaching since September 2015 and this is my passion and full time job.

You've been part of the Counter-Strike scene for over a decade, giving you a unique perspective on the game. How do you think things have changed since you first started?

Counter Strike is a really entertaining game to play and watch because the game keeps changing a lot. Back in the old days for example, I feel like the game was more about good strategies and good executions. Nowadays I feel like it's more simple, following a few fundamentals and with a lot of team work. Since I've been around for so many years, I always try to mix what I've learned during all these years and I also love to bring new things to surprise my opponents. That's the fun part about Counter-Strike nowadays: maps are being changed all the time. That means there's a lot of room for me to work and discover new things.

Do you think that your experience in different version of Counter-Strike helps you as a coach?

Definitely yes—in the end it's still Counter-Strike you know? The way you play the game might have changed but the fundamentals stay the same. The only thing you need to do is find the correct way to adjust to your opponents and obviously always be prepared to face anyone. That means you study your opponents to know their weaknesses and their strengths.

You mentioned earlier that you were always IGL or captain on your teams. Is playing as an IGL an important experience for an aspiring coach?

It depends on what kind of coach you are going to be. If you ever had experience leading teams that obviously helps you a lot to understand how your team should play and how they should react under difficulties and pressure situations. If you're planning to be a coach out of the game to only study opponents, then I don't think you need any IGL experience. But if you wanna in-game lead like I do, then in my opinion you should definitely have played and been a leader before, otherwise there is a high chance that it's not gonna work.

How much control do you exert on your players? Do you dictate as much as you can, or do you let your players do their own thing?

In my opinion it all depends on what kind of tactics we are going to use. I usually don't like to dictate or exert control on my players and that's something I learned along my career. The best way to deal with this is to teach them and show them with fundamentals why I want them to do certain things. But, in the end, they are the players and they need to have fun and do what they like. My job is to release pressure from them and find out the best way to make each one of them perform at their best.

Lots of coaches have different approaches to how they do their job. If you could compare yourself (your coaching style) to a coach in any professional sport, who would it be and why?

It's a funny question, but I guess I would compare myself to Jose Mourinho cos of the passion he shows for the sport. He loves to take risks in his career and he always pushes his players to the limit to make them perform at their best.

Mourinho is also the kind of coach that finds success wherever he goes. Moving to Team Liquid must be a big change for you, so what are you most looking forward to in this adventure?

Moving to Team Liquid is a big and special challenge in my career. This is the first time in the history of CS that a former Brazilian player has the opportunity to coach an international team. I had a lot of proposals during the week after I left Tempo Storm, and I choose Team Liquid cos of the project, the players and because I know what I am capable of doing with this team and especially when you have a good organization with good professionals working behind the scenes.

Any last words for the fans?

I would like to once again thank Team Liquid and all their sponsors for giving me this opportunity. Thanks to all my fans around the world (especially the Brazilian ones) for the passion and kind words I heard the last couple of days and I would like to let you know that you are one of the reasons that keep me motivated to do my job. Now it's time to fight for USA, but I'll never forget my home country. Obrigado pela força BRASIL!

[Translation: "Thanks for the support Brasil"]

Welcome, peacemaker. It's time to blow up some bombsites.

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