Marcelo “coldzera” David is no longer a part of FaZe Clan’s CS:GO starting lineup, according to a report by Roque Marques from Brazilian website Globo Esporte.
The two-time Major champion and the best Counter-Strike player in the world in 2016 and 2017 won’t play for FaZe in the team’s upcoming tournaments, the report says. This news comes as a huge blow to FaZe, who’s confirmed to attend IEM Summer, a $250,000 tournament that kicks off on Wednesday, June 3. It looks like Finn “karrigan” Andersen and crew might play with Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, a former member of the team who’s been a stand-in in the past and was spotted replacing coldzera in recent practice, according to a Reddit post.
The reason for coldzera’s benching is still unknown, but FaZe has been underperforming heavily since 2020. The additions of karrigan and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken in December and January weren’t enough to get the team out of their slump. The international team recently bombed out of Flashpoint Three, the first Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament for Europe in 2021, so that could have led to coldzera’s exit.
The Brazilian rifler joined FaZe from MIBR in September 2019, mainly to play with his friend, the Bosnian star Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. But the team only managed to win one tournament, the BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen in November 2019. NiKo parted ways with FaZe in October 2020 to join G2 and coldzera said at the time that he respected his decision. In that interview, the Brazilian also revealed that he didn’t want to play for a Brazilian squad in the near future.
Marcelo “coldzera” David is currently playing for FaZe Clan as a rifler. See the gear Coldzera is using below.
Former FaZe CS:GO coach Janko “YNk” Paunović, who worked with coldzera on MIBR as well, expressed his opinion on the matter. “Seems like the issues that plagued our team persisted even after NiKo and myself left,” YNk tweeted. “I can’t say I’m surprised but I’m sure this will benefit FaZe in the long term. Cold can still play on a very high level, hopefully this situation humbles him a bit and he comes back refreshed, whether it’s FaZe or some other team.”
Update June 1 11:05am CT: This article was updated to add YNk’s quote after publication.
