Biography
Epitácio «TACO» de Melo is a bright representative of the Brazilian Counter-Strike school. He has been present on the professional stage since 2011. Epitácio used the time to prove that he is one of the best in his business. Let us take a look at TACO’s story.
Beginning of Career
Like many other Brazilian children, TACO spent his childhood playing competitive games, in particular, computer games. He would sit in front of a PC playing at computer clubs. There Epitácio showed a high level of gaming which influenced his choice of future profession. He started his career in 2011. His first clubs were local rosters of Counter-Strike: Source gamers. Having shown no big results, TACO moved to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The first team for Epitácio was Dexterity Team. It was represented by promising new school gamers of the Brazilian Counter-Strike. One year later TACO moved to Nao Tem Como. The esportsman spent less than a month there and later joined Games Academy where he met FalleN. Being part of GA was not so successful, so the next team for the Brazilian was Luminosity Gaming.
Luminosity Gaming and First Success
When Epitácio joined Luminosity, the gamer showed a different game. The first matches of the Brazilian team showed that the gamers were ready to fight with the best teams on the planet. They proved it when they won MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016. After that success, TACO and his teammates were spotted by the German organization SK Gaming.
SK Gaming and Domination Period
Playing for SK Gaming, TACO and his teammates did not lose their gaming skills. They became the champions of Majors two more times: at ESL One: Cologne in 2016 and 2017. Apart from these glorious victories, SK Gaming became the champions of the lower rang tournament. Despite the huge success of the team, the roster got disassembled so TACO joined another famous club – Team Liquid.
Team Liquid and MIBR
While moving to the North American organization, Epitácio continued to play on a high level but it was not enough. The team was not able to cement the position of the best team on the planet and showed bleak results. The most prominent is second place at ELEAGUE CS: GO Premier 2018. Having played for Liquid for 8 months, TACO returned to the homeland where he joined his former teammates from SK Gaming and moved to MIBR.
MIBR and Individual Awards
Passing to MIBR did not help the gamer achieve his previous glory. The game was not delightful but TACO’s performance was still stable. One of the brightest results for MIBR was silver at Flashpoint – Season 1.
Despite the situation after the cancellation of SK’s gold roster, TACO has remained one of the best gamers of the modern Counter-Strike. He has two world champion titles and over 1 000 000 dollars as prize money.
CS:GO
CS:GO Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO for short) is a computer game from the genre of online tactical shooters. It was developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment and is the fourth part of the Counter-Strike series. The game was released on August 21, 2012 for Windows, Linux, macOS, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A release for the PlayStation 3 in Europe failed to materialize for unknown reasons. Global Offensive achieved a Metascore of 83 points. Since September 14, 2017, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has also been available in China via the Perfect World client. In December 2018, the game was switched to a free-to-play model, which drew criticism.