Interview: Adriano “WOOD7” Cerato – Professional CS:GO Player

The first interview of many who will come to our portal is with the professional Counter Strike Global Offensive player Adriano “WOOD7” Cerato. The Brazilian is 24 years old and is currently a player of the Bravos team, which disputes several championships in the Brazilian territory. Adriano tells us at Gaming Net how he emerged in the competitive scenario of CS:GO, remarkable moments of his career and expectations.

How did you start on Counter Strike until you became a professional player?

“My beginning as a player was in Counter Strike 1.6 where I played for 3 years until the end of 2011, that year I started my career as a football player on the under-20 team in my city when I was 16 years old. After that I started playing League of Legends, where I got very close to being a professional, but I had to drop out because I was studying Civil Engineering. A while later, I returned to Counter Strike but already in Global Offensive, and together with an acquaintance who played CS 1.6 8 years ago, we returned to play together by building a team of friends. We started playing in the Amateur League of CS:GO, and several well-known names from the scene passed through our team, Leonardo “LeoGOD” Silva, Matheus “Tuurtle” Anhaia and Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, who now defends FURIA. We kept growing with the same team, I ended up playing for INTZ and Nox Gaming, two teams from the Gamers Club Pro League, then returning to my friends' team”.

What was the most remarkable moment in your career as a CS athlete so far?

“The most memorable moment of my career was last year when I had to stop playing due to personal stress, it was a very difficult decision, thinking that I would never play again. We had a very good team, we were playing at the Top 3 level in Brazil, I liked to play with my teammates. After a few months, we played a Masters qualifier for fun with some friends and managed to qualify. It was a low point and a high point that most marked me”.

How is your life outside of CS: GO? Do you dedicate yourself 100% to the game or do you have any other job?

“I was never able to dedicate 100% of my time to the game, I have a degree in Civil Engineering and worked in my father's company for over 10 years. When I played for C4 Gaming I studied at night, worked morning and afternoon and played CS:GO at dawn, it was a very busy and stressful life. After graduating my routine changed, where I managed to dedicate more time to train and also to my girlfriend, who has been together for 8 years. Now at Bravos, it's the first time that I can dedicate myself 100% to the game, train at GH, study the game, I finally have time to dedicate myself to the game”.

Did you ever think about giving up being a professional player? Did you try your career in some other modality?

“As I mentioned earlier, at the time of C4 Gaming I had to give up, we were at a very high level, and personal problems did not let me continue, causing my life to get out of control and the best way to end it was to stop play. I thought I was not going to play again, but 3 months later after getting better, I started playing again and everything settled down”.

Which CS: GO player do you have as inspiration?

“The person I am most inspired by is Gabriel” FalleN “Toledo, maybe I am the person who most watched FalleN play. Since his first appearance, I watched him, at that time I watched all games and championships. Since he arrived at FireGamers, the retirement process of Raphael “cogu” Camargo, I followed everything. I watched all his games on CS 1.6, but when he migrated to CS:GO, I was dedicating myself to League of Legends, but even so, I watched the championships he was present at. All of this inspires me, for everything he did here in Brazil and I dream of playing with him one day”.

What are your expectations for the remaining Bravos games in CLUTCH Season 2?

“Our expectations for Clutch are the best possible, we entered the championship as one of the outstanding teams, with the potential to surprise. And that’s what we’re looking for, a campaign that can surprise all teams”.

At the Gamers Club Masters IV in December, still with the RUFUS team, you fell into the knockout stage for the champion paiN, how was the experience of that championship?

“It was a very good experience to have played Gamers Club Masters IV, we entered the championship from 4 consecutive titles in December. We were aware that we could have gone further, reaching the final or winning the title, as our game was very well matched, the players' phase and confidence was very high. It was really great to beat Tier 1 teams in Brazil and have beaten PaiN, but it was a little like we could have gone further”.

In the last few days, you competed in the qualifiers for ESL One Rio and Flashpoint, but not being able to qualify, do you take any learning to the next competitions?

“We participated in the Flashpoint qualifier, the two from Minor and WESG. It was a good experience even with the team for a while without training due to the holidays, but there was a feeling that we could have gone further by getting the places. We arrived in all the qualifiers and when we had the opportunity to play against the Tier 1 teams, we were unable to play our best game, but we were consistent against more balanced teams. The positive side is that our team is able to evolve in these games against the big teams, the general summary is that we had several positive points, we were sad that we didn't get the places, but we showed evolution ”.

What was the CS:GO event that you played that most marked you today?

“The two Gamers Club Masters that I played. It is a spectacular event, the first one I played was right after playing again, the last one in Maresias was 8 days being treated like kings, GC did an incredible job and marked me a lot. I want to play every edition because for the teams and players it is very beneficial, it is the true Brazilian Major”.

What is your biggest dream as a CS:GO player?

“My biggest dream as a player is to build a CS:GO team with friends, dominate the competitive scenario in Brazil and after that go abroad and consolidate myself as a winning team”.