The 21-year-old Brazilian beat G2 and paiN at PGL Astana 2025, was benched twice by ODDIK and won two titles without an organisation before Legacy called.
Italo “ksloks” Meinberg will play the last three events of 2026 for Legacy. The Brazilians moved n1ssim to the bench on Wednesday and handed the spot to a free agent who has never played a Major. He makes his debut at IEM Beijing on 2 November against The MongolZ, then plays BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 2 and the PGL Major Singapore.
- Full name: Italo Meinberg Couto
- Born: 31 March 2005 (21 years old)
- Nationality:
Brazilian - Role: rifler
- Team:
Legacy, starter from 28 October 2026 to the end of the season - Previous teams: RUSH Youngsters, Pólux, Amazon Cripz, Rehl, Sharks Youngsters, Vikings KR, ODDIK, Turma do Pagode
- Biggest event: PGL Astana 2025, ninth to 11th with ODDIK
- Titles in 2026: CCT Season 3 South American Series #7 and Aorus League Brazil 2026 with ODDIK, ESL Challenger League Season 52 South America Cup #2 and CCT South America 2026 Series #6 with Turma do Pagode
An academy player at 15
ksloks started out with RUSH Youngsters in January 2021, two months before his 16th birthday, and passed through Pólux, Amazon Cripz and Rehl before Sharks signed him for their academy side in October 2022. That is where he first stood out. Sharks Youngsters won the June 2023 edition of Gamers Club Liga Série A, Brazil’s top amateur league, and ksloks was named MVP. Draft5 counted 329 kills against 239 deaths for the 18-year-old over the event.
After a few months with Vikings KR in 2024, ODDIK signed him in July that year. The team was built around captain Adriano “WOOD7” Cerato and João “naitte” Maia, and it won quickly. ODDIK took KaBuM! Legends 2024, the Circuito Estadual FERJEE 2024 and CBCS Season 5, where they beat Legacy 3-2 in the final.
Benched, then called back
The first year did not end well. In December 2024 ODDIK moved ksloks to the bench and put him on the market. He thanked WOOD7 for the chance on X and said he was open to offers. Three months later, on 14 March 2025, the team brought him back for the regional qualifiers for the BLAST.tv Austin Major. WOOD7 explained the decision on X.
The captain called him “an extremely active player, an individual gem of our scene” who had played a key part in the titles of 2024, and admitted the split had been a team problem as much as his (translated from Portuguese).
Unfortunately, at the end of last season, the team faced some disagreements in solving problems within the game, which significantly affected our peak performance. Living through a different moment, I believe he returns much better prepared and fills all the gaps we were missing to reach our goal.
Austin itself did not happen. ODDIK went out of the South American regional qualifier at fifth to sixth place after a 2-1 defeat to Legacy.
Astana 2025, where the wider scene saw him
The bigger stage came a month later. ODDIK won the South American qualifier for PGL Astana 2025 with a 3-2 final against Imperial, and travelled to Kazakhstan as the lowest-ranked team in the field on VRS. They lost their opener 2-1 to Astralis, then beat G2 and paiN in successive days.
ksloks was the reason for both. Against a G2 side playing with a stand-in, he opened and closed ODDIK’s Anubis pick with quad kills and finished the series 49-41. Against paiN he went 44-25 with 94.5 ADR and 85.1% KAST, the best line on the server, and turned a 2v5 on Anubis into a round win with an MP9 ace that PGL clipped on its broadcast channel. ODDIK had not won a single map in six meetings with paiN in 2024.
ODDIK2-1
G2StatsPGL Astana 2025, Swiss round 2: Anubis 13-8, Dust2 3-13, Nuke 13-9
| ODDIK | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ksloks | 49-41 | +8 | 84.5 | 71.2% |
| pancc | 46-38 | +8 | 94.5 | 66.1% |
| naitte | 38-41 | -3 | 75.8 | 69.5% |
| matios | 35-38 | -3 | 61.6 | 71.2% |
| WOOD7 | 25-43 | -18 | 51.5 | 71.2% |
| G2 | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 HeavyGod | 52-37 | +15 | 83.1 | 72.9% |
 malbsMd | 43-42 | +1 | 94.3 | 69.5% |
 hades | 40-41 | -1 | 67.5 | 72.9% |
| TaZ | 35-36 | -1 | 60.3 | 69.5% |
| Snax | 28-39 | -11 | 62.9 | 62.7% |
ODDIK2-0
paiNStatsPGL Astana 2025, Swiss round 3: Anubis 13-10, Nuke 13-11
| ODDIK | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ksloks | 44-25 | +19 | 94.5 | 85.1% |
| pancc | 37-28 | +9 | 78.6 | 78.7% |
| naitte | 35-27 | +8 | 69.7 | 76.6% |
| WOOD7 | 25-29 | -4 | 61.0 | 76.6% |
| matios | 20-33 | -13 | 59.7 | 70.2% |
| paiN | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 dgt | 35-27 | +8 | 72.4 | 74.5% |
| biguzera | 29-30 | -1 | 71.1 | 66.0% |
| snow | 29-36 | -7 | 77.0 | 70.2% |
 dav1deuS | 29-37 | -8 | 62.9 | 76.6% |
| nqz | 19-31 | -12 | 46.9 | 63.8% |
Two wins were as far as it went. ODDIK lost 2-0 to FURIA with a playoff place on the line and 2-0 to Aurora in the elimination match, and finished ninth to 11th. It is still the only top-tier international event of his career.
A second bench and a team without an organisation
2026 began with titles for ODDIK at CCT Season 3 South American Series #7 in January and Aorus League Brazil in March. On 3 April they lost the final of the South American qualifier for PGL Astana 2026 3-1 to 9z, and the VRS update of 6 April left them 14th in the Americas and out of the Cologne Major. On 15 April ODDIK moved ksloks, WOOD7 and naitte to the bench.
The three kept playing together. Because the invites belonged to them as the team’s VRS core, they finished the events they were already registered for under the name Turma do Pagode, with João “felps” Vasconcellos and Matheus “pesadelo” Panisset. On 22 July ksloks and ODDIK ended his contract by mutual agreement after two years. He wrote on X that it had been “a phase of a lot of learning and development” and that he was free of contract (translated from Portuguese).
The same month he played for Brazil with WOOD7 and naitte in the South American qualifier for the Esports Nations Cup 2026, where Brazil secured a place at the event in Riyadh. From August the Turma do Pagode project returned, and within a week, on 29 September and 4 October, it won the second Cup of ESL Challenger League Season 52 in South America and CCT South America 2026 Series #6, beating Galorys 2-1 in that final. On 5 October ksloks left, saying he needed October for family and personal matters and would be back in November (translated from Portuguese).
My desire to compete only grows. I feel that I am living a very good phase, both individually and mentally, and I am extremely motivated to come back, compete at a high level and give my maximum in this next stage.
The numbers behind the call
ksloks is a rifler, and the numbers point to a player who wins fights. In the three months to 28 October, mostly against South American tier-two opposition, he averaged 0.79 kills and 0.61 deaths per round over 55 maps. Over the same period, against much tougher teams, latto averaged 0.74 and 0.60, try 0.73 and 0.60, dumau 0.70 and 0.68, and n1ssim 0.63 and 0.62.
He was a regular in HLTV’s Prospects ranking of young players, with a best position of 28th, before he aged out of it on turning 21. The jump from Challenger League cups to IEM is the open question. His only data at that level is the five series in Astana.
What Legacy get
Legacy first registered him as a reserve before PGL Masters Bucharest, after a run of health problems. arT missed ESL Pro League Season 24 with meningitis, try was taken to hospital with an eye infection and latto needed urgent treatment for a bladder infection. Américo Verde, Legacy’s manager, explained the idea to Dust2 Brasil (translated from Portuguese).
After these events, we thought about having a player who could be ready in case of an emergency.
A week later he is not the emergency option but the replacement for a player who was part of every Legacy trophy in 2026. He knows the opponents from the other side of the server. ODDIK beat Legacy in the CBCS Season 5 final in 2024, then lost to them in the Austin Major qualifier in 2025 and at FERJEE In House in March 2026. ksloks answered Legacy’s announcement on X with “Bora para cima”, Portuguese for roughly “let’s go”.
The switch does not put Legacy’s Major place at risk, as our news story explains. What they need from him is a lift after three disappointing events in a row, and it starts with a rematch against the side that knocked them out of Bucharest less than a week earlier.
