CSGO star wins IEM Cologne match after bringing crystals with him to stop “negative energy”

CS:GO star Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov brought along some crystals with him for Cloud9’s 2-1 wain against GamerLegion at IEM Cologne.

Esports pros have been known to bring things on stage with them during official matches for good luck. Some have brought plushies and stuffed animals to place alongside their setup, while others have donned masks, like FaZe Clan’s Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, to psych out their opponents.

At IEM Cologne, Cloud9’s sh1ro added a new wrinkle to these on-stage antics and brought along crystals to his team’s match against GamerLegion. The Russian player, who joined Cloud9 when the squad was acquired from Gambit Esports on April 24, 2022, brought along five different rocks to the match.

He set them aside on his left and played the match like he normally would and has not addressed the crystals at the time of writing. The rocks were first spotted by CS:GO broadcaster Alex ‘Mauisnake’ Ellenberg.

Cloud9 CS:GO player wins match with crystals at his side

Mauisnake explained some of the crystal’s meanings in a segment after Cloud9’s win. He identified two of the rocks as amethyst and aventurine. Amethyst, the broadcaster said, is used to ward off negative energies while aventurine balances erratic emotions.

The crystals must have worked because Cloud9 won the match 2-1, and sh1ro himself had a monster game. He ended the series with 78 total kills across three maps, 41 of which were AWP frags, and notched the highest HLTV 2.0 rating in the server at 1.42.

This is Cloud9’s first event with its new roster after acquiring the former NAVI duo of Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy and Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov during the player break. The squad started off the event with a 2-1 loss to Fnatic, but have since rebounded and are on a three-game winning streak.

The win against GamerLegion qualified Cloud9 for the playoff stage of IEM Cologne where they will match up against Team Vitality in the quarterfinals.