Alexandre "Gaules" Borba Chiqueta is one of the biggest streamers on the planet. On any given week his Twitch channel might be broadcasting a Counter-Strike Major, a Formula 1 race, or an NBA game, all in Portuguese, to an audience large enough to make traditional TV networks nervous.
But his follower count isn't the most interesting part of his story. What's truly impressive is that less than a decade ago, he had absolutely nothing. He built this entire global empire from a simple late-night stream that he originally started just to survive.
Gaules: The Quick Profile
Real name: Alexandre Borba Chiqueta
Born: December 2, 1983 (age 42), São Paulo, Brazil
Nationality: Brazilian
Community: A Tribo (The Tribe)
Esports peak: g3x player, then the first coach in history to win a major international Counter-Strike title, with MIBR at DreamHack Winter 2007
Main game: Counter-Strike 2 (Portuguese-language casting)
Gaules was there at the start of Brazilian Counter-Strike. He co-founded the team g3nerationX (g3x) in 2001 and spent years as a prominent player, then made history from the coach's chair.
In 2007 he led MIBR to victory at DreamHack Winter, becoming the first coach ever to win a major international Counter-Strike tournament, beating a stacked SK Gaming to do it. Long before Esports coaching was an established career, he was writing the playbook for it while laying the foundation for the entire Brazilian Counter-Strike scene.
Then it fell apart. In 2017 he was diagnosed with severe depression, and a run of business investments collapsed and took his money with them. By his own account he was left with nothing: no partner, no job, no money in the bank, and nowhere to live.
He has spoken openly, and unflinchingly, about attempting to take his own life late that year. Instead of burying that part of his past, he chose to be completely transparent about it. The turning point came in early 2018. With almost nothing left, he started his live streams late at night, not chasing fame, just looking for a reason to get through the day and a way to cover his rent and his medication.
The stream became a lifeline. Slowly, an audience formed around a man being completely honest about how bad things had gotten, and that honesty turned out to be the foundation for everything that came next.
The Power of "A Tribo"
This is the origin of "A Tribo," the Tribe, and it is why the name fits. It is a fiercely loyal community bonded by Gaules's transparency about his mental health and his relentless "o impossível não existe" ,"the impossible does not exist" attitude. He built a family, not a platform of followers.
The defining moment came at the PGL Major Antwerp 2022. During the do-or-die match between the Brazilian side Imperial and Cloud9, Gaules's watch party peaked at 707,648 concurrent viewers, a national record for Brazilian esports.
This put him straight into the all-time top 10 of Twitch history. It also broke a Portuguese-language viewership record previously held by mainstream celebrities, not a Counter-Strike caster.
He turned a co-stream from a desk into a virtual football stadium. Imperial won the series 2-1, and the Tribe lost its collective mind.
Bigger Than Esports
Gui Caielli
Eventually, his audience got so large that traditional sports networks had to pay attention. The NBA partnered with him to officially broadcast around 100 games a season on his Twitch channel.
Instead of a stiff commentary booth, it was just Gaules, his friends, and nonstop chat interaction.
Formula 1 did the exact same thing in late 2021, making him the first streamer to broadcast live race footage during the São Paulo Grand Prix. He completely blurred the line between mainstream sports and gaming culture, and he did it entirely on his own terms.
The Old-School CS Config
Gaules' is not the main draw of his channel the way it is for an active player. He learned the game in the early days of Brazilian Counter-Strike, and he still sticks to that exact same classic setup today. Here is the classic config that his generation swears by.
The Hardware
Monitor: 360Hz class (such as BenQ's Zowie line) - The standard competitive kit for high refresh rates.
Mouse: Lightweight competitive mouse - The go-to choice for fast, reliable aim.
The Counter-Strike Settings
Resolution: Stretched 4:3 - The classic setup that widens player models, making them slightly easier to hit.
Mouse Settings: Low DPI paired with a higher in-game sensitivity.
Crosshair: Clean and simple - No gimmicks, just a pure setup built for reading a fight fast.
A quick heads-up: Exact values drift over time. If you want his current settings down to the decimal, pull them from a live settings tracker rather than trusting an old screenshot.
The Voice of a Nation
His massive success proves that pure authenticity builds the most loyal communities. Instead of hiding his lowest points, he shared them openly.
Millions of viewers connected with that reality, choosing his stream over highly polished, corporate broadcasts. Today, he stands as the absolute voice of an entire country's gaming scene.
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