Over the last year, the pro VALORANT scene has witnessed the rise of multiple new stars, including a North American phenom that has taken over as the best player in the region—and the best rifler in the world.
Max “Demon1” Mazanov proved himself to be one of the deadliest players to face off in a full-on duel, winning 59 percent of his total rifle-on-rifle encounters, according to stats aggregate RIB.gg. He led all VCT players with 500 total engagements in this stat, outdoing superstar players such as Fnatic’s Emir “Alfajer” Beder and Natus Vincere’s Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin.
Before joining Evil Geniuses, the 21-year-old had not seen much playtime in top-tier competition, after having played with one other team in his short career. With only a few event under his belt, Demon1 was an unknown quantity to the VCT scene, but he quickly became one of the most indispensable members of the roster and a fan favorite among the NA faithful.
Eventually, he grew to become one of the best and most feared gunners in the region, boasting one of the highest average combat scores during VCT Americas this year. As the year raged on, Demon1 would help Evil Geniuses become runners-up at Masters Tokyo, and eventually helped the team capture VALORANT Champions as the most valuable player of the tournament.
At Champions, Demon1 leveled up to another degree for his squad, averaging a whopping 20 kills per map with a destructive 246 ACS, according to Liquipedia. He had the second-most kills in the event behind superstar duelist Erick “aspas” Santos, while also headhunting with a tournament-leading headshot rate of 39 percent.
Looking ahead, Demon1 will need to build upon the kingdom that he has created for himself, as teams begin to shift and star-studded rosters begin to form before the start of next season.
