VALORANT's Next Superstar: The Story of EG Demon1
Max “Demon1” Mazanov is one of VALORANT’s rising stars in the VCT 2023 season. After starting the 2023 season as a substitute for Evil Geniuses, the talented duelist quickly made his way into the starting lineup in the VCT Americas League leading the team to one of the most unlikely arcs in competitive VALORANT. By the end of week four of the VCT Americas League, Evil Geniuses stood at a 1-3 record, but by the end of the regular season they found themselves as the sixth and final seed going into the playoffs.
From Rags To Riches
Not much was expected of the team going into the postseason before VCT Masters Tokyo. The VCT Americas League postseason was a dream for Evil Geniuses, let alone the thought of them playing at VCT Masters Tokyo. Yet, through unwavering confidence from Demon1 in the face of some of VALORANT’s greatest teams saw Evil Geniuses make their way to VCT Masters Tokyo and just fall shy of the trophy in Tokyo.
Now, he sets his sights on closing out his 2023 rookie season with a victory at VALORANT World Champions. This is Demon1’s story of overcoming multiple obstacles to place himself in the conversation for one of the best players in competitive VALORANT.
VALORANT Champions 2023 will run from August 6-26 where 16 teams have been competing to become the third VALORANT World Champion. Now, only eight teams remain as they enter the double-elimination bracket which is set to take place from August 16-26.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.