Demon1, who hadn’t been with a team since September 2025, will now play as a substitute for Oxy on Cloud9 during the first stage of the VCT Americas 2026 season.
Maximilian “Demon1” Mazanov is now playing for Cloud9, temporarily filling in for Oxy, who had to leave the VCT Americas league due to a family matter. This marks the fifth team Demon1 has played for since the start of the league’s current format, making him one of the most frequently moved players.
Demon1 joins Cloud9
Following their victory at VALORANT Champions 2023, Cloud9 will have a substitute player, Oxy, at the VCT Americas 2026 Kickoff event. Oxy recently announced the loss of a family member and is taking a break from competitive play.
Demon1 hadn’t been on a team since September 2025, when he last played briefly for Dragon Ranger Gaming. He mentioned he was thinking about retirement if he couldn’t find a team to play for in the 2026 season.
Joining Cloud9 marks the fifth team for this player, putting him in an exclusive club of those with the most team changes since the beginning of professional VALORANT.
Demon1 path after Champions’ glory
Demon1 quickly proved himself as a rising star in the second tier of competitive VALORANT, leading to a signing with Evil Geniuses in 2023. The team, dubbed a “super team,” achieved remarkable success within a single year: they finished third in the VCT 2023: Americas League, took second place at Masters Tokyo, and ultimately won the VALORANT Champions 2023 tournament. Their powerful gameplay was unmatched by most teams that season. However, by the year’s end, all of the players had left the organization.
After 2023, Demon1 faced challenges in the VCT. Although he joined NRG in 2024, he was benched after only five months. He became a free agent in October and subsequently signed with Leaviatán.
The Argentinian team didn’t win any championships this season. In May 2025, Demon1 was benched, and he didn’t play for another team after that, leading many to believe he retired.
In September 2025, he surprisingly signed with Dragon Ranger Gaming, a Chinese esports organization, to fill in for Ilya “vo0kashu” Ushakov. Ushakov couldn’t participate in the 2025 VALORANT Champions tournament because of visa problems. Ultimately, the team didn’t advance far in the competition.
Towards the end of 2025, Demon1 shared on his stream that he might retire from competitive play in 2027 if he couldn’t find a team for the 2026 season. However, just a month later, he announced he was joining Cloud9 as a substitute player for Oxy. Now, all attention will be on how he performs in the first stage of the VCT Americas 2026 tournament.
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2026-01-23 14:41