The NAVI academy prospect is blossoming into a T-side opening monster.
In an era of strong CT-side riflers in CS2, makazze is the exception that proves the rule. Today, he was excellent on both sides, carrying NAVI with 7 opening kills on Mirage and Ancient.
“It was easy […], sad for the Mongolz fans” makazze said succinctly after the game. He added that he liked morning games, explaining why he could so easily gulp down the Mongolz for breakfast.
One of the world’s best T-side players
While most star players get their work done on CT-side, makazze is one of the few players who have a near-equal split.
| Aggressive riflers | CT-side rating | T-side rating |
| donk | 1.45 | 1.20 (-17.2%) |
| xertioN | 1.12 | 1.01 (-9.8%) |
| makazze | 1.10 | 1.11 (+0.9%) |
makazze is within the 20 top-rated players on the T-side in the world, and one of the very few aggressive riflers who shines more on T-side than CT-side.
One of the others is Twistzz, who holds an absurd 1.27 T-side rating despite FaZe’s failures. However, he does this from more passive positioning than makazze.
Out of the best aggressive riflers, not even the very best can keep up their CT-side stats on the offense. While donk is an unmatchable demon in this area, even he drops off on T side.
Attempts an opening 3 out of 10 round
In 29,4% of rounds, young makazze is going for an opening kill. That goes up to nearly one of every three rounds with 44% success on the T-side.
Overall, he manages to get the opening half of the time, providing NAVI a crucial 5v4 benefit to work with.
B1ad3: “His performance was pretty confident”
In an interview with HLTV, NAVI coach B1ad3 highlighted how makazze has gained confidence over time.
“Maybe he just became more comfortable day by day, adapting and knowing better what to do,” B1ad3 said. “makazze is also [confident], he has played some good tournaments with us and he knows that we can beat strong opponents.”
Blad3 is a proponent of giving his teams time to fully power up, and makazze could be the catalyst.
