C0M on the new LEV: "I think Max (Demon1) is more aggressive than aspas, in my opinion."

The first round of matches at the VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Kickoff have now come to a close, and Leviatán came away with a convincing victory on their opening game of the season. Following his team's match against FURIA, Corbin Daniel "C0M" Lee sat down with THESPIKE for an exclusive interview.

Showing up for his second season with Leviatán with a brand new roster, C0M discussed the team's adaptation to playing with a new duelist, previous synergies, and reinventing himself as a player. Though the VCT 2025 Season has only just begun in the Americas, it has been a terrific start for Leviatán, and the team looks laser focused in working towards the ultimate goal.

Let's take a look at all the insights C0M was able to share with us on the start of his journey with a new Leviatán.

C0M

THESPIKE: You have a lot of experience playing with Max "Demon1" Mazanov in the past. Do you think some of that previously built synergy is still there? And if it is, has it been particularly useful when it came to trying to develop some sort of team identity with the new roster?

Yeah, I think for sure. I mean, me and Max (Demon1) have a lot of previous chemistry and obviously developing the new chemistry now in-game. I think it's like our whole game plan is building around Max, essentially, right? Building around him and his individual talents and what he wants to do. He's one of the biggest reasons that makes our team work.

So, I'm happy to team with him. And yeah, we have previous chemistry, of course.

THESPIKE: Could you talk to me about what has the change of going from Erick "aspas" Santos to Demon1 looked like in terms of play style and strategic approach to the game? What are some of the biggest differences that you see?

They're pretty similar, but I think Max is more aggressive than aspas, in my opinion. And he does very well in adapting to the system.

Like right now, we're developing a new system, obviously it's still in the works, of course. We're still making sure the kinks are out and stuff like that, but he's developing super well. He's very coachable, and he's a great person.

THESPIKE: You recently spoke to Rivington III about Nathan "nataNk" Bocqueho and this being the first time that you play with a European player. Can you talk to me about what are some of the different point of views that he brings to the team in-game coming from a different region?

I just think it's different in the way it's like more custom to what he was used to in Gentle Mates. Gentle Mates, to me, was a very aggressive team. There's some things that you need to make sure are bad habits from Gentle Mates, but there's also good things that he brought from Gentle Mates that are different and can catch teams off guard in Americas.

THESPIKE: Now, 27/14 was your KD on your opening map of the tournament. 221 ADR. Do you expect to be tapping into this of side of your game more often in 2025? Should we expect to see a more evenly balanced Leviatán this time around when it comes to fragging?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, at least for me personally, I've been working very hard in the offseason. I think more than even when we won VCT 2023 - Champions offseason, to be honest.

I've been working really hard to try to reinvent myself individually, kind of change the narrative on myself. And I think for us as a team, we have a lot of shooters that can turn on any game, you know? Any game, someone can go crazy. So it was just my game that time, and I'm just happy that I could do that to help my team win.

VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Kickoff

Leviatán

2

X

0

FURIA

Upper Bracket Quarter Final, Best of 3 - January 19, 2025 - 10:00PM

13

Haven

8

13

Split

6

Leviatán

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

C0M

1.36

276

41/27/9

+14

1.52

79.5%

192.8

26%

50%

3

3

kiNgg

1.34

250

37/23/15

+14

1.61

85.2%

146.7

41%

56%

5

4

nataNk

1.16

203

27/20/22

+7

1.35

80.0%

126.7

27%

50%

4

4

tex

0.75

162

24/25/4

-1

0.96

69.9%

103.6

31%

50%

4

4

Demon1

0.72

163

22/26/5

-4

0.85

70.4%

111.7

22%

50%

5

5

FURIA

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

havoc

1.06

237

29/33/11

-4

0.88

77.1%

159.1

26%

64%

9

5

khalil

0.97

188

28/29/9

-1

0.97

77.1%

120.5

43%

50%

3

3

mwzera

0.89

188

25/28/10

-3

0.89

69.9%

119.1

12%

57%

4

3

heat

0.62

156

22/32/2

-10

0.69

49.9%

106.4

37%

27%

3

8

raafa

0.61

123

17/29/9

-12

0.59

57.5%

89.6

16%

0%

0

2

THESPIKE: Speaking of that opening game, both you guys and FURIA pulled out a very standard comp on Haven. Is that because it’s the first official match of the season for you, and you want to try and sort of ease into things? Or are you just confident that that's the absolute best comp for Haven?

It's like a mix. I think at the start of teams, you kind of have to go to comfort for the most part. I'm sure the main consensus is Tejo is pretty OP overall, right? But I think it's also like, of course, you never know what I'm going to pull out later and stuff. But yeah, I just think we know the ways to beat that agent for the most part, and what the downsides of it overall are.

So, it's just about us finding our comfort, then building the chemistry on stuff we already know. Then we can develop into new comps if we feel like it's needed, you know?

THESPIKE: This is only the start of the season, but a great showing all the same. I’m curious, how do you think this team's power level measures up to last year's roster?

I would say we have a higher skill cap, I guess. Which is hard to say; saying that going from Aspas and Mazino, of course, who are very good in their own rights, to now that we have Demon1 and nataNk.

But I think we have a higher ceiling. I feel like this year I've kind of uncapped my own ceiling as well, where I feel like I kind of hit a limit. But this year I feel like I can surpass the limit by a lot, and hopefully I can show that more.

So yeah, I think overall in terms of firepower, we have a higher potential than we did with the old roster. I think now it's just about bringing that out for the future.

THESPIKE: You’ll be going up against G2 Esports or Cloud9 next. Do you have a preference on who you’d like to go up against for your next game of kickoff?

Definitely G2, just because I feel like everyone regards them as the best team in Americas right now, things like that. I think it's always fun to play the best team in Americas, because you really get to show who is the best, or if you feel like you're the best, then you can test yourself. And also, it's the best way to develop yourself as a team. You get to see gaps more. You get to see what's wrong with your defaults, stuff like that, because they're very good at reading it.

I think that's the biggest thing for me in this whole tournament overall, is just improving as a team and individually, as players. And then by the time the end of the year comes around, then we'll be the best.

THESPIKE: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us, C0M. Best of luck for the remainder of the VCT Season.

Note: Some minor parts of the interview may have been edited for the sake of clarity and or brevity.

For all things VCT-related, make sure to stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG as we continue to update you with the freshest game and esports news.

Featured image credit: Colin Young-Wolf/Riot Games