HLTV Confirmed guest profile: Maniac

Mathieu "⁠Maniac⁠" Quiquerez will be the special guest on HLTV Confirmed on Monday, November 12. Prior to the show, we took a look at the Swiss pro-turned-analyst's career.

Hailing from Switzerland, the 28-year-old spent most of his professional CS:GO career in French teams, playing in squads such as LDLC, with whom he reached top-eight at the ESL Major Series One Katowice and third place at the ESL One Cologne Major, both in 2014.

Maniac was recruited by Titan that same year alongside Hovik "⁠KQLY⁠" Tovmassian and Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire. The team, which also counted current G2 players Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub and Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans, would go on to win the second DreamHack Stockholm Invitational, but saw their spot at the 2014 DreamHack Winter Major taken from them after the infamous cheating scandal surrounding KQLY, with the 28-year-old saying that he couldn't forgive his old teammate after the VAC ban was issued.

These days, Maniac is a mainstay on the desk at big events

Maniac, who speaks three languages and holds a Master's degree in Work Psychology, also tried his hand as a coach with his former rivals EnvyUs, where he worked with the current Vitality core of Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt, apEX and Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer as well as kennyS and Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey, before returning as a player in Unity and, later on, his former team, LDLC.

The 28-year-old announced his retirement in May 2018, citing that it was a "very emotional and well thought decision" after 11 active years in 1.6, Source and CS:GO, the Swiss generally held in high regard among players and fans alike throughout his career.

After standing down, Maniac has, as is the case with several former pros, become a popular analyst, where he has helped break down the action at big events such as ESL One Belo Horizonte, ESL One New York, DreamHack Masters Stockholm, EPICENTER 2018 and BLAST Pro Series in recent months. He will also be present at the upcoming SuperNova CS:GO Malta in late November.

The 28-year-old has recently put a hefty chunk of work into growing his stream, where he focuses on sharing game knowledge and insight into the life of a pro player while playing or breaking down demos from big matches. When he's not on the desk for big events, he usually streams in the evenings Europe-time, planning his streams week-by-week.

Upon retiring, Maniac cited "the hypnotizing thrill
of winning on the stage" as one of the "strongest moments" of his life

Maniac will be joining the panel for the upcoming episode of HLTV Confirmed, which airs on Monday, November 12 at 20:00 . If you have any questions for the pro-turned-analyst or want the panel to discuss a particular subject, leave us a comment below or find HLTV.org on Twitter and tweet at us.

You can find our Twitch channel right here: