Boaster: “Let’s fight Sentinels”
Fnatic had a tumultuous start to 2021, triggering changes in the team. Jake “Boaster” Howlett, as captain and in-game leader, was at the heart of all those changes.
2020 ended as best as it could for Boaster’s squad, finishing First Strike — the biggest VALORANT competition until then — in second place, after defeating FunPlus Phoenix and losing to Heretics in the Grand Final. They kept the squad as they faced a new year, but showed great difficulties.
They reached Stage 1 Challengers Main Events, but were repeatedly struck down in their opening match. First they were stunned by Wave, then defeated to the same FPX they had defeated and, finally, were upset by Ballista. This triggered changes in the team, leading to them adding Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev and Martin “MAGNUM” Penkov to the lineup, occupying the seats previously filled by Kostas “tsack” Theodoropoulos andMuhammad “Moe40” Hariff.
After taking some time to settle in, they haunted the competition in Challengers 2 as they bested G2, Vitality and Liquid. Being qualified to the EMEA Challengers Playoffs, they overtook Oxygen, Guild and Gambit. This last game earned them a spot at the Stage 2: Masters Reykjavik, the first international LAN in the history of VALORANT, as well as one of the first LAN tournaments of 2021 in general. It was under this context I went to speak with Boaster, following his win against Gambit.
This interview was originally conducted for Fraglíder, the Portuguese outlet I write for and to where I dedicate most of my time. At the same time, I write for VLR.gg. To avoid any possible conflicts but still make this interview available to an English-speaking audience, I decided to place it on Medium for anyone to read. For Fraglíder I made some clarity and duration edits, which I dialed back on here. You’ll get a much rawer sense of Boaster and what the team went through. Enjoy! If anyone from my (admittedly small) Portuguese audience is here, feel free to check out the translated version over on Fraglíder.
A massive thank you to Boaster for finding some time and accepting this interview after such a tiring couple of days. It was my first interview with an international player and my first interview with a professional VALORANT player, an experience I hope to repeat.
Eutalyx: After a good end to last year you had a very troubling start to 2021. You finished top 4 in the Home Ground but struggled a lot in VCT’s Stage 1, never going beyond the first round. So I wanna start off by asking you how, if at all, did the months leading up to the EMEA playoffs [excluding Challengers 2] affect you guys?
Boaster: Obviously we had a different roster for Stage 1, and it felt like other teams were starting to either catch up or get ahead of us. It didn’t feel like it was a team/strategy reasoning, it felt like a team experience sort of thing. And when you’re playing for Fnatic you need to start getting wins and there’s players out there that could be better for that. That’s kind of what happened. Then, obviously the roster swap happened solely because we needed to start getting some results and Masters 2 came, and honeymoon period and whatnot, and definitely the two new players are really stepping up massively, and here we are today — we qualified!
Eutalyx: After that troubling Stage 1 it definitely felt like changes were due. You benched tsack and Moe40 to bring in a top Finnish talent in Derke and MAGNUM. I’d like to know sort of how both players came to be chosen, but especially MAGNUM, being the lesser known of the two.
Boaster: You see players out and about in teams and whatnot, doing really well but not really getting anywhere, and I think that was the case for MAGNUM. He was in a team, he seemed to be performing really well but they’d always lose to one of the top, top teams. And it used to be kind of that history. And so, when we needed a Sentinel, we looked him up and he looked pretty good and we brought him in for trials. I think we trialled him, like, for four days — four different times. The first time he trialled with Derke, funnily enough, and Mini then said “I think this could be the two that we actually want”. Derke could only do one day, and Derke, literally, just popped off in his scrim and then just, obviously, went to go play the CIS tournament quickly that he was in under CrowCrowd, and he was popping off in that so we knew that Derke was a yes, instantly. And obviously, he’s just a smart player and I think he’s going to be one of the best players in the EU, or could be one of the best players in EU right now in terms of his mentality and professionalism, and, also, how good he is obviously. With MAGNUM, we trialed him and he was doing really well, his comms were really well and it felt like he understood and was, like, really clued onto the game and I think that’s kind of what you needed in a Sentinel. Someone who could really step when we needed it and that’s kind of what he did. He brought more, because he came from a different team, he brought, like, a different viewpoint of the game that we, obviously being the same five, didn’t see because we were under one leadership. But he was obviously testing some other bits and bobs, you know?
Eutalyx: I think it was mini who had said MAGNUM was quick to suggest creative solutions in-game.
Boaster: Yeah, exactly, that’s exactly it. And that’s when you kind of know that this player is thinking and is good at the game.
Eutalyx: Barring your seeding loss to Acend for S2: Challengers 2, you’re on a streak of eleven wins. Has any fatigue showed in the team or are the energies still at the top [ofc you’re feeling good going to Masters but prior to the EMEA playoffs]?
Boaster: Energies are really high. I wouldn’t say fatigue, because I love playing this game and I love practicing. Obviously there’s days where I’m more tired because it’s quite a lot to do, and especially in preparation within the G2, the Vitality games and all those games, there’s a lot of prep involved in them and a lot of, like, 24/7, around the clock work. I wake up, instantly get on VALORANT and I have lunch, dinner and whatnot. In the evenings I was still on [VALORANT] preparing for the games and whatnot. For me, it was definitely tiring but I wouldn’t say fatigue because I love doing it and I love to win, so I was just… doing my job [laughs], essentially.. But it’s going to be nice to have a day off after the Liquid game, that’s for sure.
Eutalyx: You made the Playoffs by a comfortable margin and you put up great results against G2, Vitality and Liquid. Was there any special preparation for Challengers 2?
Boaster: We had to show Derke and MAGNUM all our setups, and I had to add a lot more strats to our setups, so we’d have a bit more variety and were harder to anti-strat. So there was that, and when it came to Ascent or Split we had to decide which map we wanted to focus on for the last few games, like the Guild, Oxygen and the Gambit game, and it came to Ascent. And, literally, I was like “Do you want to play Viper [Mistic]? I feel like Viper’s really strong” and we kind of just went with that. I went home that evening and I made, like… I can count how many strats… [shuffles through paper] I made 10 strats on Defending side. And those 10 strats seemed to really carry us versus Guild. So I think it’s just, like, a lot of hard work. Sorry, I think I jumbled that question. It’s just a lot of preparation, just a lot of preparation. All maps.
Eutalyx: In the EMEA tournament you played against one team of every region: Oxygen, Guild and Gambit. Who did you feel deserves a bigger spotlight in the future? And who presented themselves as the weakest?
Boaster: I don’t think I should say anyone’s weaker than the other. But I think all three teams — Gambit is a solid team, I think Oxygen are a solid team and I think Guild are a solid team. So we, like, came into the game preparing the most that we can and with the most respect for the teams that we had. With respect to the team, we prepared as we would for any team, really. When it comes to this stage, we want to win.
Eutalyx: I raised you this question mainly because I’ve seen people complain CIS deserves a bigger spotlight. I don’t know what your thoughts on that?
Boaster: I’m not really one to comment on that because, obviously, it’s the organizer and Riot and whatnot. So, if Riot do that, they do that, you know? I can’t complain, I’m just here to play video games.
Eutalyx: In the live post-match interview you said you want to face NA and Korea. Any special teams you’d like to be matched up against? Vision Strikers and 100 Thieves are out of contention so you could potentially face some unexpected names like DAMWON or C9 Blue.
Boaster: I don’t actually know who’s qualified, I don’t even know who’s going…
Eutalyx: No one’s qualified right now. Fnatic and Liquid are the only team into Iceland. But when it comes to Korea it’s between DAMWON and NUTURN.
Boaster: Yeah… I’d go with, uhm… I think Vision Strikers was my main goal, so I wouldn’t say anyone from Korea because I think NUTURN are actually quite good and I don’t know DAMWON as much. Let’s go with Sentinels, if they qualify. Any of the NA teams, really — Envy, Cloud9, Sentinels — they all have, like, really experienced players and it would be nice to just play against them and see where we stand against them. Let’s go with Sentinels, ’cause why not, you know?
Eutalyx: Sentinels and NUTURN?
Boaster: Yeah, I’d say NUTURN. I mean, I’m not too bothered about Korea, I was only bothered about Vision Strikers because, obviously, they had that crazy run. But it seems like the scene has caught up with them now, so I’d say just Sentinels really. Let’s fight Sentinels. NA, just NA. Both teams that qualify from NA, let me fight them.
Eutalyx: Alright. Well, that’s all I had for you. I know you’re probably tired, you’ve had a long couple of games over the last days so thanks for slotting me in.
Boaster: That’s okay! Thank you for interviewing me, I hope you have a nice evening and hopefully we do another one in the future!
Eutalyx: You too!
