At the start of last year’s season, reigning VALORANT champion Kelden “Boostio” Pupello was one of several players to leave Evil Geniuses. In his first year with 100 Thieves, Boostio and the team won the first VCT Americas split, and barely missed out on Champions.
Ahead of his second season with 100T, Boostio took the time to talk to Insider Gaming. And rather than just talk about the upside of his own team, he also had something to say about a long-time rival.
The following interview has been edited slightly for clarity and length.
Q: I spoke to your former coach Potter earlier. We talked about the importance of keeping a roster core together between seasons. From the in-game leader’s perspective, how important is it to you to have that familiarity between players already?
It’s really important. It’s more important for the one or two people joining, because they’re going to be the ones out of comfort coming into our system. So when you keep a core, those players are going to be comfortable and [they] know what needs to happen in order to win.
So for us four, we won split one [last year], we know how to win. When we were winning we were considered one of the best teams in the world; we were owning everyone. Since we kept the coach, IGL, and three other players, it makes it easier on us and the new player. We just need to execute like we did before.
Q: How do you avoid replicating the slow start you had at Kickoff last year?
[Smiles] Yeah I hope we don’t go 0-2. I hope we make Masters. This first tournament is so early on in the year, that anyone can really luck out, to be honest. I feel like a lot of teams could get lucky, like LOUD last year. They were clearly not a top team but they ended up making it to [Masters] Madrid.
Q: Did bang’s departure catch the rest of the team off guard?
Me, bang, and Asuna all hang out in a Discord all the time, and we knew bang was leaving before the org knew or before the coach knew. When [Sentinels] contacted him, [since] he’s a younger kid and he doesn’t really know what he wants, he asked for advice. And so Peter and I told him: “Bro, go try out. You’re gonna get paid way more, you’re gonna be way more popular on Sentinels, go fucking do it. If you have to leave us, it sucks, but there’s no way you say no to that.”
Q: It was a very light offseason for you guys with just one official series played at an event. With VCT less than a week away, how prepared do you feel you are, especially with the new agent now in play?
I feel good. I think we are strong. Like I said, when we’re playing well, I think we’re the best team in the world, or [at least] one that can contend for a championship. And I think you have to be a pretty special team to even be in the argument to contend.
Like NRG, and this is clickbait but I fully believe it, are going to be a good team, probably. You have FNS on your team, and I think he’s the best NA IGL of all time, but with his mechanics, when you’re playing in championship matches, you’re not gonna win with someone like him on your team. It’s just not possible.
So for us, I think all five players are insane, if we just keep up mechanically like we normally are, which is better than a lot of teams, and keep our team play at a decently high level, we’ll just win.
Which teams from VCT Americas are going to reach Masters ? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.
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