Bold Proclamations: Evil Geniuses IGL Boostio makes a statement in recent podcast appearance

In-Game Leader for Evil Geniuses (EG), Kelden “Boostio” Pupello, has made a bold proclamation on his most recent podcast appearance. The 22-year-old Tokyo finalist appeared on the Hotline League podcast recently to speak on North America’s historic struggles with international success in esports titles.

 

What is Hotline League?

Hosted by esports personalities Travis Gafford and Mark Zimmerman, the podcast focused primarily on League of Legends but expanded to include other titles such as Valorant depending on the guest for the week. Generally, the guest is given a ‘hot take’ opportunity, in which they can ‘submit’ a hot take for discussion with the hosts and other guests on the show. “Boostio” delivered perhaps the hottest take of the night with his: North America will never win on international stages because of a lack of work ethic.

 

Setting the Stage

Evil Geniuses has most recently come off a 2nd place finish at VCT Masters: Tokyo, having lost to Fnatic in the Grand Finals. The North American roster made what many consider to be a miracle run through the VCT Americas Playoffs and Masters Tokyo, taking down teams such as Paper Rex, LOUD, Cloud9, and NRG.

“Boostio” himself has been competing within the North American scene since 2018. He began as a DPS specialist for Blizzard’s hero shooter title Overwatch, playing for a number of teams before retiring in December 2019. He swapped over to Valorant in 2020. EG has been his notable team, having joined in September 2021.

 

His Hot Take(s)

Having competed within the North American scene for over 5 years now and having played in the upper echelons for coming on 3 years now, he observed from speaking with his fellow North American competitors that the work ethic within the region is ‘weak.’ He attested that based on what he has heard since beginning to compete, the region was massively under-practicing. The hours logged in for practice as a region was something he described as ‘too easy’ and ‘disgusting,’ stating that it surprised him when he heard the details. For “Boostio,” who prided himself on a strong work ethic and logging in long hours for practice, he felt that the region had been taking it too easily.

He admitted that in League, the gap had become too wide to the point that North America had nearly no chance of catching back up with the dominant regions at this point. However, by contrast, he claimed that ‘China will never be better than NA for one in Valorant.’

 

China won't be close to us

According to “Boostio,” because China was so far behind the rest of the world in Valorant playtime and experience, as long as North American teams kept grinding, the gap would never close. That said, his statement runs in contrast to some of his earlier claims on the work ethic within the North American scene. Burnout is perhaps NA’s most relatable and thrown about word. The brutal scheduling of professional Valorant certainly doesn’t help, but it also cannot be denied that NA has perhaps seen the greatest number of players take breaks due to burnout.

Moreover, China in League of Legends is very well-known for their astonishing work ethic and large talent pool. Within less than a year of their first international debut, EDward Gaming (EDG) had placed 5th-6th at an international event. Meanwhile, aside from OpTic Gaming in 2022, NA has not won an international tournament in Valorant since Sentinels in 2021.

“I think the Korean teams can do damage. I think any of the Asian teams can do damage. But China is three years behind and if we play enough I don’t think they’ll be close to us,” -Boostio.

 

Late Start

Valorant has only received their official release approval from China earlier this year (see article here), and it is slated for a Summer 2023 release. Sources have also indicated that Riot are interested in setting up a league infrastructure for the country, similar to the other 3 partner leagues and the LPL in League of Legends.

Whilst they may have been late, the region has also proven that they have no shortage of talent and potential. In League of Legends, the Chinese teams in the LPL are widely considered to be the best in the world and sets the gold standard for how the game should be played.

 

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Credit: Liu YiCun/Riot Games