Heading into VALORANT Masters Tokyo, all eyes had been on Evil Geniuses’ star initiator Max “Demon1” Mazanov in his worldwide debut and whether or not he might convert his home type into a powerful stage look. Because it seems, we should always have been Kelden “Boostio” Pupello.
Boostio was the important thing part for EG within the squad’s opening Tokyo Masters match on June 11 towards FUT Esports in a match of the third seeds, with the American outfit sweeping their Turkish opponents 2-0.
Not solely was Boostio essential in defeating FUT Esports on considered one of their strongest maps in Lotus, however he additionally managed to land the primary ace of the match. Giddy, laughing, and yelling on stage, Boostio was the optimistic and assured mild that led EG to an excellent begin in Japan.
Beginning on Break up, EG shortly constructed a lead and ran away with it, with solely two gamers on FUT Esports managing double-digit kills. C0M led the best way together with his Viper, accumulating 17 kills with solely seven deaths with sensible smokes and good recreation sense to capitalize from. Boostio was on the backside of the scoreboard on his group, however little did everybody know he was simply saving it for Lotus.
Going from Astra on Break up to Killyjoy on Lotus, not even FUT Esports anticipated Boostio to push aggressively because the Sentinel agent and stomp throughout their plans. Whereas EG did it more durable on Lotus, needing extra time to defeat FUT, Boostio completed with a whopping 35 kills and a median of 245 injury per spherical, and—most eyebrow-raising of all—5 entry kills.
To place the cherry on prime, the primary recreation of Masters Tokyo additionally had the primary ace, due to Boostio swinging out of the door on B to gather 4 kills at A protracted, ending it off with a Killjoy Nanoswarm kill on the bombsite.
Even with the pace and aggression from brokers like Neon and Jett within the foyer, Boostio’s out-dueled the likes of Ata “AtaKaptan” Tan and Konuralp “qw1” Şahin on the best way to the win.
Demon1 was the main focus heading into the match, particularly given his journey to EG, serving to the squad safe a spot at Tokyo, and never even considering he might get there as a result of journey points. In the long run, he received there, albeit a bit near his worldwide debut.
Associated: Evil Geniuses confirms VALORANT star Demon1 will be at VCT Masters Tokyo
“We discovered about three days in the past that [Demon1] was coming, so we solely had about three days of follow with him,” Boostio stated on stage following EG’s win. “Him being right here is wonderful, because it did change a whole lot of our plans the final week or two, nevertheless it labored out completely.”
Despite the fact that Demon1 didn’t have an impressive sequence we’re used to from VCT Americas, he was essential to their sequence win and performed a hand in EG’s comeback from 9-12 down within the second map.
This win places EG in a chief place to qualify for the playoffs of Masters Tokyo, going through the winner of DRX and Attacking Soul Esports to see who makes it to the later stage. As for FUT, they’ll must win two video games in a row to progress within the match.
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