The eccentric Fnatic in-game leader Boaster spoke on switching Agents, Brave’s introduction to the team, and keeping his teammates from committing “tournament mistakes”.
Fnatic Boaster shared some key insights on his team following their victory over G2. The insights came in a post-match interview where Boaster explained his reasoning for switching to Kay-O and Sage and why the win over G2 was particularly tasty.
Fnatic got the win in their opening match against G2, but the newly formed G2 side pushed them to their limits. Even with Fnatic going into half on Ascent, with the dreaded 9-3 lead, G2 rattled off a 10-round second half to send it to a decider map. Fnatic eventually found their groove on Split, but it wasn’t without mistakes.
“When it came to Split, I think defense wise, it was hard to have that opportunity to thrive because we were making too many, what we call ‘tournament mistakes,’' said Boaster in the post-match interview. “I’m trying to practice discipline with the boys. I didn’t scream at them in officials, honestly, but in scrims I’m like, ‘what you doing,’ to make sure that doesn’t happen again."
Boaster's comments came in the post match interview after their opening match against G2.
Choice words for G2's hoody
The online struggles for Fnatic have been well documented, and G2’s Aaro “hoody” Peltokangas even commented on the ongoing situation. In return, Jake “Boaster” Howlett returned the favor with some choice words for the G2 Initiator.
“Well firstly, to beat G2, after we’ve lost to them two times now in a row, it feels nice to get that sweet revenge,” said Boaster emphatically. ”I know they have a slightly different roster and it also feels (good) because hoody or Meddo, I don’t know who it was, said we were the weakest team in their group and we play better on LAN and that’s funny that the talk about that because I don’t think I’ve ever seen them on LAN.”
In no surprise fashion, Fnatic Boaster was his usual jovial, boisterous self after the win. Firing shots at G2 owner Carlos "Ocelote" Rodríguez on twitter shortly after the victory.
Boaster on the Kay-O Switch
As for Fnatic Boaster switching onto the Kay-O and Sage, it coincides with the introduction of Andrey “BraveAF” Gorchakov onto the roster.. Brave usurped the Sova role, forcing Boaster onto new agents. He choose Kay-O to provide as much utility as possible for his teammates, despite no maps played previously to the 2022 season.
"So, what happened was I wanted to play more of a support flashing role. I wanted to play an agent with even more utility than Sova, essentially. And I felt like the way that the meta was going with the Kay-O coming into play, I felt like I would be a good Kay-O.
That’s not only just right-click pop-flashing but also being able to support teammates with knowing the best time to use the knife, or the best time to ulti or nano”
Derke and Brave as a pair
Moving Forward, Boaster on Kay-O will become much more common occurence in games. Much like the idea of Brave and Finnish monster Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev holding down sites as a pairing. The two Russian-native speakers have already shown a streamlined communication in-game, and Boaster spoke on how this benefits the team overall.
“I think it’s really important when it comes to CT defense that you have good partnerships and a good site captain. Essentially what happened was we got Derke and Brave now, they're both Russian, although Derke’s also finnish but they have that kind of synergy to play with each other and it really helps on the sites”
Fnatic will face the Turkish squad BBL Esports on February 19th.