Supportive teammates boost the EG IGL.
Evil Geniuses crossed the first hurdle at VCT Tokyo Masters with a 2-0 victory over FUT esports. The win gets them one step closer to the playoffs. The star of the series was EG's IGL, Kelden "Boostio" Pupello who ended the series with 46 kills. But the 22-year-old player had words of praise for his teammates, whose utility and support enabled his aggressive plays.
Evil Geniuses didn’t have a great start to the NA Regional League. But the team had a very impressive run through the League to secure their Tokyo Masters spot. Despite their success, one of the criticisms the team faced was their relative lack of adaptability. However, things were different in their first series of the event.
One thing that we identified was that they were very grouped. Even though we had the advantage early on in the half, we weren’t able to convert. A little bit unlucky on the trades but we just fixed our spacing and reinforced our confidence.
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EG Boostio leads on the scoreboard and in-game
One of the pivotal moments on the second map was Boostio’s ace. While Boostio will (rightfully) get the credit for the impressive Ace, his teammates enabled his performance in the series.
If you look at that ace, the only reason I got it was because of Ethan "Ethan" Arnold’s flash. And Corbin "C0M" Lee set me up from B as well for the 4k with his stun. It’s all about their utility, not really about me. It feels good to have that kind of performance on the international stage. I feel really good right now.
Boostio ended the map with 382 ACS and 35 kills, towering over anyone else on the map. With an ADR of 245, his performance was crucial for the teams' extremely close 14-12 victory.
While Boostio’s 35 kills on Lotus are impressive, his contributions to the team’s performance might not be as visible. Speaking about EG’s IGL, Ethan highlighted how Boostio’s calls contributed to EG’s win on both maps.
Other than his [Boostio’s] individual performances, his calling also helped a lot. We closed out Split because of the calling. We started off well on defense and closed out super cleanly on Split. On Lotus, it was the same thing, started out okay and the closing part was the important part. That was a lot of him (Boostio), the mid-round calling, and everyone having faith in the system.
With this win, EG now moves on to the Winner’s match where they will face either DRX or ASE.
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