Triumph for Paper Rex at Masters Toronto was heartbreak for Fnatic, who had been searching for a return to global success for the first time since 2023. Unusual for international competition, Fnatic had the chance to take swift revenge, and take swift revenge they did with a 2-1 win against PRX at the EWC VALORANT event. Hotspawn spoke, again, to Fnatic’s IGL Jake “Boaster” Howlett for an interview after his side secured their Esports World Cup grand final spot.

Hotspawn: Your personal performance improved a lot today between maps 1 and 2.

Why do you think that was?

Boaster: I think I just needed a big reset after map 1. Sunset is a very uncomfortable map to IGL on and to play on for me on defence. I don’t enjoy it at all. And so Paper Rex play the style that really just counters me and I can’t do anything.

I just felt like I couldn’t get any impact. And when I was calling, there was a lot of moving pieces, and Paper Rex play so aggressive: fighting mid, swinging all the time. It’s so hard to get the right call. And then I end up being a bit too over-clocked in my brain and I can’t process information very well.

You won today on Split, which would have been the fifth map in the Toronto final.

Does that make you think Fnatic would’ve won Masters had you gotten to map 5?

I think the question of ‘what ifs’ is a dangerous one for players because there’s a lot of events where I said: “What if I banned this map? What if I picked this map?”. But unfortunately we believed in ourselves in on the Lotus instead of the Split and we went for that instead. And we wanted to close out the game on the Split because it was a a map that’s good for us.

And so it just is what it is. Whatever happens, happens. But this event, I’m happy that we ended up getting the win on even grounds.

You’ll be against Gen.G or Team Heretics in the final.

What do you make of the other potential EWC VALORANT finalists?

It’s always enjoyable playing Gen.G. I think they’re a formidable team. I also think Heretics seem to be finding some little bit of momentum here, but I think they can also lose that momentum. So I believe that Gen.G will probably win. So I’m thinking we’ll be playing Gen.G.