Boaster: “You’re only as good as your players, but you can make them the best they can be” – VCT EMEA Stage 2 Interview

Fnatic entered VCT EMEA Stage 2 Playoffs looking to reclaim momentum after two second-place finishes at EWC and Masters Toronto, but their upper bracket run was cut short with a loss to BBL Esports. For Jake “Boaster” Howlett, one of Valorant’s longest-standing in-game leaders, it was a chance to reflect on adapting through roster transitions, keeping his teammates comfortable, and chasing trophies on the biggest stages.

After the match, Boaster sat down with Hotspawn to talk about everything from chocolates and karaoke nights to leadership philosophy, Fnatic’s challenges, and why he still has his eyes on a VALORANT Champions trophy.

Hotspawn: First, the most important question.

What are the best and the worst chocolates in a box of Celebrations?

Boaster: “What is this question? Alright so the best one in a Celebrations would be… the Malteser is the nicest, right? I love Maltesers. I don’t like Bounty.”

You’ve been IGLing for years now.

How do you actually keep improving in that role?

Boaster: “It’s just about being creative and mainly remembering stuff. The teams will throw stuff at you and then you just have to adapt to it. With comps and stuff, it does add a lot of variety. But the basis is always kind of the same or kind of similar.

“So for me, it’s just about watching VODs of different comps and random comps at times and just seeing how the map plays with those comps and just generally learning from mistakes as much as possible. Unfortunately, you’re only going to be as good as your players, but you can make your players the best that they can be. So that’s kind of what I try to do.”

Fnatic has gone through a lot of roster changes this year.

How has it been adapting?

Boaster: “I think it’s been eventful, that’s for sure. We’ve been doing okay. With kaajak, he’s a great addition to the roster. He’s doing his job very well, and crashies is the same really.

“Crashies was the last minute one because we thought Leo would be back, but it turns out he was still not very well. So we end up getting crashies and it was just very fortunate that he turned out to be the person and player that he is. So yeah, I’d say I’m pretty happy with everything and the whole transition. It’s just obviously that’s the most important thing of a leader, is making those players feel comfortable in the team and atmosphere is very important.”

How do you make players feel comfortable around you?

Boaster: “When I’m being stupid or very open and stuff, whether it’s in the office or whether it’s on stage, I think it allows them to kind of feel comfortable. And we don’t really judge people here in our team, when they say something, it’s like everyone is kind of just free to do what they want to do as long as it’s just be a nice teammate, be yourself, and then yeah.

“There’s no cringe radar.”

Who’s the best at karaoke when you guys go out?

Boaster: “Milan’s got some dance moves in karaoke. He’s got the knee wobble, I call it, when he sings. It’s very cute when I saw it. But the best in karaoke… I wasn’t expecting Chron to sing. He came one time in karaoke and we only have—I’ve only actually been one time this year with them and it was for a birthday. But we went to karaoke and yeah, Chron actually sung a song and that was funny. He was like doing Pitbull or something.”

What would satisfy you most in terms of Valorant achievements now?

Boaster: “I’d like to win a Champs, but to be fair, I’d be grateful just to win one more trophy internationally. The regional trophies, they’re great to win and stuff, but they’re not my big priority. The ones that people care about are the international ones.

My goal is just to qualify for them because, one, is going to other countries, seeing fans from other regions, and two, playing on the big stages. When I was younger looking at Counter-Strike, it always looked so fun playing on the big stages. And it is. So those are the stages I want to get to. If I can get one trophy, then great. But honestly, it’s so hard to even get to the top and even qualify for events. So honestly it’s just take it as it goes, try and do our best and get as far as we can.”

How do you cope with criticism or negativity from fans?

Boaster: “Taylor Swift said in a podcast something about, like, is it worth your energy? And I was thinking to myself, is it worth my energy getting affected by fans that are disappointed? Because those fans aren’t being very empathetic. It’s not like we’re trying to lose. No competitor’s intention is to lose on purpose.

“We’re always trying to improve, it’s just on the day things might not click into place or we’re not looking as clean as we can be. That can happen. We’re only human. My job is to make sure we’re as consistent as possible so then those days are few. The positive comments, love them. The negative comments, don’t mind them, don’t really care. Some of them are like, “Ah, that hurts a bit”. But at the same time, as a competitor, you can’t be absorbing all that in. It’s just a lot of mental space taking over.”

How do you have time for everything—content, dancing, IGLing, clutching?

Boaster: “I think it’s difficult. I literally don’t have any time for anything else outside of Valorant except on the day off. And that’s the important thing. On the day off, just kind of doing some stuff like escape rooms or Pokémon card collecting and then maybe doing some prep work.

“But essentially it’s like get to the office 10:30, get to work and just work all day. Do your routine, and that includes the gym as well, and then go home at like 11:00, 11:30. So it’s just long days and it’s non-stop.”

How do you have time for your cats?

Boaster: “I don’t really. They only see me at night. I come in and I cuddle them and tickle them and sometimes play with them, do their litter and then I’m in bed. They just must think of me as the guy that hops in the bed, leaves the bed, leaves the house and comes back and hops in the bed. They just think I’m busy all the time.”

Does IGLing ever take a toll on your individual performance?

Boaster: “I think yes and no. There are times where my brain’s a bit more cloudier, but it’s not necessarily always the IGLing, it’s actually to do with stress factor and problem solving.

“I’d say a lot of it is trying to figure out what to call, especially on attack sides. Sometimes attack sides are my best and defence is my worst. On defence I’m playing very safe, very passive, not taking any risks because I am the controller player as well and the only smoker. So smokes are handy. I think I get switched off a little bit. I’m warmed up ready to go on attack side, get to defence, I’m like, oh, nothing’s happening here. Oh, they come to my site. I’ve whiffed.”

How do you approach another lower bracket run?

Boaster: “We had a meeting with the team a couple of days ago about what do we want from this playoffs? And what I said was I want maximum amount of reps on maps and get some good footage for us so then we can evolve and get our playbook really good for Champs.

Now that we’re in the lower, we’re going to be playing the maximum amount of games possible. We didn’t beat BBL today because I’ve never beaten them in practice in scrims in the 10 times I’ve played them. We’ve always lost. And it’s funny that today in officials, it felt like we were going to win until it didn’t.

Who will be the biggest obstacle on the way to a Champs trophy?

Biggest team on the way to the trophy, I’d say, is any team with an aggressive style. It’s very annoying to play teams that just swing. BBL are annoying. Some Pacific teams are quite annoying too. But it just really depends on our form. I think the biggest killer of us is ourselves and like, we just throw rounds, you know? Sadge.”

For Boaster, the grind continues: Fnatic will use their lower bracket run as preparation for Champs, sharpening their playbook and mindset. And if there’s one thing clear from his words, it’s that Boaster still thrives on the stage — no matter how tough the climb or negative the noise around him.