Platoon’s Commentary on Boaster

Great Video, Watch It: Platoon Video

TLDR: Boaster’s performance is a mentality and IGL style issue and not a result of poor firepower.

Platoon makes a strong point that Boaster never makes calls that rely on him being the win condition, resulting in lower opportunities to frag and diminished confidence. Contrast this to 2023 EG, where Boostio would call rounds while taking the most risk so that his teammates could secure rounds cleanly — he was nearly on par with both Jawgemo and Demon1 for first engagement stats as a sentinel.

2023 EG First Engagement Stats

It’s a really strong case study to demonstrate how the best teams this year all had fragging IGLs that regularly took measured risks. Think Munchkin, Boo, Valyn, and nobody. Don’t be boaster, but also don’t be Ange1 — somewhere in between is necessary.

I just don’t see FNC breaking top 4 next year at any tournament if this doesn’t change.

Yeah I saw this too, I think it sums it up pretty well. I always disagreed with people when they said his raw aim was completely bad this year, but at the same time you can only say 'he's the IGL' up to a certain extent when looking at his performances.
I want to see him put himself in to more pivotal situations, sure at first it might not look good, but as time goes on hopefully he will gain experience and become more comfortable.

Platoon is braindead

Watched the video this morning. Always love watching Platoon's stuff, man. It's really eye-opening.

Almighty [#3]

Platoon is braindead

you'd know about being braindead

Almighty [#3]

Platoon is braindead

he's made some mistakes like the turret in his 100T trial video but he's not braindead

He has no idea what he’s talking about if he’s trying to convince people boaster’s firepower wasn’t the issue. If he brought up Boostio as an example, then how the fuck did he manage to convince you and others that taking more first engagements would give an IGL more opportunities to become the win condition??? There’s that + the fact that Boaster literally had the worst international playoff performance in this game’s Tier 1 history in champs, so no, Boaster has a severe firepower issue.

writing based on what you wrote, haven't watched the video but plan to later

this year we saw a lot of teams that did well because of the faster pace and more 'puggy'/scrappy skirmish style valorant that ended becoming the meta throughout the entire year. Teams like fnatic, fns's nrg, ange1's navi all rely on a very controlled style of game, where they can manipulate the map throughout a round to get their team an advantage and win rounds, but this year the style of valorant was the exact opposite from this. Util combos and fast hits and retakes became the meta, and instead of trying to manipulate the opponent to leave a site, you would rather bust down the door and destroy it.

This style change negatively affects these slow types of teams because they don't have the aim to work as effectively on retakes and hits, and the benefit that they had for studying the other team intently and sacrificing some of their aim wasn't giving them as much value anymore, because igls like johnqt and munchkin could make gameplans that worked within the meta style that were easier to work with, and also allowed them to play a clutch role and take frags as well. I think the style change is mostly why we saw fnatic do as poorly as they did, with them basically repeating their 2022 team's placements this year at internationals.

This style change is also why I think PRX did badly this year, because instead of them playing fast and using util combos that no one has seen in a slow meta, the entire meta was to play like PRX, and think on the fly, but teams also had that igl factor to push them forward, so what ended up happening was that PRX was essentially playing the same game as every other team, but they had no igl to manipulate rounds with, and the only real benefit they had was that they could outaim their opponents, which didn't even happen sometimes as we saw the rise of the 4 insane shooters on geng in pacific, and drx's rookies + mako and buzz.

Based on what RITO does next year, maybe the game will go back to this slower pace, and we will see teams like PRX and FNC and NRG start to come back, as they can play their slow style, and PRX can start to catch people off guard again, but honestly... I don't see these types of IGLs lasting long unless they're as storied as a Boaster or an FNS. Unless we get something mega slow for all of next year, the aim value that we get from 'fragging igls' is much more valuable than the extra brain that a pure caller/map operator provides.

Disagree with this. Boaster this year had more first deaths per round and as much (or even more) first kills per round as IGL's with "praised aim" like Kingg, Valyn, and JohnQT. If anything, stats-wise JohnQT is even more "defensive" than him (which is fair cause he's a sentinel) but no one questions his firepower at all, because he has the highlights. Boaster does have a firepower issue, that he compensated with other qualities such as good calling and great clutch rate

foythvlr [#9]

Disagree with this. Boaster this year had more first deaths per round and as much (or even more) first kills per round as IGL's with "praised aim" like Kingg, Valyn, and JohnQT. If anything, stats-wise JohnQT is even more "defensive" than him (which is fair cause he's a sentinel) but no one questions his firepower at all, because he has the highlights. Boaster does have a firepower issue, that he compensated with other qualities such as good calling and great clutch rate

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure his first deaths per round has something to do with his getting exec'd on while solo holding a site

meanie [#7]

He has no idea what he’s talking about if he’s trying to convince people boaster’s firepower wasn’t the issue. If he brought up Boostio as an example, then how the fuck did he manage to convince you and others that taking more first engagements would give an IGL more opportunities to become the win condition??? There’s that + the fact that Boaster literally had the worst international playoff performance in this game’s Tier 1 history in champs, so no, Boaster has a severe firepower issue.

oh my god ain’t no way this is a hot take. on my life esports community is the dumbest out of any other I’m putting my entire family on that too

cloudberry [#10]

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure his first deaths per round has something to do with his getting exec'd on while solo holding a site

It does to an extent, but that's the average FD number that most players have. If he was too defensive on attack it would compensate, but it actually exceeds others that are considered offensive. The numbers don't add up

meanie [#11]

oh my god ain’t no way this is a hot take. on my life esports community is the dumbest out of any other I’m putting my entire family on that too

I'm sure your family wouldn't appreciate that

cloudberry [#13]

I'm sure your family wouldn't appreciate that

my family wouldn’t care after I tell them that this is the same dumbass that made an entire vid on why jinggg was the best player of 2023 LMAOOO. His entire channel is complete brainrot ts is crazy

Igl of the most dominant team of all time btw but im supposed to believe "plankton" knows better

c4rrotstix [#8]

writing based on what you wrote, haven't watched the video but plan to later

this year we saw a lot of teams that did well because of the faster pace and more 'puggy'/scrappy skirmish style valorant that ended becoming the meta throughout the entire year. Teams like fnatic, fns's nrg, ange1's navi all rely on a very controlled style of game, where they can manipulate the map throughout a round to get their team an advantage and win rounds, but this year the style of valorant was the exact opposite from this. Util combos and fast hits and retakes became the meta, and instead of trying to manipulate the opponent to leave a site, you would rather bust down the door and destroy it.

This style change negatively affects these slow types of teams because they don't have the aim to work as effectively on retakes and hits, and the benefit that they had for studying the other team intently and sacrificing some of their aim wasn't giving them as much value anymore, because igls like johnqt and munchkin could make gameplans that worked within the meta style that were easier to work with, and also allowed them to play a clutch role and take frags as well. I think the style change is mostly why we saw fnatic do as poorly as they did, with them basically repeating their 2022 team's placements this year at internationals.

This style change is also why I think PRX did badly this year, because instead of them playing fast and using util combos that no one has seen in a slow meta, the entire meta was to play like PRX, and think on the fly, but teams also had that igl factor to push them forward, so what ended up happening was that PRX was essentially playing the same game as every other team, but they had no igl to manipulate rounds with, and the only real benefit they had was that they could outaim their opponents, which didn't even happen sometimes as we saw the rise of the 4 insane shooters on geng in pacific, and drx's rookies + mako and buzz.

Based on what RITO does next year, maybe the game will go back to this slower pace, and we will see teams like PRX and FNC and NRG start to come back, as they can play their slow style, and PRX can start to catch people off guard again, but honestly... I don't see these types of IGLs lasting long unless they're as storied as a Boaster or an FNS. Unless we get something mega slow for all of next year, the aim value that we get from 'fragging igls' is much more valuable than the extra brain that a pure caller/map operator provides.

This is a very good analysis, I think it also explains why EMEA really felt left behind this year (EMEA's style has historically been to play slow take info and play over controlled space), the only team which really didn't as much was heretics, they leaned way more into the 'pug style' than any other EMEA team and thus they were the only EMEA team to do well this year. The only teams that managed to pull off the old style was G2 and Champs Fnatic imo, but both fell short eventually.

meanie [#7]

He has no idea what he’s talking about if he’s trying to convince people boaster’s firepower wasn’t the issue. If he brought up Boostio as an example, then how the fuck did he manage to convince you and others that taking more first engagements would give an IGL more opportunities to become the win condition??? There’s that + the fact that Boaster literally had the worst international playoff performance in this game’s Tier 1 history in champs, so no, Boaster has a severe firepower issue.

I would recommend actually watching the video before making an uninformed response.

Platoon breaks it down into 4 points all with examples

• Boaster’s aim style has improved after training under a mechanics coach this year.
• Boaster doesn’t trust himself to hold space aggressively alone and will regularly step back for his teammates to take those opportunities.
• Boaster regularly plays weak side alone for info, often backing up for retakes, resulting in an extremely passive and predictable setup.
• Boaster plays for clutch scenarios too often instead of actively trading — finding himself in extremely difficult 1vX situations more than the average player.

He doesn’t have a firepower issue. His passivity results in low impact and disadvantageous positions that only the best players could regularly convert. He needs to be more proactive and take more risks.

meanie [#14]

my family wouldn’t care after I tell them that this is the same dumbass that made an entire vid on why jinggg was the best player of 2023 LMAOOO. His entire channel is complete brainrot ts is crazy

mommy mommy the people on the valorant forum downvoted my comment sniff sniff im so upset

its a fire power problem too even if he try to fix his movements and aim bro still going -15
firepower come naturally you can learn only little he been playing the game more then 3 years it's what it's just move to coaching a team he just dont got it in him