Over the course of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023 season, franchised teams made their mark across the world, and names were etched into the esport’s new history. Nothing makes you more well-received than being clutch, and the player that was the most clutch happened to be one already well-entrenched as a fan favorite.
In one of the biggest year-over-year improvements, Fnatic’s in-game leader Jake “Boaster” Howlett was the best player in the clutch across both regional and international events.
The British star was crucial to Fnatic’s success as their leader but also was the backbone of the team once it was all down to him, which led to some outstanding moments in what turned out to be a dominant year for his roster.
When you think of Fnatic’s performances in 2023, you can pick out unbelievable highlights from each player on their superteam of a roster. However, what Boaster does as an IGL is usually something not easily spotted by VALORANT viewers, trying to outsmart the opponent and keep his team mentally strong.
Now, as a wise man from the Plat Chat VALORANT podcast once said, “You’re going to get shot in the face,” getting his point across that while being smart matters, aim defines the victors in the end.
What better way to instill confidence than turning from one of the worst clutch VALORANT players in 2022 to the gold standard in 2023?
A tweet from BLEED’s analyst Sushant “Ominous” Jha highlighted how Boaster played in clutch moments across all tournaments in 2023, and it stands out for a variety of reasons. The graph is formed on two axis: clutch rating and kills per round.
The farther on the right you are, the more kills you get on average in any given round, and the higher up you are, the more clutch you are.
Despite a relatively mediocre KPR of 0.56, his clutch rating is an astonishing 31 percent. The only player even remotely close is Cloud9’s jakee, who finished just shy of 30 percent despite a higher KPR of just under 0.70.
You have some of the best VALORANT players in the world far on the right of that graph, but to be where Boaster is, you have to hit the shots when it matters most, even when, statistically, he’s not getting the number of kills other players in Fnatic’s stacked team are; like his teammate Alfajer, who has one of the highest KPR numbers of 2023.
So, when moments like his one-vs-three clutch against the hot Bilibili Gaming at VALORANT Champions 2023 came along, it bookended a year when Boaster was the clutch king.
Like mentioned earlier, Boaster was actually known for being anti-clutch in 2022, with only a six percent clutch rate for the regular VALORANT season, according to VLR. To go from that to being the go-to fragging IGL to count on when on your last player was a big step up for the FNC veteran, and it led them to back-to-back international titles.
