In an appearance on Hotline League, Evil Geniuses Valorant player Kelden ‘Boostio’ Pupello gave out a bold take that China would not surpass North America in the esport.
Boostio and Evil Geniuses are coming off of a miracle run in VCT Americas playoffs and at Masters Tokyo. The IGL and his squad took on top teams from VCT Pacific and VCT EMEA and managed to place second at the event against all odds.
Now, the squad is practicing for Valorant Champions and preparing to go up against the best teams from the three international leagues and China.
In his downtime, Boostio appeared on Hotline League and gave a bold opinion during a hot take segment of the show.
“China will never be better than NA for one in Valorant,” Boostio said.
Boostio hits out at Valorant in China in hot take segment
The pro explained his opinion, saying that China is far behind the rest of the world in Valorant playtime and has too much ground to make up. He also said North American teams will continue to grind to make sure the gap between China and the region remains wide.
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“I think the Korean teams can do damage. I think any of the Asian teams can do damage. But China is three years behind and if we play enough I don’t think they’ll be close to us,” Boostio said.
China has only just approved Valorant for release in the country for Summer 2023 and Riot Games has already put resources into getting some kind of league infrastructure up and running in the country.
However, at VCT Masters Tokyo Edward Gaming, one of the two Chinese representatives at the tournament, put together a decent run. The squad finished in the top six at the event a defeated top-seeded VCT Americas team LOUD, VCT EMEA’s NAVI and VCT Pacific’s T1.
While China has yet to surpass North America in terms of team success, the region has a few super-star caliber players that could push for a title in the years to come.