American professional Valorant player Kelden Pupello, better known in the professional scene as "Boostio", expressed negativity about the capabilities of players from the Chinese region.

Boostio on Hotline League

On July 13, Kelden Pupello visited the podcast of the esports talk show Hotline League, where the commentators discussed the Chinese region and the official release of the game in China. On this topic, Boostio made several ambiguous statements in which he doubted the ability of Chinese players to demonstrate a high level of gameplay compared to other regions.

Kelden also said that China will never surpass North America in Valorant, and that the Chinese region itself is the weakest of the entire Asian segment.

China will never be better than North America in Valorant. My words are a 100% fact, I promise you because we really go all out. We take care to ensure that these Chinese teams never end up next to us; only the Chinese. I think Korean teams can cause damage, I think any of the Asian teams can cause damage, but China is three years behind, and if we play enough, I don't think they'll be alongside us.

It should be reminded that Evil Geniuses had an excellent season. The team proved to be stronger than most of its competitors, earning them 3rd place at VCT 2023: Americas League. The last big tournament, Valorant Champions Tour 2023: Masters Tokyo, ended with the team coming in 2nd place. Thanks to these results since the beginning of 2023, Evil Geniuses secured their spot in the upcoming Valorant Champions 2023.

In turn, well-known content creator Commend stood up for the Chinese region and responded to Kelden.

Bro, have you watched Masters Tokyo? China already has the best OP in the world, and the best OP in North America is still WARDELL

In the Valorant community, an OP is a player who uses the "Operator", a sniper rifle. With these words, Commend mocked Boostio's arrogance, stating that he is far from the elite of North America.