Strafe's Selections: The Best VALORANT IGLs of 2023
Valorant reached greater heights in the year 2023. With the introduction of the new VCT system, three leagues, we saw some of the best Valorant seen till date.
Not only did we see some of the biggest names rise to the top, we saw some unknown, unproven quantities make a name for themselves.
While there were definitely stars who took over the Valorant world by storm in Max “Demon1” Mazanov, Ilya “something” Petrov and more. But a Valorant or any competitive team isn’t complete without a Leader. For Valorant in particular, these players are referred to as In-Game Leaders.
IGLs are players responsible for leading the team tactically. They are in-charge of taking decisions every round and changing strategies mid-round.
A good IGL isn’t flashy, seldom frags out and is usually the invisible part of the team. But an incompetent IGL brings the team down. The misplays can not only affect the team but also the individual talent and makes everyone look incompetent.
Despite having such an important role, they often go under the radar. Thus it is important to commemorate IGLs who had a successful year. Following is a list of Strafe Best Valorant IGLs, who led their teams to victory.
Fnatic’s vibrant Jake “Boaster” Howlett
Fnatic Jake "Boaster" Howlett (Credits: Riot Games)Boaster’s ascension to the top was a long time coming. He has been a tactical genius who comes up with ingenious ability combinations and has an unparalleled sense for the game.
Along with mini, Boaster and Fnatic have cooked up some interesting agent compositions, ability combinations and ingenious set plays. It has always been amazing to watch what Fnatic has cooked up. Unfortunately until 2023, Fnatic struggled to get anyone near the top of Valorant world.
With the VCT EMEA and the partnership announcement, the organization got Leo and Chronicle. With the new pieces Boaster and Fnatic looked unbeatable.
The team together won VCT LOCK//IN 2023 and VCT Masters Tokyo 2023. Unfortunately, Fnatic could not complete the trifecta but concluded the year with a Red Bull Home Ground #4 Tokyo trophy.
Fnatic winning VCT Masters Tokyo 2023 (Credits: VCT Masters Tokyo // Riot Games)The wins definitely belongs to Fnatic as a team. But to lead some of the biggest names in EMEA Valorant and do it well isn’t as easy a job. Since their first tournament together, they looked like a team. This has a lot to do with the squad’s leadership and Boaster as the in-game leader.
His mettle and confidence as an IGL was on a complete display in the VCT LOCK//IN win video, in the final map of Icebox, after going 9-3 down, Boaster had the confidence to say “If you win me the pistol round, I will with my calling”
Fnatic did not win the pistol round, but Boaster did not lose the confidence and got the team over the finish line. The sheer confidence to say and do it makes him a definite IGL of the year.
Evil Geniuses’ ingenious Kelden “Boostio” Pupello
Evil Geniuses’ ingenious Kelden “Boostio” Pupello (Credits: VCT Master Tokyo // Riot Games)Similar to Boaster, Boostio’s rise to the top hasn’t been easy either. The North American spent two years playing for multiple T2 organizations before getting his big break with Evil Geniuses.
When the organization was selected as the part of the Valorant’s Partnership program, Potter entrusted Boostio with the team’s leadership.
Coming into the international scene, Boostio was a relatively unknown figure with an unproven talent. The disappointing start to their season added to the doubters. The LOCK//IN loss to Talon and a bad start to VCT Americas led to EG being trolled by everyone. Especially the EG leadership when they announced the addition of Demon1.
But a turnaround to the season and a golden chance after a 100T loss, gave Boostio another shot at redemption. After a playoff qualification, he led his team to the VCT Masters Tokyo qualification, winning over Cloud9, the second seed.
At VCT Masters Tokyo, they surprised everyone and defeated DRX, LOUD, Team Liquid and Paper Rex to reach the grand finals. Unfortunately they could not finish the dream run and placed 2nd behind Fnatic.
Unfortunately, the Tokyo run was seen by many as a one off lucky run by a half good team. At Valorant Champions 2023, EG ran it back defeating the same teams to win the biggest tournament of the year.
Valorant Champions 2023 - Evil Geniuses (Credits: Colin Youngg-Wolf // Riot Games)On an individual level Boostio is amongst the best IGL players, he always puts up decent numbers and seldom has games where he is top fragging.
But Boostio’s merit as an IGL comes from the ability to handle the out of game pressure well. Despite the unfair criticism and trolling, Boostio did not complain, owned their identity and led his team to the penultimate victory. A great leader through and through.
LOUD’s tranquil Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro
LOUD Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro (Credits: Riot Games// VCT Americas)The 2022 Valorant Champion, Saadhak continued staying at the top of Valorant world in 2023, with immense tranquility handling the multiple struggles that came LOUD’s way.
Contrary to our previous entries, Saadhak has established himself as one of the top IGL’s for a while. He appeared on our previous ‘Best IGLs of 2022 list.’ and leading a team of superstars called for it.
But the year 2023 brought another set of challenges for the Argentinian. The year started with two of his strongest players leaving the squad. The organization brought in two rookies who had to be trained under him.
Compared to a squad filled with players who have been playing for a while, the current LOUD had inexperience, which meant the IGL had to do the heavy lifting. According to Saadhak himself, he and Less shared the responsibility of training the newbies in the ways of LOUD.
LOCK//IN displayed the team’s resilience and the new additions' talent along with Less and Aspas’s dominance. Unfortunately, they lost to Fnatic, placing 2nd at the event.
At VCT Americas, LOUD stayed on top of everyone, winning the tournament.
VCT Americas 2023 champions - LOUD (Credits: VCT Americas // Riot Games)VCT Masters Tokyo, saw them struggle and get eliminated in the first round of playoffs. The elimination fueled the internal rift rumor. Saadhak quietly handled these and continued leading his team at Valorant Champions 2023.
Despite being the former champions, LOUD wasn’t necessarily considered a contender, the internal rift only decayed their position, followed by a loss in the first game seemed to confirm people’s doubt.
But LOUD came back, qualified for the playoffs, eliminated Fnatic and placed 3rd in the tournament. Saadhak value is not only the flexibility as a player but the maturity to handle each and every problem coming the team’s way, making him an amazing leader.
EDward Gaming’s Support Guo “Haodong” Haodong
EDG Gao "Hodong" Haodong (Photo by Stefan Wisnoski/Riot Games)Making their international debut at Valorant Champions 2022, EDG have risen to become one of the top teams of Valorant in 2023.
With ZmjjKk dominating the stage with an Operator, Smoggy and Chichoo’s clutches, and Nobody’s ‘nobody will believe these’ rounds, EDG has taken the Valorant world by storm. They dominated Tarik’s heart and China while making great strides on International leaderboards.
But a name that usually doesn’t get much recognition on the team has to be Haodong. The IGL of the radiant squad has been silently yet efficiently leading the team to victory.
Haodong not only helps the team win some crucial rounds, he also leads them in a way that their individual brilliance shines. The flexibility of EDG and Haodong’s leadership shines whenever EDG wins.
The Chinese Juggernauts dominated China throughout the year. Internationally, they started poorly with LOCK//IN but followed it up with a strong 5th-6th finish at VCT Masters Tokyo. At the tournament they took down Natus Vincere, T1 and LOUD.
They followed the success of Tokyo with another 5th-6th finish at Valorant Champions 2023, after taking down GIANTS and Bilibili Gaming.
EDward Gaming completing CES trifecta (Credits: Valorant China Twitter)Haodong with his limited experience faced some accomplished IGLs in 2023. He faced Ange1, Redgar and Saadhak and took them down to achieve the significant results. Not only did he lead the team, he helped them escape some critical situations, rightfully earning his place amongst the top IGLs of the year.
Special Mention - An IGL-less approach of Paper Rex
Talking about IGL’s and their importance, one team that has been an outlier most of Valorant’s existence, Paper Rex became the first team that followed a new style of playing the game.
As a person who has followed competitive games for a while, I have always emphasized on the role of an IGL. A good IGL can easily help a mediocre team to great results and a bad one can do the opposite. Additionally, he also regulates the communication and ideas in a team, making him extremely essential for a team’s functioning.
And as Paper Rex shattered all my reservations earlier about a team composition, a meta agent or how one plays the game. They once again made me question my position on an IGL.
With Benkai as the IGL, Paper Rex was always a team that ran with their duelist, Jinggg or f0rsaken suggested an idea and Benkai regulated them. But with the team adding something, It was speculated, d4v41 IGL’d, but during interviews, multiple players confirmed they don’t necessarily have a primary shot-caller.
The team worked on all the players ideating, following protocols and making the correct individual decisions. The team did struggle initially, but the approach had them winning VCT Pacific, placing 3rd at Tokyo with a sub, and missing the Valorant Champions 2023 title by an inch.
VCT Pacific Champions - Paper Rex (Credits: VCT Pacific// Riot Games)While this might not work with every team, the possibility of such a system and its success, makes you question your orthodox beliefs of how a game should be played. If there is one thing we can learn from Paper Rex, it is that there is no correct way to win the game.
Today, another competitive year of Valorant comes to an end. During the year, we witnessed multiple heartbreaks and Cinderella runs, but the stories of these five players takes the cake.
These leaders are the emotional support for the team and helped their teams secure amazing results.
As the new year rolls around, let’s see what level these IGLs take their squads. There is still atleast 45 days until the season starts. It’d be a better season as we see the level of competition rise.
Stay tuned on Strafe as we bring more Valorant to you!
Featured Image Credits: Riot Games
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