This year’s IEM Cologne is almost at an end! We got the chance to speak to Freya Spiers during the NAVI vs. MOUZ semi final game. We discuss a year of events on Counter-Strike 2, avoiding burnout and her time as one of the most prolific CS talents out there.
Sophie: So thank you so much for the interview.
How are you finding Cologne so far?
Freya: I mean, Cologne’s amazing. I’ve been coming here, I mean, I started coming here as a fan in 2014, I want to say when we were back at Colness for Games Farm, stumbled into Counter-Strike there. It was the major and I was actually queuing up the Halo at the time but the queue was too long. So they said, “oh, go around the corner, there’s some Counter-Strike on” and yeah, why not?
And then came back in 2015 in Lanxess. 2016 as well. So it’s been kind of like an annual pilgrimage for me. I feel like that’s why a lot of people are, like, here, right?
Sophie: Absolutely. I mean, this is my second Cologne and I don’t think I’m going to stop anytime soon because I wanted to ask, because you’re obviously a bit of a veteran of IEM. You’ve done Dallas, Chengdu, Katowice.
Credit: ESL
How does that experience compare with Cologne?
Freya: I think there’s such a unique identity to all the IEM events. It was actually my first time in China at Chengdu, so that was a completely different experience.
And the fandom level there is insane. Like, fans outside the hotel 24/7, they were always asking for autographs from the players. Obviously, they don’t watching the English stream, so they’d be very disappointed every time I walked out the hotel with Mathieu or Pimp and be like. Who are these guys? They’re not players.
But no, no, they were incredibly welcoming. It was a really unique insight into a completely different region and why they love Counter-Strike. I think Katowice, again, is, I kind of put it on the same pedestal as Cologne, right?
Obviously, we’ve been going to each city for about the same amount of time and you kind of see different fan groups coming from all over Europe. It’s pretty easy to get to Katowice, equally so is Cologne. So there’s a lot of, yeah, like tight knit groups of fans that will make sure that they’re either going to Katowice or Cologne every single year.
Dallas is insane. Just in terms of, I think the US crowds are kind of similar to a UK crowd in terms of they sadly don’t really have, like, a hometown team to support. They’re actually going to legitimately win the trophy, but then Stewie turns up and is like, okay, I guess I’m winning this as a stand in. But it’s that like raw passion of, I don’t care if there’s no one from my country up on stage, I’m gonna come for every single game.
I’m here for Counter-Strike, which actually now I’m thinking about it, it’s kind of what all those destinations kind of share alike, right? Like, you do have some representation in Poland, obviously, Germany only MOUZ playing right now on stage as a German organization and people are just turning up for good Counter-Strike. And I think we’re really lucky that we get to go to so many different regions, particularly post Covid, because it took us so, such a long time to get back to the US. Really grateful that we get to go back to Dallas, like so often.
Sophie: Yeah, it’s so good to hear because I was wondering, we’ve got a really packed schedule of Counter-Strike these days. There’s BLAST, there’s the Esports World Cup now.
So as talent, how does that affect you? Are you worried about burnout at all?
Freya: I think it’s kind of only positive when we look towards next year and everyone has kind of deemed it as like the Wild West. We’re going back to, you know, no partner leagues anymore. Teams get to pick and choose which events they want to go to. And I think for talent, it’s only a good thing.
It’s just going to open up way more opportunities for some people who may get opportunities on the B stream side of things. I think more is going to be looking at kind of widening their remit of talent and giving some of the up and coming commentators or hosts or interviewers more opportunities.
But I think also what you’re saying is burnout is a difficult thing to talk about. I remember speaking to Anders, of all people, four years ago, and he said to me, “I’m really worried that if I skip an event, people will forget who I am”. I’m like, you are the voice of counter strike. Nobody’s going to forget who you are.
Sophie: Absolutely.
Freya: So I think it’s such an important thing that we kind of remind each other, like, hey, you know, you’re established. You’re here for a reason. As long as you’re doing good work, you are going to keep coming back.
And it’s good to be able to take that time off as hard as it is sometimes because we all love Counter-Strike and that’s why we’re doing it. And I think for me in particular, I used to come to these events as a fan. So I don’t feel, I don’t necessarily feel the burnout from it because it’s kind of being surrounded by the people that I would choose to be around anyway.
I’m very lucky. I’ve got a really good friendship group. My partner also works in esports as well, so it’s kind of like a home away from home. Quite a unique perspective to have on it.
Credit: ESL
Sophie: Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s hardly work if you’re just hanging out with someone you love. That’s great. Yeah. Because you’ve been involved in Counter-Strike for so many years, you’ve seen how we’ve changed from CS go to CS2.
Is there any difference that you can tell between events now we’re almost a year into CS2?
Freya: It’s a really good question. Yeah. Because this is the first Cologne, weirdly enough, that we’ve had in CS2.
We’re kind of going around the calendar and going, okay, we’re doing a full year of Counter-Strike 2. I don’t know whether there’s a marked difference.. Obviously, MR12 is probably the biggest difference, I think. Like, it makes the games a lot quicker. I guess the comeback opportunities are less likely just because you have fewer rounds, but at the same time, you don’t necessarily see those same blowouts.
I’m saying this, we just come off the back of the Vitality game, which…
Soph: Was a bit of a blowout.
Freya: Yeah, it’s not necessarily happening as frequently as you see these kind of 16-2s, 16-1s. I think that’s probably the biggest difference is we’re actually able to just a bit more in a day now, we went back to the four best of threes at the beginning of this tournament as well. I think at the beginning I was kind of like. I was a bit sceptical of, okay, is this the changing of the guard? Are all the veterans going to leave? Are we going to see your Karrigans, your Apexes exiting and going, okay, CS:GO is done. My time’s done, but I’m really glad we haven’t.
I think it’s been kind of on them to go, okay, we’ve had this change. They experienced, obviously, the change from source and 1.6 into CS:GO anyway. They want to do it for a third time. They want to show that it’s not just a legacy living in CS:GO, but can carry on CS2 as well.
Soph: Yeah, exactly. Which I guess is important for talent as well, to be able to have that transition. I guess it’s quite difficult as an analyst to change that. So I guess that sort of segues me quite nicely into the last thing I wanted to talk about, which was, obviously, you started off as a reporter and an interviewer and you’ve really transitioned into desk host.
So how was that transition for you? And which role do you prefer?
Freya: It was done very smartly from at the time I was working at FaceIt. Obviously, we’ve now merged into EFG, but I started back with FaceIt as a freelancer in 2018, came on kind of as a full time employee in 2019, and they were very smart about the way they integrated me into the scene.
First of all, it was like, hey, you’re going to do, you’re not going to do anything live because that’s fucking scary. You’re going to do pre recorded interviews online, you’re going to do voiceovers for us, you’re going to get used, you know, just talking on camera. Then we’ll integrate into the live side of things.
And ultimately, the goal was to end up as a desk post, which I didn’t know at the time. The producer was like, I can see this happening. This is my vision. Took a couple years to make it there, but I think I’m very lucky where I wasn’t necessarily thrown in at the deep end or thrown in at, like, the middle end, you know. Like, it was a challenge, but I still knew I had so much trust in the producers, and I think that is such an important part of being, you know, talent from any spectrum is being able to rely on the person that’s in your ear and knowing they’re not going to set you up to fail, which is something that, I mean, how we’ve merged with ESL and EFG, a lot of the Facebook producers are still here, still working, which is amazing for me because I’ve been able to nurture those relationships for six years.
Soph: Yeah, it’s a long time now.
Freya: It’s a while. Yeah, six years, yeah. So I think it was kind of a. I don’t want to say it was a slow progression, but it was a tempered progression. It was having somebody look out for me and go, hey, she’s ready to take the next step, which I really appreciate.
As to which role I prefer. I did interviews back at EWC just a few weeks ago, just so I could do the full thing because they didn’t need two desk hosts for the whole time. And it was really refreshing to be back. I loved being back with the players. I mean, they’re lovely to chat with, and it also gives me a bit more insight as a desk pose, because you get the occasional interview on the desk, but you don’t get to speak to them beforehand. You don’t get to speak to them afterwards. It’s like, hey, we’re live. You’re coming on. Okay, see you later. We’ve got to move on with the show, and then you don’t really get to see them again.
So I like having the mixture of both, but I think desk posting was. I’d never felt fulfilment until I’d done that. And it was really weird. I didn’t know that there was kind of that level of satisfaction with work, and. Yeah. Went into there was like, okay, I’ve got the bag now. This is what I want to be doing. Yeah. Lucky for the past. How long has it been? Four years, I guess.
It’s mental when I say it like that.
Credit: BLAST
Sophie: Yeah, I’ve think you’ve been a desk host for as long as I’ve been into Counter-Strike!
Freya: How did you get into CS, if I may ask?
Sophie: Yeah, yeah. So I got into esports a lot later than a lot of people do, and I started off in Dota. So Dota is really my game. I started out as a writer, and I was like, okay, I need to write about something that isn’t Dota. And I just was like, what other games do Valve do? And here we are.
Freya: So what was cool, I did one Dota event. Oh, my God. I’ve never felt so stupid in my life. It’s so hard.
Sophie: It’s so hard.
Freya: I was on the desk like yeah, I can’t break this down. Like, it’s just normally it’s like, shoot and kill. That’s it. But, no, there’s all the abilities, everything. But it’s great. I can appreciate it from the outside. I’ll leave it to Sheever and the experts.
Sophie: So as we’re talking right now, NAVI are playing MOUZ.
If I could get your grand final prediction, who do you think’s gonna get there? Who do you think’s gonna win?
Freya: I think NAVI will end up taking on Vitality. I’ve got a little bit, I imagine you do as well, because mezii, finally, we’re getting a British player for the first time since, I think, 2018. 2019.
I hope Vitality can do it. Like, obviously, NAVI have had so much success with EWC, with the Major win as well, but I mean, Apex was a crazy entry fragger the last time. That or the first time, rather, that I came to Lanxess on the side of envy. So I would love to finally get to see him.
Leave a Reply