First making a broadcast appearance at the ECS Season 5 Finals Freya Spiers would soon cement herself as a talented stage host and interviewer in attendance of 2018’s FACEIT Major. One year on from her inaugural gig Freya would be treading new waters whilst desk hosting at the ECS S7 Finals and during the event we sat down with Freya to discuss her stage and desk hosting experiences.
Allan: Over the past year you have worked quite a few events with FACEIT including the London Major. A few months ago you were the stage host for the Intel Challenge in Katowice, was it beneficial working within a different environment?
Freya: My first event was ECS Season 5 and we’ve basically had the same production crew doing every single event since then, even scaling up to the massive production of the Major. All the guys at FACEIT are incredible and they allow me to do my job to the best of my abilities. For this event [ECS S7 Finals] we have a new director called Sam and it is really great to learn whilst working with all different types of people.
In Katowice it was of course a totally different crew but they were so incredible and it also gave me an opportunity to work with some different talent which allows you to widen your perspective and learn how to deal with different things. You are always going to have slight issues: it’s esports. Nothing will go perfectly meaning it’s about how you adapt and how the crew helps you adapt to these issues.
Talk me through the preparation you would carry out when being a stage host or an interviewer, both before and during events.
If I am just doing stage hosting it’s predominantly preparing your script for the day because you want to engage the crowd and you are the first face they’ll see. It is very important to know your audience, for me, I have watched Counter-Strike for 5 years now which is crazy to say and I would say I know a lot about the scene.
In terms of preparation for interviews, it would be mainly rewatching loads of matches but something that I learnt really quickly is since all the players come from different regions you’ve got to learn who enjoys doing interviews. You don’t want to put someone on the spot who is not going to be enjoying themselves and will not give you good answers, so it’s good to do your research on which players are happy to do it and also tayloring your questions to them. For example, you may know someone likes to talk about their team’s mentality since a lot of the teams are quite emotional.
If I was to describe your style of post match interviews, although you open up with more generic and emotional questions I think you prefer to discuss topics related to the match itself, do you agree?
Obviously we already have a ton of great interviewers in the scene, I always used to watch Pala, I think his style is great because he is really good friends with the players and I absolutely love that he can get some funny answers since he knows exactly what their personalities are like. For me when I watch Counter-Strike I really enjoy the analytical side; I enjoy watching and wondering why they made a particular move and it’s great having the opportunity to actually ask them about a certain round and why did it played out the way it did.
Yesterday Sue [Smix] asked why KSCERATO jumped off silo and we got the answer, I really enjoy this aspect because it’s not something that the players can directly relay to the fans themselves, you might see the play happen but you need that mediator to find out the idea behind it.
Here at the ECS Finals you are instead the desk host during the event, how has it differed with stage hosting/interviewing and was it as you expected?
The idea of desk hosting always really scared me. Although I’ve been doing interviews for a year now, desk hosting always scared me because of the reliance on being spontaneous: if they are in your ear saying you need to fill for ten minutes, you need to do it, you can’t just throw to a break.
When I actually went up and did it, there was not as much pressure, the crew were very understanding with it being my first time and the analysts are fantastic, we have some fantastic guys and they always want to talk. We’ve had post match segments that were four minutes long which is a lot shorter than we’d like but it’s because the games have been so good and the analysts are always saying: “we want to talk for longer”.
Compared with what I’d expected, the main difference is that I thought there would be a lot of people talking in my ear at once but they are actually really considerate since you need to be listening to your analysts. It’s just a right laugh, that’s what’s so great about it. Obviously they also want to talk about Counter-Strike but don’t want it to be deadly serious, we can have a laugh and we all get along friends. It’s similar to the conversations we have in the green room but instead up on stage, it is really genuine and enjoyable.
Something you just touched on is the atmosphere behind the desk, how do you think that will change being in front of the crowd for the following games?
Today [coming into the semi-finals] we have a crowd so maybe it will be slightly different but I think it is just going to add more atmosphere. For instance after the Astralis versus FURIA game we were absolutely mind blown with so much emotion on the desk and I think today the crowd is going to be experiencing that with us.
It’s not that I thought I would not enjoy desk hosting, it’s that I am enjoying it more than I thought I would have and it has been a crazy experience. I think I am just incredibly lucky, a year ago today was my first time doing stage hosting and now I am desk hosting.
Outside of working at events themselves, are you interested in branching out and doing more content between tournaments?
Currently I am full time with FACEIT, I am in a similar situation to James Bardolph where we both have an input before events happen and during the events themselves. I have been full time with FACEIT for just over two months now which I am thoroughly enjoying.
I get to contribute ideas for events, propose events and they kind of give me free reign, if i have an idea and we can make it happen, then we’ll make it happen. It is just great to be making content about games and I have to bring myself back down to earth sometimes. It’s an insane industry, we are very lucky to be doing what we’re doing and I think we're going to be making more content in the future
Off the back of her first event desk hosting Freya seems poised to continue her ascent, a little over a year ago few knew her name and today being a recognisable talent member raises the question: a year from now, where will Freya be?
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Photo credit: @Styxitis
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