Frankie praises LoL\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d gameday content Counter-Strike host Frankie Ward has called for improvements to event coverage, including interviews, and praised Riot\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d production level at the LoL European Championship should be what other organizers strive for. Frankie has been working as an interviewer and a host for the past few years, taking the leap after becoming enamored with the gaming world during her coverage of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship with the BBC. While she\u2019s plied her trade at the LEC, as well as Hearthstone and PUBG events, her main focus has been Counter-Strike, where she\u2019s risen to one of the best and brightest stage interviewers the esport has to offer. The game\u2019s events still have a long way to go if they\u2019re to reach their full potential in regards to gameday content though, she says, and believes tournament organizers should take a leaf out of the frontier-forging LEC production team in 2020. Ward had a stint with the European competition in mid-2019, filling in for Eefje \u2018Sjokz\u2019 Depoortere as the formerly nailed-on LoL host tried her hand at other esports and tournaments. While there, Frankie said she learned a lot. As well as a dedicated team of analysts and experts like Sjokz, Trevor \u2018Quickshot\u2019 Henry, and Indiana \u2018Froskurinn\u2019 Black, the European Championship is based in one venue in Berlin. There, they\u2019ve built themselves a veritable fortress of production. With CSGO\u2019s circuit constantly on the move, that strategy wouldn\u2019t work quite as well, of course, but with live replays, deep-dive analytical segments, and constant access to players on-stage and at the desk, the LEC thrives with gameday content. \u201cThe LEC [does a lot] right, they have these huge screens and can replay moments and they have all these things at their fingertips like stats and resources that can really elevate the whole thing,\u201d Frankie said on The Minds of Media podcast. \u201cI want to tell the story of the player, and the story of what happened in the game, and my interview training [with the BBC] was all about the act of listening, and not being a slave to questions. Having one minute makes that hard.\u201d While the British interviewer concedes more than a minute or two isn\u2019t always possible when it comes to massive CSGO events like the BLAST, DreamHack, and IEM, she said she\u2019d love to see more time and in-depth conversations, in partnership with the desk. \u201cIf I\u2019m doing interviews between maps, I want to capture what went right, what\u2019s going to happen next, and get a sense of the whole game,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I can work with the analysts, and give them as much info as possible. I want what is discussed with the players to line up with what the desk is doing for a complete show. That\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be working on next year.\u201d Frankie\u2019s suggested ideas don\u2019t necessarily mean she thinks CSGO is behind the bell-curve when it comes to presenting esports as an entertainment machine, of course \u2014 the star host says she \u201cabsolutely loves\u201d the Counter-Strike tour. In fact, she loves it so much that sometimes she finds herself getting swept up in the hype and excitement of the narrative, like when Fnatic battled all the way through the lower bracket at DreamHack Masters in Malm\u00f6 to lift the trophy. Fnatic had just scored a 2\u20131 win over Vitality to clinch the championship, after ousting tournament favorites Astralis 2\u20130 in the semifinals. Frankie was tasked with interviewing Jesper \u2018JW\u2019 Wecksell, and she hilariously flubbed her lines. \u201cI\u2019ve done winners interviews before\u2014they don\u2019t have the intimacy of the sideline interviews I normally do\u2014and in Malm\u00f6, I did one, and they\u2019d been quiet for the most part, but the crowd was going crazy after Fnatic won,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything was hugely emotional, and it was a great story, and I threw my cue cards away because I wanted to be in the moment with the questions, and then I stupidly went for a gameplay question and I messed it up. \u201cI forgot what map I was talking about because I didn\u2019t have the cards, and JW was like \u201cdo you mean this?\u201d It\u2019s those kinds of moments that work\u2026 I want the interviews to be dynamic, and so I think people forgave me for that [mistake].\u201d For mobile readers, the related segment in the video below begins at 1:08:32. Whether or not CSGO\u2019s tournament organizers around the world take on Frankie\u2019s advice, it certainly seems like the esport is headed for a massive year, with new competitions that may buy into the \u201cupgraded\u201d gameday coverage suggestions. A new twelve-team franchise league, led by Astralis and Cloud9, has been rumored, and BLAST is establishing a new \u2018Pro Series,\u2019 though they\u2019ve come under-fire after leaving dominant rosters Fnatic and mousesports out of the equation. One thing is for sure heading into 2020 though \u2014 Frankie is sure to be at the forefront of CSGO interviews long into the year, and if she\u2019s involved, there\u2019s a good chance she\u2019ll bring her suggestions to the table for production. As for her own interviewing style, as long as she isn\u2019t hurling her cue cards off the stage in a moment of grand final hype, she\u2019s sure to have a great year too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Frankie praises LoL\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d gameday content Counter-Strike host Frankie Ward has called for improvements to event coverage, including interviews, and praised Riot\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d production level at the LoL European Championship should be what other organizers strive for. Frankie has been working as an interviewer and a host for the past few years, taking the leap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}