Freya Spiers added to PGL Major 2021 broadcast talent as stage host, after line-up also featuring Thorin, Richard Lewis and Machine was criticised for lack of diversity

PGL

Update (October 13th 2021): British esports host and interviewer Freya Spiers has joined to the CSGO PGL Major 2021 broadcast talent line-up as a stage host.

The news comes after PGL CEO Silviu Stroie also confirmed on Twitter that broadcast talent will be live from the Avicii Arena (previously the plan was for them to be based at the PGL Studio in Bucharest and casting remotely).

With the talent being live, it makes sense to bring a stage host into the mix:

Original article (October 4th):

A barrage of big British broadcast brains and names have been added to the PGL Major 2021 talent line-up.

It’s the first CSGO Major in over two years, after the StarLadder Berlin Major in August and September 2019, and will see a live crowd gather at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm from October 26th to November 7th 2021.

British CSGO talent includes Richard Lewis as host, Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields as analyst, Jake ‘Jak3y’ Elton and Ryan ‘ItsRandall’ Randall as observers, James Banks as interviewer and Daniel ‘dds’ Kapadia, Alex ‘Machine’ Richardson and James Bardolph as casters.

Other big names from the world of CSGO include Anders Blume, who is joining the line-up as a caster, Sudhen ‘Bleh’ Wahengbam and others.

After the announcement, several people in esports questioned the lack of diversity in the PGL Major 2021 broadcast line-up.

NiP COO Jonas Gundersen qNiP COO Jonas Gundersen said on Twitter: “Come on esports – it’s 2021. We can do A LOT better than this. It’s the biggest CSGO event there is – the whole world is watching! Disappointing”

Morten Vikær, who has worked with Blast, added: “Hey women in esports, are you from Complexity because you just got 16-0’d.”

British caster Lauren ‘Pansy’ Scott also shared her views:

Colin McNeil, director of video content at Upcomer and formerly of The Score Esports, said the response to the discussion on the PGL talent line-up on social media, was in general ‘disappointingly ignorant’.

“People LOVE to talk about a meritocracy,” he said. “just hire the best”. And the last time I checked, the likes of Freya or sapphiRe etc were the best.”

This resulted in an exchange with Richard Lewis, who criticised Colin accusing him of plagiarism at The Score and not correctly crediting or asking permission from Thorin to use his content in The Score videos.

Richard Lewis also urged the community to stick together over the line-up in this short video.

Not all of the teams have been confirmed for the PGL Major just yet. Some of those who have qualified include Navi, Gambit, Virtus Pro, Renegades, NiP, Astralis, G2 and more. You can read more about the teams that have qualified for the PGL Major 2021 so far on Dot Esports.

The news comes shortly after Valve announced that the Dota 2 International 10 would not have a live audience after all, due to the pandemic, with tickets being refunded to those who were due to attend.

The Dota 2 International kicks off on October 7th, and features British talent including Frankie Ward, ODPixel and TeaGuvnor.

Frankie was asked if she chose between the PGL Major and TI 10, and she responded:

You can see more CSGO content on Esports News UK here.

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