In this special series of articles, Esports News UK’s coverage of the Blast Spring Final 2024 is in collaboration with the betting partner GGBET UK | Photos by Liam Kew and Jonathon Yau
UK broadcast talent Jack ‘Jacky’ Peters has a love of Counter-Strike that is perhaps unmatched. Since turning 17 and doing his first studio cast, in his words he’s been ‘non-stop ever since, absorbing my life with it, and it’s beautiful because it gives you so much’.
Jacky watches demos every morning, produces content regularly, and has been tweeting at Valve every single day for more than a year, hoping they let him voice an agent in the game. Last week he was an arena host at the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024, recording voiceovers and more, and Dom Sacco caught up with him to discuss all things Jacky and Counter-Strike, and how he’s staying positive when faced with the uncertainty of UK esports.
“It’s one of those things where you’d imagine it’d get this way at some point, but you never knew when,” Jacky ponders.
I’d just asked him the obvious question – what’s it like working at a big Counter-Strike event in London’s Ovo Arena Wembley, to 18,000 fans across the weekend?
“It’s been genuinely amazing, Dom,” he responds. “Starting as a 17-year-old, you think, ‘maybe one day’. So to be here now, to go out there and scream ‘Wembley!’ and everyone’s going nuts, working in some little in jokes, just shouting Tesco and everyone goes crazy…
“Man, it’s actually life-changing.
“I love doing voiceover work, anything with my voice has been really fun. I do a bit of scriptwriting and freestyle rapping in my spare time, so writing bars. So being here, working with the Blast team, the editors, Robin, everyone that’s been a part of it, I feel like we’ve made something really special.
“Hearing the feedback from people in the crowd when they pick up on some of the lines, or the energy in the room when they really hit, it’s been amazing. There’s been nothing like it.”
“I sent my mum a picture saying ‘I’m working in Wembley’. And she said ‘oh my God, what are you doing?’” (laughs)
Does Mama Jacky know much about esports, or take an interest in it?
“She supports [my love of esports], when I was growing up and being homeschooled, she let me play Source and do stuff,” Jacky explains. “I said, ‘mum, I need a day off to go to London and cast Counter-Strike’, and she said, ‘alright, if it’s something you want to do’.
“So for her, it’s about seeing it’s a real thing and me shouting at millions of people.”
Jacky has come a long way since the days of the old ESL UK Premiership, Gfinity Elite Series, Insomnia/UK Masters and more in the mid 2010s.
Our friends at UKCSGO recently tweeted a still from an old interview they conducted with Jacky back in 2016.
“I remember we did that interview five times,” Jacky says. “Whenever we did the intro, Duck [Michael Moriarty] just messed it up! And we just kept going again and again. So shoutout to Duck Moriarty – he’s way better now.” (laughs)
“It’s mad, Dom, from back then to watching everything scale up, and even for myself, the beard got longer, the events got bigger… it’s all just been kinda crazy. Being here, listening to some of the voiceovers going out… it nearly made me cry, genuinely, like, feeling it all.”
Jacky is clearly someone who is in touch with his emotions, his passion for Counter-Strike just spilling into his personality and a big part of who he is.
Before I speak to Jacky for this interview, I’m waiting in the press mix zone a little early, where journalists usually jostle around to interview players after a match. So it feels odd to be standing there with none of that going on.
When Jacky emerges, there was no rushing or jostling – just a big smile and a big hug from the broadcast talent. And you can’t help but smile back.
It’s taken me a little while to realise it, but Jacky is like zeal incarnate. His positivity, enthusiasm and love for Counter-Strike is so high that he practically glows with it (or perhaps that’s just his shiny gold and black suit, chain and silky shirt, pictured below – an outfit which makes me feel pretty pathetic in my jeans, jumper and old Pokémon Converses).
UK esports broadcast talent always seem to dazzle. I ask him if he has someone who helps him with his outfits.
“It’s all me,” he answers. “I’ve always really liked fashion, I enjoy it, a bit of style gives you something. The three suits I’ve worn at this event, I bought them about three years ago, I put them to one side and I was like, ‘there will be one big event, something that really deserves some gas’, and it finally came around.
“Going back to London, it had to be done.”
When I last interviewed Jacky at the UK’s first CS2 LAN at Epic 40 last year, and I asked him about living in the Netherlands and whether it’s the better country over England, he responded (instantly): “Yeah.”
But does being here make him miss it, even a little bit?
“It does make me miss the UK crowd. Coming back to this, the reception has been amazing,” Jacky says. “I’ve never signed so many bizarre things in my life. I’ve signed a Nintendo Wii, that blew my mind. I said thank you to the guy, ‘this is incredible’. I’ve signed 15 socks, four jerseys, one of them home-made. It’s been one of my favourite bits. I felt like Dobby, I had been given a sock, I’m a free elf!”
Related article: Mezii signs a Pot Noodle as fans partied in London at the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 with GG.BET
“And on the first day, and loads of people were lingering outside. I said: “For anyone that’s got here on time, let’s mess with the crowd. When I say ‘giant egg’, you say ‘egg, egg, egg!’”
“Over the course of the show I’m working it in, and you have people that get the joke, and everyone else is going, ‘what’s he saying? Why is everyone else screaming ‘egg’ at the guy with the beard?’ (laughs)
“So that buckled me, and I was like, these guys are down for anything.”
A year of tweeting Valve to let Jacky voice an agent in Counter-Strike
As well as having enthusiasm, Jacky also has sheer willpower (or craziness? You decide)! He’s been tweeting at Valve every single day for over a year now, asking the CS2 devs to let him voice an agent in the game.
Surely Valve has seen this now?
“You’d hope so. I’m never gonna give up, I’m gonna keep going,” he states. “It’s a dream for me. If it never happens, it never happens. But I’m not gonna stop til the day that it does, Dom.
“I feel like it’d be a bit of fun, a nice British agent, bit of a cockney flavour in the game! That’d be cool, right?
“[Making daily content for the tweets] is fun too. Each day I brainstorm with [my partner, Daisy Powers aka] Damp, and we’re talking about what we can do, should we do an American Psycho skit? How do we tie it in? So it’s been really fun and it keeps you on your toes every day.”
When asked what’s next, Jacky responds: “I hope I get more big events. I’m not going anywhere, I turned 17 and did my first studio cast at Faceit, it’s been non-stop ever since. Especially with CS2 – I’ve never put more time into Counter-Strike as I do now.
“Every morning I’m watching demos, playing Refrag, absorbing my life with it and it’s beautiful because it gives you so much.
“So I’m not going anywhere.”
Continuing with Jacky’s positivity, what are his views on the current state of UK Counter-Strike?
Despite the closure of the ESL Premiership and Insomnia Gaming Festival, and some teams like Raptors ceasing esports operations, Jacky remains optimistic – and here’s why.
“I think we’re in a good spot. Back in the day, there were always the same issues and never any solutions,” Jacky recalls. “I feel like we’ve fixed a lot of those core problems. You now have more support, more sponsors and bigger organisations that are there for the long run and looking in the right direction.
“Talent development, long term, never just one Epic.LAN or one I-series. You’re looking for careers, you’re looking for faces of brands.
“I think we’re in the best spot we’ve ever been in. I think there’s some amazing talent out there as well. Some of the up and comers out there, you have 16-year-olds, when you see their games I’m so impressed, they’re changing so much in the way they play and think about it. They’re playing proper Counter-Strike.”
“There are a few people that have really impressed me recently. Tree60 – keep going, do not give up. His brother Geckeos with TLR is such a nice guy, very down to earth and mechanically gifted.
“If players like that are out there and they want to keep it going, just keep doing it. There are some amazing people and the grind will pay off.
“And I think one of the biggest things is that all the egos are gone. Everyone’s a lot more welcoming, people understand you need the support, and it’s there. So, give it time, I know we’ve been saying that for years, but give it time and follow your dreams as well. If you want to do it, do it, that’s the way to go.”
I’m interviewing Jacky during the grand final, with Team Spirit having taken the first map against Navi.
“I’d like to see Navi take it,” Jacky says. “Aleksib has a crazy map stat. 15 maps played, 15 maps lost, he hasn’t won a single map in a best-of-five. We could write history here today and I think it’d be such a sick storyline.
[Update: After Spirit went 3-1 to win, the stat went to 17 maps played and 17 lost before he won one]
“But on the other side of the coin, you’ve gotta love beards, you have Chopper and Donk, that’s optics for the future.
“No matter what, I think Counter-Strike wins and London wins.”
How can you argue with that?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
