Hosting ESL Challenger Jönköping 2024

I like to do these little recaps of the events I’ve recently worked. They end up being a way for me to go back and examine what I thought as well as how to improve. For me, any esports broadcast I work on is about the players and the event, not me. So this is a chance to self reflect and be a bit more “me” focused. I had the chance to be the desk host for ESL Challenger Jönköping 2024 and wanted to bring some “hype” to the event which was held at Dreamhack Summer in Sweden.

All photos featured are courtesy of Ola Dydak. 

The ESL Challenger events are always fun for Counter-Strike fans because they tend to be a combination of some decent tier 1 teams and the competitive tier 2 teams looking to make a name for themselves and earn a spot in ESL Pro League – which is usually on the line for the finalists competing. I’ll be working a few Challengers this year (hopefully) and find that they don’t really get as many eyeballs as some of the bigger tournaments. Understandable: the days are long and, for a lot of fans, they want to see the top 10 teams only. So newer faces or unknown Tier 2 players aren’t really all that attractive to them. In an effort to change that I started a series with a colleague, DarfMike. It’s a YouTube podcast called Challenged. We do a Before and After video talking about expectations and then a recap of the event, to try build on interesting storylines and engage fans to watch and support. Here’s the two episodes from this particular Challenger:

Competitive Games

We had some super competitive games at Challenger this time around. Usually this even has a very uneven skill gap which shows pretty blatantly but that wasn’t at all the case this time. We had lots of close matches and really good Counter-Strike. This inherently makes my job a lot easier. I think setting up analysts to commentate on one sided games can be tough. That wasn’t really too much of a concern this time around. I think we had some fun desks and kept it interesting for the viewers.

@techgirlza Tour the broadcast green room with me for @ESL Counter-Strike Challenger! #cs2 #counterstrike #eslchallenger #GamingOnTikTok #esports ♬ original sound – Sam “Tech Girl” Wright

While being sassy is fun, I’m aware that there is a fine line I tread when desk hosting. The integrity of the tournament is paramount. So while we can have fun, we need to keep the focus on track and ensure we are doing the best to highlight the players, games and keep viewers invested. It is a fine line and I’m working hard to find the balance. It’s a bit of experience I lack and something I definitely need to fine tune.

Changing up the flow

I’m proud of the work I did at this event but I’m hoping if I have a chance to work more ESL Challengers this year, the production team & I can work together to create a little bit more free flow in the style and manner in which we do the desks at these events. I’d like the idea of changing up the formula every so often to ensure a fun mix and to keep viewers on their toes – especially because the broadcast days are so long and the diehard fans are spending 12 hours watching round after round of Counter-Strike. Something to add to the “to work on” list for me. As per usual if you’d like to see photos from this event, there is a Facebook photo album you can check out.