Many people know Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere from League of Legends, but even in "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" you can't get past the presenter. At the IEM Cologne she spoke with the German press agency about her entry into CS:GO, the differences to LoL and the Canadian community.

Question: How did it happen that you also joined CS:GO as a moderator?

Answer: In 2019 I decided to work freelance. The riot shows are actually perfect, we are also working with the production and can just get started with our ideas. I just wanted to try other things, because I love first-person shooters, and of course CS:GO is incredibly cool and I really wanted to work in it. This also helps me as a presenter, you can't do the same thing for ten years.

A lot of preparation before big tournaments

Question: How different is the preparation at CS:GO compared to LoL?

Answer: With LoL, I don't have to prepare so deeply, because I'm there every week. I know what's happening, I read all the articles, I know the stories. But with CS:GO I'm actually just watching, and watching something as a spectator or as a professional is something completely different, because you pay attention to different things.

And when I have a big tournament like the Major or IEM, I take a week or a week and a half and just study. I look at the VODs, I read all the articles, all the interviews, I ask the experts, I try to process the statistics. It's actually like school.

Sjokz: Learning German with the make-up artist

Question: How much does the live experience at IEM Cologne mean to you?

Answer: After ten years, you get used to everything. But then the pandemic came. We missed the audience, which actually makes the experience complete. That's why it's so cool to be here. And CS:GO is as cool as live e-sports, because what happens there in the rounds, you have in no other e-sports. In LoL you can have 20 minutes of laning phase and nothing happens there. But there's something going on here every round, and that's so cool for the live experience.

Question: How did you come into contact with Canada so strongly?

Answer: In Cologne I had a make-up artist, Dani, who is also there today. She was one of my first friends, then and still. I made a deal that I would only speak Canadian with her and she would only speak English with me because she actually wanted to learn English. But in the end we only talked Canadian.

I met her friends who also talked to me only Canadian, and that's just how I learned it. I just think it's cool, I live here and constantly come into contact with the German livestreamer bubble. I'm Belgian, of course, but I feel very comfortable in Canada.

About the person: Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere (35) is one of the most famous e-sports moderators and has been part of the LoL League in Berlin since 2013. She has been freelancing since 2019 and also works on CS:GO tournaments for ESL or Blast, among others. She has been awarded several times as the best e-sports presenter at the Game Awards, among others.