Sjokz to work at her first CS:GO Major at PGL Antwerp

PGL and Valve have revealed the full talent lineup that will be working at the PGL Antwerp Major, the first CS:GO Major of 2022, in May. Headlining the list is the Belgium host Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere, who is most known for her work at League of Legends events, but she has been branching out into other games since going freelance.

Sjokz worked at BLAST events in 2019 and 2020, and after missing out on CS:GO events in 2021, she made a comeback at the Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments that took place this month. PGL apparently enjoyed her work so much that it extended an invitation to Sjokz to work alongside Freya Spiers on desk host duties during the Antwerp Major.

Jacob “⁠Pimp⁠” Winneche, Mathieu “⁠Maniac⁠” Quiquerez, and Alex “⁠Mauisnake⁠” Ellenberg will be the trio of analysts working with Sjokz and Freya on the analysis desk. Frankie Ward will be the stage host while James Banks will work as the interviewer, repeating his role from the PGL Stockholm Major last year.

PGL and Valve have hired four casting duos for the upcoming Major. It’s unclear which one of these duos will be the tournament’s main pairing, but the competition will surely be fierce. Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill and Alex “Machine” Richardson are probably the most famous, but fans will also have Mohan “⁠launders⁠” Govindasamy and Conner “⁠Scrawny⁠” Girvan, Harry “⁠JustHarry⁠” Russell and Hugo Byron, and Vince Hill and Sudhen “⁠Bleh⁠” Wahengbam conducting the action.

In addition, the $1 million tournament will have Jake “Jak3y” Elton, Efren “encg” Chuong, Ryan “ItsRandall” Randall, Bastian “UnknownFME” Faber, Jake “zarx” Karakouzian, Marko “shev” Krajčesk, and Markus “pinqu” Eliasen splitting the observing duties throughout the competition.

The list doesn’t include some big names that worked at several Majors before, such as Anders Blume, Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett, Jason “moses” O’Toole, Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat, Richard Lewis, Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Janko “YNk” Paunović, and David “prius” Kuntz.

The PGL Antwerp Major kicks off on May 9.