As we host our own esports prediction & fantasy platform herosphere.gg and have the first HEROcoin use case on herosphere.gg, we regularly sit down with gamers and influencial people from the scene. This time we talked to Miss Rage about being a streamer, gaming, tournaments, and what it means to be a woman in the gaming scene.

How did you get into Gaming?

I got relatively late into online gaming, but I had been playing video games since I was a little kid.

“Gaming was always part of my life.”

My favorite game was Banjo Kazooie. When I was 16, a friend of mine convinced me to give World of Warcraft a try and I was hooked. That was my first online game and I have been playing online games ever since.

What has been the most exciting experience?

I actually have two exciting experiences, I would like to tell you about: one as a streamer and the other one as a player in a team.

As a streamer, it was the first gamescom that I went to. That was the first time someone came up to me and asked me for a picture. The guy is actually still on my stream and for the last five years has been following and supporting me and my gaming related activities.

As a competitive player in a team, the most exciting experience were the Copenhagen games in 2017.

Did you encounter difficulties in your profession being a woman? If so, which?

When it comes to streaming, being a woman is an advantage because there are always fewer women than men, so being a woman is something special.

However, people definitely judge you because you are a woman. I have encountered various sentiments over the course of my career, such as “Girls don’t like video games”, “Girls just want to make money playing video games” and so on.

How did you deal with comments like these?

My streaming career was not an overnight success, but it was rather a continuous growth. At the beginning, I had 5 people watching, then 20, then 50 and so on. And with all the negative comments and online hate, the positive comments became more and more as well. I think, I was able to build a thick skin.

“Sometimes people are very hurtful, but my goal is to educate them and make them realize that there is a human being sitting at the other end.”

I always try to counter negative comments with humor and sometimes these haters come around. But it depends on who they are.

Why do you think is the female engagement in esports still so much lower compared to men?

For gamers, esports means taking risks. What I see is that female players are often more complacent with getting a contract and a salary and don’t jump into games that might not have an immediate financial benefit but would be beneficial from a career perspective.

For example, if you want to play in a certain league you need to spend hours and hours playing and proving yourself, without any money attached.

The main reason why girls tend to not join mixed teams (talking about CS:GO) and stay within a female only environment is probably because of money. A female team is naturally more marketable than male teams, and therefore it is easier to access the top of a much smaller scene and getting paid to play there. In order to get the equivalent in a male team, you would have to grind 10 times more.

What I also see, however, is that there is still so many mental boundaries to overcome for women, be it that they have to convince their parents that gaming is “a thing” or overcoming prejudices regarding their gender.

“I don’t see a reason why a female gamer shouldn’t be as successful as a male one.”

What are ways to get women interested? What has to change in order to get females more interested and start a professional career in gaming?

The problem is not that there aren’t enough women interested in esports. In fact, there are so many women who are regularly watching. If you want to play at a professional level, you need to play full-time. It would help if organizations would support female players by hiring them part-time at least and get them the support network they need to succeed.

Which esport do you think has the biggest potential to attract female gamers and viewers?

CS:GO is very popular with female gamers. It is a very established game and there are a lot of female teams with a lot of history and a broad network. From the newer things, I think Fortnite is an interesting game because of its aesthetics. Because this is a relatively new game, it is relatively easier to get into it and compete,the competitors have not been playing the game for several years and the skill gap is still not that big.

How can you make the esports scene a welcoming place for women?

There are actually quite some initiatives, to make esports a more welcoming place for women. Fortnite, for example, has LadiesNITE tournaments, CS:GO has its own ESL female open and many more.

Personally, I think it is important for women not to sweat it and focus on being awesome players. Esports is a physical sport as well, but there are no physical advantages for male or female players. However, as in every male-dominated profession, the most important thing that needs to change is the mindset that gaming is something that is reserved for men.

What are some initiatives you know of that are designed to make esports more diverse?

There are some organizations, such as AnyKey, who have female tournaments and that go to universities and introduce gaming to women.

MissRage

Thank you MissRage for this interview!

www.twitch.tv/miss_rage // https://www.facebook.com/pg/MissRageLoL