Interview with Team Supergirls

Although we've seen plenty of women compete in Counterstrike 1.6, female gamers are still a rare bread, especially in a game like Call of Duty. However, after the Swedish Druidz attended The Experience back in August with two female players in their ranks, emiZ and H@nna, this weekend we will see the first all-female make their official LAN debut at the Multiplay i35 in Warwickshire this weekend.

The British team go by the name of Supergirls and is one of the few, if not the only all-female team left alive in the CoD series, after the Dutch Team GX split earlier this year.

Below you can find a small introduction about the players, followed by an interview discussing the team's goals, the Multiplay i35 event and their experiences as a female gamer.

Vixxen
Sarah, also known as Vixxen on the internet and in game is the eldest of the bunch. This 28 year old single mother has been playing the Call of Duty series since it originated. – “The only reason I started playing games was because when I was a kid, I used to play on the Commodore 64, so at 20 I found myself with a lot of time on my hands, with a baby and having recently given up work, gaming took up my spare time instead (and dominated it ever since!)” She tells us, and continues on with a confession that here 8-years old son probably is better than her on most of their Xbox and PC games.

She started the team a year ago, and has been with it ever since. Personality is very important for Vixxen when she searches for new players and has trust in her own players. – “I am confident in their conduct, both in-game and out though, as I spent nearly 3 months searching for the right girls for that very reason.”

Qu33ney
Harriet, or Qu33ney as her friends call her online, has been with the team since the beginning. This blonde and crazy 18 year old tells us she started playing games on the N64. She got hooked on CoD which got her involved in the gaming scene. – “I am a very aggressive player and tend to flame on occasions” she giggles.

Qu33neys days revolve around school and gaming, She’s in her last year of collage, and whenever she has some spare time, she hits the computer for gaming. At the same time, she can’t wait to try something new. Talking about education, she tells us: -“I plan to take a gap year where I will just chill.” She will also be departing from the team after I35.

Fox
The newest member of the team is Sam, also known as Fox. –“ You can easily spot me in the clan because I’m the one who’s loud, speaks her mind and is usually full of some sort of artificial adrenaline. I talk a lot, but when I’m not annoying people with my random yibber yabber, I’m usually squeaking or cursing at my screen,” she laughs and tells us. When she’s not deep in her books doing her Computer Science University Dissertation, Fox tries to fit in as much gaming as possible. Her first online game was Battlefield 2 and she claims she plays better when drunk, -“which unfortunately won't help me at LAN.”

Bexx
Becci, a 23 year old girl from Liverpool is the fourth member of the team. Bexx, as she is called in game, got into gaming like most girls do; by her boyfriend. –“My boyfriend, Cycore, got me into gaming when I used to watch him play CSS, which I would play whenever he wasn't on his computer,” she tells us and continues: -“When he moved onto BF2 I started to become frustrated as I couldn't play as often as I wanted. I then decided, much to my parents' disapproval, to buy my own computer just so I could play BF2 whenever I wanted. I bought CoD4 when it came out and have been playing it since.”

Apart from gaming, this qualified teacher spends a lot of her spare time on football. “This might sound impressive but it is just a kick about with friends,” she tells us and ends laughing with, “I also don't run much because I am unfit and lazy.”

Asuka
Ellie, a 17 year old and also the youngest girl of the team, tells us where she got her alias Asuka from –“ I stole it from an anime,” she giggles. Starting out playing console games, such as Halo2 for the Xbox 360, Asuka soon found herself getting hooked on PC fps games after watching her brother and his friends playing them.

Like most of the other girls in the team, she spends every free second gaming. Knowing she once played 10 pickups on the same day and after that go on with clan practise, you can never accuse her of being unmotivated.

Besides from being a driven gamer, Asuka is also a… erm... “driven” student. “I’m studying ICT, Media and Psychology for my A Levels at school, where I sit spraying people with deodorant until they choke.” She tells us. –“My general day, however, involves me watching the clock waiting until I can come home and play games.”

What kind of goals do you have as a team and as individual players? How do you plan to reach them?

Vixxen: "As team leader, my aim for the team would be to be a recognised CoD team, not for just the fact that we are female, but because we are (or will be eventually) a good team and can compete on a level playing field against all teams.

There are many CoD players and people within the community that support our team and they are helping us a great deal, all in completely individual ways. Some give advice on a management level and then there are people who give up their valuable time to come watch us play, teach us things, tell us where we are going wrong and point us in the right direction. So to you guys (you know who you are) thanks a million!"

Asuka: "As a team we're still only in the first stages of coming together and working out our strengths and weaknesses. Despite this, we aim to be known not only as a competitive Call of Duty 4 team, but one that is supported by other teams and can support other teams, not only for being female but for having some degree of skill. We aim to improve as players and individuals during our time gaming, whilst the individual skills we learn are shared within the team.

Of course individual effort and motivation has to be present to improve in any kind of way, however along with this many players and teams have been helping us out, sharing ideas and giving us advice."


Tell us about your expectations on i35 and the Call of Duty 4 tournament you are entered in.

Qu33ney: "Due to the fact that we have just recently established the team, I do not expect anything fabulous. I hope to at least get through the group stages at i35, which I believe in its self is a huge achievement. My main hope for i35 is to have fun together and become closer as a team. I want LAN to be an enjoyable experience for the whole team, which we can all remember (if we don’t get too drunk)."

Vixxen: "At this moment in time the team have only been playing together for roughly 6 weeks, to have any expectations would be foolish to say the least. While the team are aiming for higher levels, we have not deluded ourselves in thinking it is going to happen over night. Most of the girls have not come from competitive backgrounds, so it has been a very steep learning curve for them. Of our main line up, only one has actually ever played at LAN before.

We see i35 as dipping our toes in to test the water. We are certainly not expecting great things, especially given the calibre of the teams attending. We are there just for the experience itself."

Bexx: "As I have never been to LAN before I have no idea of what to expect. I’m not worrying too much about how well we do and we do not have high expectations. It is our first LAN as a team so we are just going to give it our all and see what happens."


How do you think the fact you being the only all female team in the tournament affects your performances?

Fox: "It doesn’t. Were gamers, being female shouldn’t and won’t affect our performance. Were not here to prove girls can game, we here to game for ourselves and our team mates."

Asuka: "Some may hold certain views about our sex affecting our ability or our skill, and that we are setting a negative example about feeling strong on having a full female line-up. However, we could argue at the amount of full male line-ups that already exist. It’s just a preference that we prefer as a team and although we are currently the only Call of Duty 4 female team to be attending LAN, we don't see why being female would effect anything.

We already gain a lot of attention from being a female team, sometimes good, sometimes bad and we expect our team to maybe attract more interest at i35, just because we are female. However, we are not there for the attention, we are there to play and represent our team and ourselves in a proper manner."

Qu33ney: "For me, being a female doesn’t affect my performance. I have played with the male counter part throughout my life. People believe that because we are female we are going to fail epically. This is not true because we have shown this as a team on many occasions. We receive attention from both females and males, which helps to raise our profiles. Our team consists of laid back girls who just want to game because they enjoy it."


In a such non-physical kind of sport why did you decide to start and play in an all female team, when e-sports provide one of very few chances for women to compete amongst men on an equal level?

Asuka: "The sheer fact there aren't as many opportunities for females, makes all the more reason to be different. I have played with males in the past and although I enjoyed it in every possible way, I wanted a challenge. When I was approached about joining a female team, I thought I'd give it a try and see how it went. At this moment in time, I am aware there are far more opportunities for males out there that game. For females though, things are only improving and as time goes by hopefully there will be more and more opportunities available.

I've personally always enjoyed games and only came across one or two other females that shared my interest. A lot of real-life friends, especially females, fail to understand the interest in gaming that we as a team share. I feel we all understand each other in that aspect, which automatically forms a strong bond that only grows stronger the more time we spend playing and around each other."

Vixxen: "For me personally it's never been about having a female only team. At the start of the year when I joined my first female only team, I joined because I was between teams, and it was with an old friend. I saw it as a new challenge. It was with this team that I realised that I just prefer playing with like minded females.

While I am equally happy to play in a mixed team or a predominantly male team, I find that women are more understanding when it comes to playing. Frequently female gamers are caught between real life female friends, that have no interest in gaming and male friends that can't understand a women even wanting to play games. In this team I have like minded friends. It is like finding a middle ground that is often very hard to find.

Then, there is the relationship aspect; a female team avoids the problem totally, so the focus is 100% on the game and not internal relationships."


Thinking beyond i35, what are your goals, as a team and individually, for the future?

Qu33ney: "Unfortunately, I am departing from the team after I-series. I have real life commitments to attend to, such as my school work, a job and a boyfriend. All of which I have been ignoring for the past several months. I still am going to game in my spare time but not so hardcore. I may come back for CoD5 but we’ll see."

Vixxen: "My goals would be to enhance the image and reputation of female gamers in general. I personally feel that at the moment, some higher profile female teams have let female gamers down, by exploiting the fact that they are female, expecting to be treated differently and by creating female only tournaments. I believe this has implied inferiority. Gender should not come into gaming. A 'professional gamer' should apply to anyone that has the required skill level and ambition, but at the moment 'pro' female teams are a far cry from the male 'pro's'. There is rarely any comparison, and as a result the males of the industry often do not take females seriously.

Many female gamers choose not be known widely within the community, which is a great shame, as over the last 12months the number of competitive Call of Duty females has steadily increased. It’s clear that there are many more female competitors who like to keep a low profile because of the current image. So it’s a goal of our team to change the perception within the community about females within the competitive gaming environment."

Asuka: "For me, I plan to continue playing for as long as I can. Call of Duty 5 is soon released and if the community moves then I too will be joining them. I also aim towards playing it on a competitive level, hopefully still within this team where we can form stronger relationships and attend many more LANs."