"Female gaming has become just marketing."

German version

How did you become a gamer?

Mayra 'IpSa' Perez: A gamer? Hmm, I started playing Counter-Strike in December 2002 and I remember the exact date because I got CS as a christmas gift from my first boyfriend. I heard about the game in school and thought I should try it out and also to have something in common with my boyfriend. First time I remember thinking myself as beeing a gamer was when I traveled to ESWC 07 with unFinished. We ended up in 4th place. Not too bad.

Did your parents support you?

IpSa: Not at the beginning. I was in 9th grade when I started playing and I played a lot of public instead of doing my homework. Wich they didnt like of course. When I went to ESWC with unFinished, I think that was the first time they understood why I spent so much hours playing that game. After that they have always supported me.

Have you ever thought of studying instead of gamimg?

IpSa: Of course, playing CS takes away so many hours, no matter if you practice with your team or if you just play mixes. All those hours could instead go to studying but even if I started studying, I know all those hours would go away doin something else. (laughs)

Was it your aim to play on a professional level or did you just play beacause of the fun?

IpSa: At first I just played because I thought it was fun. Later on it became more serious for some of the girls I was playing with so I just hung along!

How did you get in contact with the former MYM?

IpSa: Me and zAAz were playing in a not so serious team after we just left unFinished. We wanted to play in a better team with better girls. By that time some of the oldschool girls from Seules had stopped playing and it was just nisse, AurorA, Cazzidy and inzane left but AurorA became manager. Inzane came to zAAz and asked if we were interested in joining them so of course we said yes! AurorA was the one that contacted MYM and asked if they wanted a girls' team and they said yes.

And what do you think about people saying female gaming is just marketing?

IpSa: I guess female-gaming HAS become just marketing. There aren't any good female-teams left, of course there are some exceptions. By the end of the day we want to become better and just want everybody to treat us equally. But of course if there are girls' tournaments, why not play in them? We get our own money and it's "easier" to win.

You tried to play in male tournaments several times but you haven't been that successful. Why are males so dominant?

IpSa: It depends on how you want to define the word "successful". I think that some male tournaments we have participated in have been very successful, of course we know that we won't make it to the very top. For example, just a couple of victories on SLAP-live, two weeks ago where we took out three male teams and made it through the groupstage is a success for us. That means we made it a little bit "further", compared to the other female teams who were there and who didn't even win one game. Another example is Dreamhack. The last two times we played there, we took once again out a couple of male teams and have been very very close getting to the last group. Only problem is that in the last groupstage we always lose one or two games from playing with the "big boys" like fnatic, MYM, SK and so on. We always lose to some semi-team. No other female team made it that far and I think we proved that we are able to take down male teams.

And now the reason why male are so dominant? That's because there are more men in the eSports scene, they have more players to choose between. For instance, if a female team doesn't match in chemistry, we can't just kick the player because there aren't enough alternatives. That's the advantage in the male scene. If a female team lacks something, the only option you have is to try to improve it, while in a male team, you can just change players.

Women don't have disadvantages like they have in other sports. Do you think it's ok to split male and female tournaments?

IpSa: I don't mind at all if there are female tournaments - easy money for us. As long as there are female tournaments, we will participate in them. I mean, why not? If they decide to ditch female tournaments, fine, we'll just participate in male tournaments just like we're doing now, and probably even more.

Would it be better to mix it?

IpSa: Probably, yeah. Girls would improve their game by learning from professional male players. The problem in the female scene is that girls don't play enough in the sparetime, only when they practice. Not to be mean or anything but if you play with an idiot you keep beeing an idiot. You don't learn anything new. So if girls would mix up with better boys, girls would learn more, since they aren't playing with idiots anymore!

If you would mix teams: which players would you like to have in your team?

IpSa: It would be me, zAAz, forwin, TaZ and maybe MoMaN. I would choose the team depending on how I know the chemistry is and what kind of players they are. As everybody knows zAAz is a very skilled and wild girl when she plays. I also love to play with her. I would pick TaZ because I have mixed with him a lot before and sometimes when mixing he calls and it feels really good listening to him, as everybody knows he is also really good at it. MoMaN is somebody I would like to have in a team because he can be serious when needed and he is so much fun, simply a joker to have in a team! I would also have forwin in the lineup because he is a good, calm and reasonable person and player. It might look like a weird lineup but I would rather put people I know in my dream lineup then just a bunch of pro gamers I don't know!

Now you continue playing with ex-MYM under Zinic's flag. How come that you found Zinic?

IpSa: Well, AurorA is our manager and she is the one with the contacts, hehe. Bo contaced her and asked if she could "fix" a female-team to do a project. She instantly thought of us of course, since we also have sticked together for a year by now so. We were an obvious choice.

And what are your aims with this team?

IpSa: The aim is what we always have aimed for: Keep playing and try to become our best. Try to do better and better on both female and male tournaments.

You want to make eSports more popular and decrease prejudices. Do you think it's the right way having posters with weapons etc.?

IpSa: The weapons are just a "different" thing to show that girls also can "play with guns". Thats one of the many prejudices, right? "Girls cant be raw, wild and do the same things as boys?" Of course they can! We play the same games and do the same stuff. Just maybe not in the same leagues and on the same level.

What do you think are the best ways to make eSports more popular in our society?

IpSa: I guess just to talk about it. Explain the different games and how this "world" works. Try to reach out more than making comercial for just gaming gear. There is a lot of people that don't understand this whole thing with eSport but if they would get the opportunity to be a part of it, they would think its cool.

Some weeks ago zAAz complained about guys in IRC but many women or girls have pictures showing them half-naked in their profiles - Discrepancy?

IpSa: How can that be a discrepancy? zAAz isn't all girls on Qnet, she explained her point of view from her situation. I totally understand her. There are some girls who like the attention and want to be called attention-******. Those type of girls aren't our problem or our biggest concern!

Back to eSports: Which events do you want to participate in this year?

IpSa: We are going to participate in the official tournament at Dreamhack - if there will be one, hehe. If something interesting shows up we might talk about going to that event. We will see.

Which teams will be the biggest opponents this year?

IpSa: Well, like always there are of course some European teams - emuLate for example. We see them as our biggest opponents but now that ESWC is down there aren't that many female teams practicing. We just keep playing like always and try to do our best and not to expect too highly of our enemies.

Which was your biggest moment in esport until now?

IpSa: I wish I could say it was ESWC Finals, but it was actually ESWC Masters. We won that title and it felt really, really good. There were so many people talking shit - like always - but that time they just had to eat it and swallow it. Also from that moment it felt like this was a good lineup.

Any last words?

IpSa: Greetings to all our fans from Germany here on fragster, please keep on supporting us and give as a chance to show what we are able to do! Thanks to our sponsors www.zinicauction.com, XLBet and Steelseries.

Thank you and good luck in the future with your 'new' team Zinic.