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NEWS
SK.MissHarvey: "I am not that kind of girl"
Stephanie "MissHarvey" Harvey talks of how a cheating prom date started her on her career in CS 1.6, why she believes men should not be bashed for liking hot female players, and what she thinks of the formation of Zinic.
So why did you decide to return to SK.Ladies, if you knew the biggest female tournament of the year was essentially dead?
SK.MissHarvey: Well, mainly because it was clear for all of us (the new SK Ladies roster) that the ESWC title was notour main goal anymore, we want to get further than that. And both our old roster (PMS and SK) felt like something was missing in our teams to reach it. Alice 'ali' Lew and Jennifer 'jso' So came to us and we started mixing all the time.
Eventually, we knew it was the right thing to move on. The PMS girls left apart (d1m and lainey) were amazing and I love them. I'm really tired of hearing stuff like all the female teams say all the time "We wanna break that barrier between the females and the males, blablabla...". We really believe in that too.. but we are not expecting things to be easy.
We are hardcore about wanting to finally reach that goal, in a middle/long range time frame. Online league are really "important" here so even without the ESWC, we are still 100% active and ready to plow!
SK.MissHarvey: I'm sure something will eventually come up... I smell something in europe taking it over, like maybe a DREAMHACK event with a female tournament? or the ESL organising a female stop with the boys? CPL Spain did it once where 16 female teams from around the globe went, so it can still happen. It's just it will never be as special as ESWC! But mainly, having a focus for a female team is really something that we are not used to in North America.
We focus on being a good and complete team, and the ESWC tournament is "just another event" to attend. Of course it is amazing to go there, live the experience and win a tournament like that! But I really think every team should wish to reach the top. Dare to dream.
What do you think of Les Seules, who opted to go for an obvious marketing stunt with "Zinic", but yet still want to be taken as a serious female team?
SK.MissHarvey: Well, that team has always been around marketing and publicity, and it works well for them so why not! I mean, there is room for every kind of teams out there and I support their move if they feel confortable with it! I am not that kind of girl and it's fine, cause there is also room for me!
As for the serious female team part, well they are a serious female team, there is no doubt in that. Now can they be a serious team, they still have to prove it, just like we do.
But does it give off the right image for female gaming?
We are animals after all and men will always look for the good looking girls. I do not think we should bash on them for doing that. All the female teams do it, it's just undercover... Ever seen a LAN with girls at the event WITHOUT the girls' pictures?
Even that hot girl giving out the badges will be in the coverage album... To me, it really doesn't matter. But I am sure the answer would be much different if you ask the same question to a man though, because those who don't know much about female gaming might think differently.... So, what do you male gamers think about it?
With female CS always in the shadow of male CS, what is your feeling when guys' interest in female CS is only based around if the female gamer is hot or not?
SK.MissHarvey: I am not sure... maybe sometimes it can also be because the girls are from their own country, or also because they know them from an event or something like that... I know in France people cared because emuLate was really known (with their ESWC win in 06) and it created a buzz around female gaming.
All the female teams were getting a lot of coverage and attention! So it was not only because they were hot but also because the nation was proud and kind of cared, just like they cared about the guys.
But with our team I am positive it is not only because of that. A lot of people are starting to follow us over here because we have a very good score (6-2) in ESWC-MAIN (first female team to reach that spot) and we also reached the CEVO-MAIN division (first female team there too), which should start in one month. People are curious about a "female team" doing good in the league so we doing our best to impress everyone in-game. Our stats count, not our pictures.
Do you think perhaps that if there were more mixed tournaments, female gamers could be known for their ability instead of their looks?
SK.MissHarvey: Yes but like I said before, the "mixed" tournament name is really really something that doesnt exist here. We attend tournaments and we are known for our ability. The only good thing I see about the ESWC being gone, is that the real female gamers WILL stand out by attending "mixed" lan events, because they are true gamers and real fighters.
So essentially the death of ESWC will weed out the weaklings, so that only the strong survive? So if MissHarvey had her way and the money to do so, would you choose to re-create the ESWC female tournament or create a mixed-tournament?
However, a tournament like ESWC is really really good for female gamers because its promotion is priceless. A lot of girls started playing cs after seeing that kind of event.
I received a lot of emails from the girl "fans" telling me how much I could be an inspiration to them because I wasn't scared to show the world that I play video games. Until female gaming isn't called female gaming anymore, then we need female events to promote it and also to promote gaming to the NON gamer females.
So if I had the choice, I would keep it. I am also sure that an event where there is female gamers participating in it can also be more exciting to follow, or even to attend. It creates another atmosphere having both sexes there, a kind of glamour feeling. Trust me, you want the girls at the ending party!
By Lawrence Benedict 'Malystryx' Phillips
Jun 5, 2009 16:20
Stephanie "MissHarvey" Harvey talks of how a cheating prom date started her on her career in CS 1.6, why she believes men should not be bashed for liking hot female players, and what she thinks of the formation of Zinic.Prologue - MissHarvey's youth
She was one of the students who did not need to hit the books hard to suceed, so teachers had no ammunition to fire at her when she felt a need to chat with her friends in the classroom. She was exposed to computer games at a young age as her parents realised it was a good distraction, however, it was not until a young boy in her physics class caught her eye that her gaming career turned towards a familiar title.
Missharvey went to a LAN centre one night in order to get close to a boy she fancied after she was told "he was only really into CS", only to find him kissing another girl when she eventually managed to take him to prom. She never saw the boy again but she kept playing CS and visited the LAN center frequently, where she would then have her first tournament.
Eventually she teamed up with SK Gaming in 2006 and 2007, winning two-gold medals in the ESWC Female tournament. Fast forward to 2009 and she has now once again joined SK Gaming in a reunion of old friends and female veterans.
"Missharvey went to a LAN centre one night in order to get close to a boy she fancied after she was told "he was only really into CS","
Growing up in Quebec city as an only child, Stephanie 'missharvey' Harvey was the child who did everything. In her youth she was keen on art and dancing, the kind of thing young girls are supposed to do, but it was sports that were her real passion.She was one of the students who did not need to hit the books hard to suceed, so teachers had no ammunition to fire at her when she felt a need to chat with her friends in the classroom. She was exposed to computer games at a young age as her parents realised it was a good distraction, however, it was not until a young boy in her physics class caught her eye that her gaming career turned towards a familiar title.
Missharvey went to a LAN centre one night in order to get close to a boy she fancied after she was told "he was only really into CS", only to find him kissing another girl when she eventually managed to take him to prom. She never saw the boy again but she kept playing CS and visited the LAN center frequently, where she would then have her first tournament.
Eventually she teamed up with SK Gaming in 2006 and 2007, winning two-gold medals in the ESWC Female tournament. Fast forward to 2009 and she has now once again joined SK Gaming in a reunion of old friends and female veterans.
So why did you decide to return to SK.Ladies, if you knew the biggest female tournament of the year was essentially dead?SK.MissHarvey: Well, mainly because it was clear for all of us (the new SK Ladies roster) that the ESWC title was notour main goal anymore, we want to get further than that. And both our old roster (PMS and SK) felt like something was missing in our teams to reach it. Alice 'ali' Lew and Jennifer 'jso' So came to us and we started mixing all the time.
Eventually, we knew it was the right thing to move on. The PMS girls left apart (d1m and lainey) were amazing and I love them. I'm really tired of hearing stuff like all the female teams say all the time "We wanna break that barrier between the females and the males, blablabla...". We really believe in that too.. but we are not expecting things to be easy.
We are hardcore about wanting to finally reach that goal, in a middle/long range time frame. Online league are really "important" here so even without the ESWC, we are still 100% active and ready to plow!
"We focus on being a good and complete team, and the ESWC tournament is "just another event" to attend"
With the ESWC, the biggest female tournament of the year gone, what do you think will be the new focus for the female cs scene, does it have one yet?SK.MissHarvey: I'm sure something will eventually come up... I smell something in europe taking it over, like maybe a DREAMHACK event with a female tournament? or the ESL organising a female stop with the boys? CPL Spain did it once where 16 female teams from around the globe went, so it can still happen. It's just it will never be as special as ESWC! But mainly, having a focus for a female team is really something that we are not used to in North America.
We focus on being a good and complete team, and the ESWC tournament is "just another event" to attend. Of course it is amazing to go there, live the experience and win a tournament like that! But I really think every team should wish to reach the top. Dare to dream.
What do you think of Les Seules, who opted to go for an obvious marketing stunt with "Zinic", but yet still want to be taken as a serious female team?SK.MissHarvey: Well, that team has always been around marketing and publicity, and it works well for them so why not! I mean, there is room for every kind of teams out there and I support their move if they feel confortable with it! I am not that kind of girl and it's fine, cause there is also room for me!
As for the serious female team part, well they are a serious female team, there is no doubt in that. Now can they be a serious team, they still have to prove it, just like we do.
But does it give off the right image for female gaming?
"We are animals after all and men will always look for the good looking girls."
SK.MissHarvey: Female gaming will always be about pictures and so on... it's called FEMALE gaming, of course it's going to bring men to look out for those hot ones. Even if it was a female poker team, it would still be the same... We are animals after all and men will always look for the good looking girls. I do not think we should bash on them for doing that. All the female teams do it, it's just undercover... Ever seen a LAN with girls at the event WITHOUT the girls' pictures?
Even that hot girl giving out the badges will be in the coverage album... To me, it really doesn't matter. But I am sure the answer would be much different if you ask the same question to a man though, because those who don't know much about female gaming might think differently.... So, what do you male gamers think about it?
With female CS always in the shadow of male CS, what is your feeling when guys' interest in female CS is only based around if the female gamer is hot or not?
SK.MissHarvey: I am not sure... maybe sometimes it can also be because the girls are from their own country, or also because they know them from an event or something like that... I know in France people cared because emuLate was really known (with their ESWC win in 06) and it created a buzz around female gaming. All the female teams were getting a lot of coverage and attention! So it was not only because they were hot but also because the nation was proud and kind of cared, just like they cared about the guys.
But with our team I am positive it is not only because of that. A lot of people are starting to follow us over here because we have a very good score (6-2) in ESWC-MAIN (first female team to reach that spot) and we also reached the CEVO-MAIN division (first female team there too), which should start in one month. People are curious about a "female team" doing good in the league so we doing our best to impress everyone in-game. Our stats count, not our pictures.
Do you think perhaps that if there were more mixed tournaments, female gamers could be known for their ability instead of their looks?
SK.MissHarvey: Yes but like I said before, the "mixed" tournament name is really really something that doesnt exist here. We attend tournaments and we are known for our ability. The only good thing I see about the ESWC being gone, is that the real female gamers WILL stand out by attending "mixed" lan events, because they are true gamers and real fighters.
So essentially the death of ESWC will weed out the weaklings, so that only the strong survive? So if MissHarvey had her way and the money to do so, would you choose to re-create the ESWC female tournament or create a mixed-tournament?
"Real female gamers WILL stand out by attending "mixed" lan events, because they are true gamers and real fighters"
SK.MissHarvey: Really good question! I don't know what to answer because mainly for myself, I would create an open tournament, just because I want to see some good cs happening! However, a tournament like ESWC is really really good for female gamers because its promotion is priceless. A lot of girls started playing cs after seeing that kind of event.
I received a lot of emails from the girl "fans" telling me how much I could be an inspiration to them because I wasn't scared to show the world that I play video games. Until female gaming isn't called female gaming anymore, then we need female events to promote it and also to promote gaming to the NON gamer females.
So if I had the choice, I would keep it. I am also sure that an event where there is female gamers participating in it can also be more exciting to follow, or even to attend. It creates another atmosphere having both sexes there, a kind of glamour feeling. Trust me, you want the girls at the ending party!
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