'I hope to turn my love of gaming into a career'

"I remember my first ever time gaming when I was with my uncle, and he taught me how to play Call of Duty."

Arkay has been "in love" with gaming ever since and has been playing "for the majority" of her life.

But the 17-year-old started to take it more seriously when she joined the Confetti Arrows - a team representing Confetti College in Nottingham, where she is enrolled on a Level 3 BTec esports production course - earlier in the year.

She believes the esports industry - competitive multiplayer gaming often live-streamed for spectators - is changing and hopes to turn her passion for it into a future career.

Her team, which competes playing Overwatch 2 - a team-based hero shooter game - qualified for the British Esports Student Champs final, which will take place in July, after a flawless run, losing no matches this season.

Arkay's roles in the team are known as "flex" and "support", meaning she provides healing to her team members in the game and tailors her play style to a variety of different gaming scenarios.

She said her teammates had helped her "a lot" since she joined, adding she wanted to "learn everything" about esports and "hopefully" have a career in it.

"It was very male-dominated 10 to 20 years ago, but things have changed, and women are really being accepted more in the industry," Arkay said.

Her team is not the only Confetti Arrows one to have been successful this season.

One that plays a game called Valorant made it through to the northern final of the National Esports Student Championships but got knocked out in the last stage of the competition.

Miki Kielbowicz, in-game leader and captain of the team, started taking gaming seriously during the Covid-19 pandemic when he was unable to play traditional sports like football.

"My drive to win drew me to esports," he said, adding he thinks of it "like a chess game".

He said: "I know my team; I have a deep understanding of their personalities, and that helps me create strategies around them."

Ryan Grundy, tutor and head coach of the Confetti Arrows teams, said attitudes towards esports are changing.

"In the past, gaming has been linked to staying indoors and leading an unhealthy lifestyle which lends itself to fast food, sugary snacks and drinks," he added.

"You wouldn't see a top traditional sports team nowadays without a nutritionist or a psychologist - and esports is starting to follow a similar trajectory."

He said the aim was to improve a player's mental health, focus and reaction times.

"Milliseconds can be the difference between a win or a loss in esports; you're always trying to get that edge over other teams," he added.

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