Name : Cathrine Halvorsen
Nickname : Ninnzan
Age : 22 ans
Town : StockHolm
Country : Sweden
Former clans :
God Is a Female, Fatal Attraction, Favete-Gaming, EYE
Achievements :
- 1st Sisters United Female Opening Cup #1 -06
- Female League 2005 #1
- Dreamhack Female Tour 2005 #1
- 2nd NT-cup Female League -03
- 3rd LOEW Female League -04
- 1st Godedager CUP -04
- Waitinglist to ESWC #4 -04
- 4st Optihack Female Tour -05
- 1st NordicArts Gaming League -05
- 4st RixHack Female Tour -05
Hi Cathrine, Let's begin by the presentations
Hey there! My name is Cathrine Halvorsen, born in Norway but escaped to Sweden ;) Im now 22 years old and living in the capital of this long country: Stockholm. Here in Stockholm im working at an internetcafé called GamersParadise.
How did you discover CS? Why did you choose this game specially?
I think i discovered CS as many other girlgamers out there: By an old boyfriend! He sat infront of this stupid game day out and day in, without no life.. i was forced to try this game out and i was addicted from the first minute. Why just cs, is because he only played Cs.
What can you tell us about your (very) first clans ?
My exboyfriend had a clan with just IRL friends, and the girlfriends of this guys where my friends, and we started up the clan : chicz just for fun. We where mostly a pubblic clan, and where playing just for fun. When i started to realise that i went better and better in this game, i tryed to search if there where more girls out there. When i started, i only thought that me and my friends where the only girls playing this game ;) I started up a girlsection in a friendmale team: Legetima, and quick after that i where in p4nik for a girlsection there together with a lovely girl from Sweden called Sarah. It was hard to find more girls who where really active so i left Sarah behind, cuz i got an offer from God Is a Female. We where really good at that time and we pracc everyday. It was after the time with God is a Female we started up Fatal Attraction with parts of GF and another swedish girlteam, who became a succses for two years. After the FA time, i was a bit tired of CounterStrike and to play at that high level, so i found myselfe a great gang: Favete-Gaming where i played most for fun, tried to learn them how to play ;) We went to the qualification of ESWC 2005 but placed on a 5th place. But it was a great time with them, and this gang knows to have fun. Autumn 2005, i got an offer of starting up a female team for EYEBALLERS and i couldnt say no...
Fatal Attraction was your first "serious" team. How was the first contact with Pandora ?
Yes it was. Nerdinnen, a player from Norway who we had in FA knew this girl called Pandora. I was sceptic from the beginning cuz i cant understand a word in danish, so this ment that we where supposed to talk english in our team. But with a girl like pandora, whos always happy and have a carriere as a singer in ventrilo, u really cant say no. She bringed up the team so we had fun again, and I will never regret that Pando where in Fatal Attraction.
You won the NordicArts Gaming League and the Godedager CUP in 2004/2005. Why did you leave this rising team ?
We had our ups and downs as many other teams.. we also had a lot of different lineups but in my heart, i have the "top lineup" who really could have been something. We had a huge unluck in the team.. FA was invited to CPL 2005, but like five days before takeof, some of our girls didnt had the money to go, so we had to cansel it. For the application to the ESWC 2004 it was even worse.. i dont wanna go into details for that but i think that the ESWC organisation made a big misstake , and a totaly wrong sort of application. Anyway, with this unluck all the time, and with new lineups, we had to close down.. I can say that when Nerdinnen left us for Les Seules, i was really sad. Nerdi where my everything and still is ;)
We noticed that you stayed a while in the God is a Female formation. Was that a real tag or a just bad joke?
haha it was actually a real tag. I found this gang in 2002 i think it was and played for them a long time. I can for sure say that this team was the best female team in Sweden at that time!
How was EYE.Female created? Who were the founders?
I have alwasys known who Le1a is, and I also know that her boyfriend where opi, a Q3 player in the EYEBALLERS organization. opi camed to me one day, and asked me if i wanna mix with him, Le1a Nat0 and daQueen, and when he named daQueen, i couldnt say no. daQ and me played together for a long time in FA so this should be great :D what i didnt know, was that he was building up a new femaleteam, the team who was going to be EYEBALLERS. But by time, i also realised that its something going on, and i was both positive to it and negative. Due the fact that i was in my friendteam Favete, and that i didnt wanna play on a high level again, was making me unsure. But opi called me like one time a day and asked how i felt about everything with the game but also around that,. in that way we got special contact and i saw that he was doing this team by heart. So i decided to give it a chance. I will never regret that..
You won a lot of events with EYE, and we especially remember the final of the DreamHack Winter Tour on 2005, against les Seules, that you won. What can you tell us about this victory ?
Oh my god that victory... Really, i cant describe it.. Yes, it was only four teams at the DreamHack Female tour, but it was one of the biggest clans in the world there, one of the best swedish female team and also a girlmix. We won ALL our matches in the whole competiotion and that is what i cant forget with this tournament. To beat seu x 3 is a huge luck, and the EYEBALLERS girls and I was so happy, also because the whole EYE organization where behind our backs and watched us under the tournament. By having the EYE people behind us, was the most loveful thing about this tournament and I will never forget that.
After nat0 and Legolas joined Seules, you picked up Bambi and Nissepigen. How did that changes influenced the team's results ?
Both negative and positive. People do misstakes all the time but now we got the lineup we will fight for a long time. NissePigen really knows how to play and thank you Pandora for knowing NissePigen. I have never seen a girl play like her, its really amazing to watch her ingame.
You decided to leave the EYE's structure, to join the benelux organization digitalMind. What motivated that sudden change ?
We really had a great time in the EYE organization, but when we heard what dM can give us, we really couldnt say no to it, even if we still wanted to be a part of EYE.. We had to have the things they could offer, and we decided to give it a chanse
You are also the leader of Team Sweden, which is gathering famous female gamers like aNNa or daQueen. This responsibility implies such a big pressure. How can you manage that ?
Hehe.. well, im really glad to be the teamleader of our country, but unfortently im working really hard at my work at the moment, we just got the GamersParadise opened so there is a lot to do at work, but i think that the team:sweden has been great so far. No trouble by finding servers for game, and the whole Nation Cup is really great. But now im going to put more time into this ;)
As for many other sports, the female esports scene is somewhat growing in the shades of the male scene, what could you say about that ? how would you compare your level to that of your fellow men ?
Yes, the female scene is growing so fast right now. For four years ago, I could almost say the name of all female teams in the world, and now i dont even know how many female teams Sweden got and i think this is so great. But as you said, "in the shadow of the male scene", is really the words but that is because the female scene is still new. In a couple of years i really hope that the female scene is as big as the male team. The female scene is also getting more and more accsepted from the male players, but its still argue about why female shall have theyre own competition, why they easly can get sponsors and all that, because they really cant understand why..
Have you ever thought of joining a non female only top team ? how confident of your chances to compete at their level are you ?
If I got the offer to join up a high skilled male team, I will say yes directly! They are more experience than I am and they are playing on a nother level, so if i got the chanse, yes of course. Then I think that I will learn how to play the game in another way that im doing today. If you see great players play the game, you take after how they do, and in that way you will be stronger in no sec.
You also practiced a lot of sport, sometimes in a competitive level. Is there a great difference between the esport competiton and the real sport one ?
Yes, i did. I practiced a selfdefense sport, like Karate. Its a small sport called Taido. I was practicing that for seven years and i got the brown belt. When you do a sport like that, you cant be nervous. or.. of course i was nervous, but the nervs went out to anger at the opponent in competiotions, and because of that i won. I turn my nervous into anger and focus and then my tactics just came out in no sec, and the opponent didnt know what to do or how to defence her/him selfe against me. In this computer game, im getting nervous sometimes.. but here is it hard to change the nervous feelings into agner cuz who are you gonna hit? ;) I can say that I have had a lot of mouses in my gamingcarriere ;) But i think that i have calmed down alot in this month with EYE and dM. When i started to realise that Ninnzan really was hysterical when she was nervous was at DreamHack.. no comments about that ;)
What's the most important quality of an esport player ?
I think the most important quality of a player is that you can take good critisizm, and to learn something out of it. To scream at a person that he/she would have do that or that instead is maybe not the right thing, cuz then you getting mad instead and cant focuz. (I do like this...sorry mates) but if a person is telling you good things about the game in a calm way you will develope so much.
Do you think it's easier for a female team to get sponsors ?
Yes i KNOW that female teams have it alot easier.. BUT that doesnt say that im saying that we dont have to do something to get the sponsors. We have to pracc hard, go to different events and give all this alot of hours / week!
Just because that female gamers is in the centrum right now, people sees us all the time. Interviews, tv shows, own female competiotions and all that and if a sponsor decide to sponsor a clan like this, who always is on the screen, they can show theyre stuffs out to the audience and of that: more buyers.
How do your family/friends/cat react regarding your "net's life" ?
haha they really hate it ;) I can say that i have lost many friends because i have to go home and pracc.. My family really hates to see me day in and day out infront of my pc, screaming to the people they dont even see or hear. But I think that they are happy in some way, like when i told them that my team was in the biggest Swedish newspaper, or for some days ago, that im going to Paris to ESWC. Then u actually can hear some happiness in theyre voices ;)
Is that easy for a chick to get a number in LAN?
Haha, In my eyes, there are two kind of girls at LAN. One girl like me, who is there to compete, to play, to get better and to win. Then you have the other girl: goes to lan for MSN, see boys and flirt. Im not that one, but I think that kind of girl has it easy for her to getting numbers at lan yes.
Some funny stuff about the e-sport scene? Like "who-fucks-whom" :D
hahaha, yeh quakenet is like a gozzip chat community. People can do what ever they wanna do in my eyes, as long as it doesnt affect me.
Thank you for you time Cathrine. Any last shout out ?
Thank YOU :) Next stop is in Stockholm when we shall have a bootcamp for the ESWC. Its going to be alot of geekplay, and of course the swedish summer. See u all! BUMBUM
