Athena is a star player on the team Nfinite and one of the most meticulous Heihachi mains in North America. She will likely beat you at any Tekken 7 tournament.

Athena recently told her story on Women of the FGC, but we wanted to follow up for more details on her personal and professional experiences as a gamer. Read more for another side of Athena that doesn’t always come across on Twitch streams. From overcoming shyness to managing grad school while taking on the best in the Tekken scene, let’s dive into part one of our interview with an extremely inspirational member of the community.

Tell us a little bit about how you got connected with Nfinite.

It’s very funny because it was a couple of weeks before XO Academy, a month-long program. I was DM’ed on Twitter because obviously XO Academy was covering a lot of what Cuddle Core and I were doing by making posts and things like that. So I got a message from one of the Tekken managers at Nfinite but I didn’t read it.

I saw it but I was like “Oh everyone’s been in my DMs because of the traction I’m gaining, so it’s probably a frivolous message.” Then someone from my offline scene that was already signed to be a coach was like, “One of the Tekken managers sent you a direct message, you should talk to them to see what they think because they want to sign you.” I was like “Wait, what, seriously? They want to sign me?!”

So we spoke in a Discord call with a couple members of the staff, and they just were like, “You’re different and we want to work with you. You have the potential that is refreshing and we want to see what we can do and try to come up with a way to build you around the brand.” It’s been pretty crazy ever since.

Wow! When you finally opened the DM, were you excited?

Yea, I really was. I apologized, “I’m so sorry for quote-unquote ignoring you because it was so overwhelming with all the messages -- some weird, some cringy, some congratulatory, and some completely out-of-pocket -- so I was a little hesitant to respond.” They were like “No, no, no, we completely understand you’re probably getting all sorts of messages,” so it was just something to laugh at. They’re awesome.

So how’s the relationship been with the team since you started?

[I started] exactly a year ago...They’re my family. Today’s my coach’s birthday [MIC_ATL], so I just wished him a happy birthday, sent him a message on the Nfinite message board, and he was thankful and then said “I’m proud of you, keep pushing and grinding.” So yeah, these people are like blood to me.

You say they’re family -- when I think of individuals in the fighting game scene, there’s a tendency to want to create that atmosphere. What’s your journey been in finding an FGC crew you finally can identify with?

I’m super shy, really shy, dangerously shy, even. I never really thought I would be accepted at all which is why I defaulted to taking forever to be part of an org or team, or joining locals and competing.

I always thought “I need to get good at the game before I can be accepted,” because it’s very easy to be a girl in gaming and get looked down on. They were really welcoming. They were impressed by me being so humble, maybe too humble to a fault -- where they say I kinda focus on being so humble to the point where they’re just like “You gotta give yourself some props and give yourself some praise, and look at where you are now.”

I didn’t expect to have any form of camaraderie, or a team or sponsor, but I’m really glad I do now because it has helped me understand that doing this alone is really difficult and having a support system and people that when you’re down are able to bring you up again and talk you out of your funk is vital to what I think survival is in the fighting game community.

Survival. Tell me more about that in your experience as a professional gamer.

It’s funny because I am a girl in the fighting game community and there’s not a lot of girls in the fighting game community. What I need to understand is that just because I am a quote-unquote minority, I will always have a different experience compared to my counterparts because of something I can’t help.

I am a woman of color, and as a woman I don’t fit the bill. I stick out like a sore thumb, so I’m surviving in the sense that I have to work twice as hard as my counterparts to sometimes gain a little bit of respect.

I’ve always felt this way and just by interacting with certain people, like with trolls it’s very apparent that you have to have thick skin. I’m super sensitive where even the littlest thing can get to me and bring me down, but I have to push through because I want to be here and I enjoy being here.

To me, I say survival because it’s a little bit of a jungle out there -- you have to have instincts to be able to make the right reads and be able to adapt because it’s a lot just being different here. But I don’t want to go anywhere, honestly.

Sticking out like a sore thumb doesn’t sound like a comfortable experience. Can you remember a time when this was fully on display and tell me how you navigated through that feeling?

It was actually my first local I ever attended. I was messaged by a friend, this was back when Facebook was super big on how to compete in Tekken, and I don’t know why but my friends from online didn’t know I was a girl based on my username in the forums. So I just showed up to the local and no one said hi to me. I didn’t know anyone, but I knew people online and I was waiting for my match on the side all by myself, wishing I could just go out there and say hi to someone.

Me knowing I’m a girl is like “I don't know if i can do that, I don’t know if they’ll even accept me, I don’t know if they’ll be like ‘Hey you aren’t supposed to be here, are you lost?’” so it was rough. It didn’t get better until I actually sat down in front of that setup and played.

That’s when everyone was like “Oh, Athena, it’s you! You’re the Heihachi player. You’re a girl?!” It’s like “Oh goodness…” It was an interesting event. Ever since then, everyone has welcomed me with open arms but yeah, at the beginning it was rough.

What were your thoughts before you even stepped into that first event? What did you need to do to get ready, and was being shy a big hurdle?

Yeah, that is what held me back from wanting to go. That was where I was like, “I don’t even know if it’s worth it, why should I take myself out of my shell, my bubble, and be uncomfortable purposely?” But I did it and I don’t regret it. I just wish I could have done it better.

If I could go back in time I would have some pizzazz, a little swagger, some cool points or something to just show that I had more confidence in myself because I think the confidence would have transferred to my play and abilities.

In hindsight you’d want to go back and change everything, but it sounds like it served a purpose. You learned that confidence is key. Is that what you got from that experience?

Yes, because I was second guessing myself quite a bit before I started playing. I was kinda like “I’m a Mishima player, and I play Heihachi and I’m a girl, I don’t want to listen to the crowd and hear someone make a comment like ‘Oh that was lucky’ or things like that,” so I started psyching myself out and it started affecting my play.

I had to kind of filter all that out, get that all out of my head and take a deep breath. Once I got the anxiety out of my body, I performed better instantly.

That’s clutch. What would you tell someone that’s fairly new to the game to work on to get their confidence up as a Tekken player?

I would say to practice for sure. Make sure you’re prepared for every situation imaginable. I’m talking in the game and in real life. Let’s say you’re playing a set and the power goes out. What you need to be prepared for, whatever is being thrown at you. I think preparation and practice is a really good way to have no worries and go in giving it everything you have.

My issue was worrying about every little thing, having no prep, not having peace of mind and realizing that “Oh my gosh, this is affecting me in the game, and it's affecting me mentally and I don’t want to feel this way because I can’t play and give my all.”

So please, please, please practice and please prepare, and just relax. I feel like I’m telling this to myself here! But whoever is reading this, just take it one step at a time, breathe deeply, and go for it.

Athena’s encouragement does not end here. In part two, she reflects on managing nerves during game days, the beauty of offline events, and more. For now, make sure to follow her on Twitter @Athena_4Lyfe and on Twitch. If you're ready to join the scene yourself, register for an upcoming Playstation Competition Center tournament.