In her online world, she is “Lady Beast,” deftly operating her green monster Blanka in dizzying hand-to-hand streetfighting combat on the global professional gaming circuit.
In real life, she is Yuko Momochi, a 31-year-old slender Japanese woman with short hair dyed light brown who is hoping to encourage more girls into the male-dominated world of professional gaming.
A former car saleswoman, Momochi got her break in competitive gaming in 2011 after she defeated a previously invincible character in a Street Fighter match, earning her a sponsorship offer from a US team.
Photo: EPA
She was Japan’s first female professional gamer, and now also spends her time hosting events and searching for female talent who could one day become professionals.
“My parents wanted me to be a civil servant,” she laughed at an interview on the sidelines of the Tokyo Game Show, one of the world’s largest. “A girl raised by steady parents has turned out like this!”
Visitors to the Tokyo Game Show are left in little doubt they are entering a male-dominated world.
Only a handful of female players were in evidence in the loud atmosphere and scantily clad women in exhibition halls greeted the 250,000 mostly male visitors expected to attend the fair.
The violent world of online gaming also tends to appeal more to men, Momochi said.
“When I started going to game arcades, I was playing fighting games, which meant it is all men around you. It was tough to get in there alone,” she recalled.
As they are so small in number, female gamers stand out and attract attention, not always positive, she said.
“You often hear names like ‘bitch.’ It is fine if you can take it, but normally you would be hurt,” she said.
Momochi started gaming at a young age, playing Donkey Kong and other video games with her brother. She recalled how her mother would unplug the computer after a few hours.
Up until recently, her parents disapproved of her career, only softening their opposition slightly in recent years, Momochi said.
Momochi has tasted some success in the competitive world of gaming, clinching second place in a Singapore competition in 2011 and getting into the top eight at a Tokyo Game Show event in 2013.
Now she has launched a group — “Project Gaming Girls” or P2G — to encourage female players, whether professional or amateur.
“I want to share the joy you can get from gaming. Gaming itself was fun but socializing with my opponent after the fight was also fun,” she said.
One of the women in the P2G group, a nurse from central Japan who asked to be named Harumy, travels hundreds of kilometers to compete in online game battles.
She lost her Street Fighter V battle on the big stage, but vowed to improve.
“I have liked fighting games since I was five or so. From the very first moment I played them, I was so impressed and I’ve been playing ever since,” she said.
Mika Sawae, an art director at a Tokyo firm, took a day off to join about 40 other players — including just a few women — for a simultaneous play battle.
She said she was seeing more and more women at gaming events.
“I think it is because the industry is more open to women compared with before, when games were designed for core fans,” she said.
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