A ten year veteran in the industry, Amy Brady has built up a long resume in the video gaming world. From co-founding the Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers (PMS Clan) to her membership in the Frag Dolls, being part of the first female team to rank in a pro gaming tournament and being featured in the first season of WCG Ultimate Gamer, Brady is among the most successful female professional gamers in history.
“I have played video games as long as I can remember,” she recalled. “One of my earliest memories was my mother taking us to an arcade by our house, where I always played Pac-Man and the pinball machines. I have always been drawn to video games, and while I wouldn’t have called myself a gamer until I started playing online games I was obsessed enough to invest my own pocket money as a kid for my own games.”
The PMS Clan, a group Brady co-founded with her sister, has grown into one of the major forces in all of video gaming.
“PMS Clan is my heart and soul that was almost an accident,” Brady said. “Through my love of gaming and finding other females in the beginning of Xbox Live, PMS was born. At first, the clan was simply there for female camaraderie and to kick some butt together, but it grew into something much more than just I myself could make it. It grew into a home and a passion for thousands of other females to bond and gain support from, and that is what it continues to be.”
Brady would go on to also join up with another female gaming group, Ubisoft’s Frag Dolls.
“When Ubisoft put out the call to build the Frag Dolls, I couldn’t have been more excited as I was an avid Rainbow Six player for PMS,” she said. “To be able to work for the company that made ‘my game’ was a reality I had never dreamed. While it’s important to understand Frag Dolls are a promotions team in the company, the positions are filled with legitimate and authentic gamer geeks who have a passion and a need to play video games. Our focus is to promote our company and sponsors, promote female gaming in the industry, and promote gaming/geek interests overall.”
In December 2006, Brady was part of professional gaming history as part of the first all-female team to ever win a co-ed video game tournament when the Frag Dolls placed first in the Rainbow Six tournament at CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) Dallas. She also was among the 12 gamers featured in the first season cast of SyFy reality show WCG Ultimate Gamer.
“My most memorable moment on WCG was probably when I was put up for elimination in the second episode,” Brady said. “I have competed in public for years now, but being on that stage in front of all those people surrounding you does something to you. The entire venue and audience were an experience that could not be forgotten, and the match was a nail biter that went down to literally the last punch or kick. The whole situation was very surreal and time seemed to slow down for me. It was an amazing, yet stressful, experience.”
Through her experiences in the gaming world, Amy says she feels that women’s gaming has come a long way, but she would also like to see more.
“We now see a large presence of female gamers in the public eye and they are one of the most proactive forces of promotion for this industry,” she said. “With a natural tendency to socialize and belong, I truly feel females are pushing and driving communities everywhere, and not just sitting down to play a game.”
While current industry stats show that 42 percent of gamers today are women, Brady notes a wide gap in the numbers of women to men in pro gaming.
“While we have come a long way, we still have quite a distance to go in terms of equal gender representation and respect at competitive levels of gaming,” she stated. “It’s extremely hard to get top female players, not because they don’t exist, but because our numbers are so much lower that it simply comes down to an odds game. We have a very small population pool to grow from on the competitive side, and odds are even more impacted when you start talking about team games. To get four pro-level females together would still be an anomaly at this point.”
While several pro tournament leagues have struggled financially over the past few years, Brady would like to see more opportunities in that area.
“I’d like to see some more tournament leagues come back on the scene and sponsors reintroducing those budgets to support them and teams as well,” she said. “While the gaming industry itself came through ok, pro gaming took a big hit when the market turned, and we had quite a few leagues fold. I'd like to see a wider representation of games and systems played and some more leagues to support that. I’d also like to see some more females competing at a high level in these events and all players to understand how important it is to help promote this sport THEMSELVES, and in a professional way.”
Those interested in following Amy Brady’s continued adventures in gaming can follow her on Twitter @Valkyrie_FD and her Facebook page. She can also be found blasting away enemies using her gamertags Athena PMS and Valkyrie FD.
This article is one in a series of articles for PatrickScottPatterson.com’s Women Gamers Week. Be sure to subscribe to see them all.
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