Queen Arrow: Meet gaming lawyer taking over the e-sports space in Kenya

Sylvia Gathoni is one of the few female professional gamers in the country who have taken the initiative to break the glass ceiling in male-dominated esports gaming.

She has not only received recognition locally, but internationally as well.

In 2021, she represented Kenya in South Africa.

Apart from that, her prowess in the game led to her signing for XiT Woundz, a professional eSports Club based in New Jersey, USA.

An opportunity that has in return exposed her more.

Queen Arrow, as she is popularly known in the online gaming community, made her first international debut in professional gaming in 2017 at the East Africa Gaming Convention, where she came in fourth in the Mortal Kombat Tournament. 

Her exploits continued even more when she made a shift from Mortal Kombat to Tekken in 2018.

Given the difference between the two games, she transitioned from Mortal Kombat to Tekken, she had to learn the Frame Data, movement punishment and Character knowledge from scratch a fete she is quick to point out was not an easy one.

“It was challenging learning the game from scratch, but I am happy that it presented me an opportunity to grow my skills in the gaming space.”

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she missed out on a lifetime opportunity to play in the Tekken World Tour, but just like many other people in the world, she had to adhere to health protocols set up to contain the spread of the virus.

Even with the recent growing popularity of the game, Sylvia is quick to point out that more still needs to be done to increase more people and especially more women in eSports.

“For the longest time gaming was seen as a preserve of the rich it is important that we take a grassroots approach so that everybody can get an opportunity to get involved in the sport”

Just like many students, Sylvia is quick to point out that balancing between her school work and gaming has not been easy. As a way to help her get the best of both worlds, she has hard to set aside 3 hours every day to practice her skills.

“Gaming can be harnessed to be a paying opportunity for gamers. The reality, however, is that Kenya hasn’t reached that point where one can quit their job to pursue it fully.”