Community Spotlight: Emsy
Today, we had the privilege of chatting with the inspiring Emsy. Emsy is a passionate WoW player, mentor in LWIW, and she recently joined Liquid as the first woman in their raiding roster for the Race to World First (RWF)!
We couldn’t help but make Emsy our Featured Streamer this week – especially with the RWF coming up so soon! Learn about Emsy’s history in WoW, her passion for helping others, what it’s like to become a RWF raider, and so much more.
Table of Contents
Q-1: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us today. First, we’d like to get to know you a little better. Can you tell us more about yourself and your background with WoW/gaming?
Emsy: Hi! My name is Emma, or Emsy in-game. I’m from the United Kingdom and have been playing WoW for almost 9 years, starting towards the end of Mists of Pandaria (MoP) right before Warlords of Draenor (WoD) was released but have taken several breaks over the years. I have always been a healer Priest main, and despite being a big alt enjoyer, have always found my way back to playing it over the years – until Dragonflight launched and Preservation Evoker stole the number 1 spot for me. WoW has always been my comfort game that I’ve repeatedly returned to, and I have never really gotten bored of it. Outside of WoW, I am finishing up a master's degree in data science and am currently writing my thesis in the field of astrobiology.
“Whenever I was enjoying the content in WoW, I would always strive to do better. This eventually landed me here (Liquid) over all of the time I’ve been playing.”
Q-2: How did you get started with playing WoW? When and how did you decide that you want to be competitive?
Emsy: I was introduced to WoW by some friends who had been playing for a really long time. It was my first time playing an MMO and has been my favorite ever since. I’ve tried other MMOs over the years but nothing compares to WoW (and I don’t think anything ever will).
Ever since I joined my first raiding guild back in WoD, I fell in love with raiding and the progression atmosphere surrounding it, and I found myself always wanting to improve. This started as trying to PUG my first AotC during Highmaul, which I achieved the day before the new raid came out, and was super proud of myself. During the next tier, I decided I wanted to attempt raiding Mythic, which was a really big step for me at the time since I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to heal well enough. I really enjoyed the feeling of getting better, and the ability to track progress through logs etc. I played on and off for a long time, having quit for the entirety of BFA, so I wouldn’t say there was a set point where I decided to be competitive. However, I have always strived to do better, which eventually landed me here over all of the time I’ve been playing. That being said, in Shadowlands, I definitely decided to put more time into self-improvement and had a desire to prove to myself that I was able to push higher than I had in the past, with my end goal at the time being to achieve a top 100 world rank.
Q-3: Along that vein, what was your path toward entering the RWF raiding scene? Was there any particular moment that gave you the motivation to reach for the stars, or was it a more gradual progression?
Emsy: Honestly I think it was a mix of both. Raiding in the RWF scene seemed like a completely unattainable goal to me for as long as I’d been playing WoW, up until super recently. Over the course of Shadowlands, I started gaining more confidence in myself and saw visible improvement as the tiers went on and I realized how much I enjoyed raiding at a more competitive level. Before the launch of Dragonflight, I made a big jump and joined a 7-day raiding guild for the first time and was really surprised with how well I adapted and played in that environment, which was already such a big goal for me. When that guild fell apart, I was feeling really deflated and wasn’t sure what to do. I struggle a lot with impostor syndrome, so the thought of pushing to raid at a RWF level was daunting and I wasn’t sure if I was ready. Luckily, I have amazing friends who pushed me to take the step and reassured me. I’m really grateful to them for helping me make the leap to where I am now, as it made me realize that I could do something I felt was impossible.
“My favorite part about the LWIW mentorship program is the ability to see progress as time goes on, and being able to see how my mentees have gained confidence in themselves as they improve.”
Q-4: We know that you are part of the LWiW community and one of their mentors. How did you become a mentor and what does this role look like? Can you share some of the positive experiences you’ve had so far?
Emsy: When LWIW was first announced during the initial Liquid Guild announcement, I knew I wanted to be a part of the initiative in some form as I’m very passionate about helping and empowering other women. I was in a guild at the time that was horribly misogynistic to me, but I felt as though I had no other options if I wanted to break into high-end raiding. Having a space to talk to, connect and learn from other influential women in the community who have experienced similar things was such a dream to me and I wanted to give back to other women from my experiences too. I signed up for the mentorship program as both a mentor and mentee, which is an amazing program that matches mentees who are seeking mentorship for their class/spec/role with mentors who are experienced playing at the level that matches their mentee’s goals. This can look like Hall of Fame players seeking RWF mentorship (as was the case for me), players who are currently heroic raiders receiving mentorship from CE and above mentors, and so on. The mentorships are flexible, and there is usually long-term communication between mentor and mentee.
My favorite part about the LWIW mentorship program is the ability to see progress as time goes on, and being able to see how my mentees have gained confidence in themselves as they improve. The long-term nature of the program as opposed to ‘one-off’ coaching sessions allow for more time to be spent on certain aspects of gameplay at a time and don’t feel rushed, and I’ve really enjoyed watching my mentees grow as players and achieve their goals. The program has been really beneficial for myself too – I love helping others so much, so to participate in a program where I’m able to share my knowledge with women who are at the point where I once was has been really fulfilling. We have the most wonderful team of mentors at LWIW, and so if you think this kind of program would benefit you please don’t hesitate to apply, so many wonderful people are very eager to support you no matter your goals. 🙂
“Allowing women and gender minorities to speak out about their experiences and share their stories really highlights how far we have to go in achieving gender equity in this space particularly – something that most women are too often afraid of sharing or talking to others about in such a male-dominated space.”
Q-5: We just celebrated a huge success with the LWIW Eve’s Ascension event that you won – a Mythic+ format much like The Great Push that invited women and gender minorities. This sparked a large discussion in the community regarding gender equity in gaming. What do you think needs to happen in the high-end WoW community to see change?
Emsy: Firstly, I would just like to acknowledge and thank everyone that was involved in the Eve Ascension tournament. The event itself was such a success and was put on by amazing people for so many great charitable causes. I am so honored to have been a part of it. I had so much fun and met so many lovely people!
While the reaction of some parts of the community upset me, I think it is incredibly important that the discussion that arose as a result of it happened. Allowing women and gender minorities to speak out about their experiences and share their stories really highlights how far we have to go in achieving gender equity in this space particularly – something that most women are too often afraid of sharing or talking to others about in such a male-dominated space. I believe this is also a really important step in changing the high-end scene, as very often a lot of men are not aware of the hardships women face in WoW or are too silent when minor comments are made that build up to be a bigger problem. Speaking up when you hear something that isn’t right is really important, and standing up for others when you hear or see things happen is the only way to make people who think it's okay, stop and learn. Comments that seem harmless to some may impact others around you in different ways. Listen to the women who are speaking up, call out your friends, your guildies – silence only helps in normalizing toxic behavior.
Tackling the high-end WoW community to see change is definitely not going to be an easy task but I’m hopeful it will improve in the future with increased representation and awareness of what women and other gender minorities in this space experience. While there are still some guilds that have ‘no women’ rules within the high-end scene, and places that are ridden with misogyny, there are also increasing amounts of people who are prepared to call out problematic behavior, strong women proving people wrong at each level and inspiring initiatives such as LWIW making changes across the scene. The upcoming RWF has more women competing than ever before and that gives me so much hope that slowly but surely things are headed in the right direction and I’m so excited to see more from marginalized groups enter the space over the next few tiers.
“My biggest hope for this RWF is that I can inspire even one woman to push themselves and believe they too can achieve big things in the WoW scene, and of course, bring back the world-first title to NA!!”
Q-6: The RWF is around the corner and you will be participating as the first woman raider in Liquid, which is a phenomenal step. How do you feel about it? What are your expectations and hopes?
Emsy: I am feeling all sorts of emotions about it all of the time – excitement, nervousness, gratitude, and just pure disbelief still! I’m really looking forward to experiencing new things and playing at a level I could never have imagined, attending my first RWF event, meeting amazing people, and being involved in behind-the-scenes things that you only really get at the RWF level. This is my first RWF, and I’ve been a big Liquid fan forever in the race so to be experiencing that here is just the biggest dream come true. Everyone here is so nice and the atmosphere is amazing. I’m expecting there to also be some difficult aspects – the start of a tier is always stressful in high-end raiding which is amplified here and I get stressed very easily which has already begun with all of the prep!! I’m just really excited to give it my all and experience all that RWF raiding has to offer. 🙂
I spent a lot of my time in WoW admiring and aspiring to be like the women who have raided in the RWF over the years, such as Kali, Cruella, and Naguura and to be playing amongst some of these amazing women is absolutely unfathomable to me and I am so so grateful and excited. My biggest hope for this RWF is that I can inspire even one woman to push themselves and believe they too can achieve big things in the WoW scene, and of course, bring back the world-first title to NA!! 💖
Q-7: You played in the guild MNM before on an EU server. How easy or hard was the change to an NA server in terms of different time zones, higher ping, etc.?
Emsy: Surprisingly, moving over to NA wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had played on NA servers prior to making the full move, so I knew what the situation was with latency and from the UK it’s barely noticeable – I tend to only notice it when I try and greed a cast that I’d get away with on EU ping, and it doesn’t work so well over here. Liquid made the time zone issue much easier too. We start raid at a time that is more suitable for our EU players, around 9 pm BST, so I don’t have to sacrifice (much) sleep on raid nights. The most annoying part about swapping regions is starting fresh – losing all of my mounts, transmog, pets, etc., as well as having to re-do campaigns and professions. I also miss all of my friends and ex-guildies on EU, doing messy weekly keys and heroic ‘bestie raids’ on undergeared characters – hopefully one day we will see cross-region play.
Q-8: On that note, how do you like Dragonflight so far? What are your favorite and/or least favorite aspects of the expansion so far?
Emsy: As a whole, I’m enjoying Dragonflight a lot! My favorite part of the expansion is (unsurprisingly) the Evoker class for sure. I really admire how the class was designed. I was quite skeptical of the empower system when it was first announced but I’m really impressed with how intuitive a lot of the empowered spells are for both specs, with different empower levels fitting different situations. Preservation’s kit as a healer is really unique and has some really cool spells that make them feel so different from any other healer in the game such as Echo and Lifebind. Aside from that, I love the new talent systems (although some of the trees can be a bit frustrating to work with on some classes), the zones are beautiful, and Dragonriding is really fun. For the most part, the expansion is also quite alt-friendly, which is always a plus for me.
My least favorite aspect of the expansion so far is the removal of the Heroic week that we saw in Vault of the Incarnates and again in the upcoming 10.1 raid, Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. This decision had made high-end raiding super stressful and added a lot of pressure to be jumping into Mythic as soon as possible, while also incentivizing you to spend a lot of time in Mythic+ (especially as tanks and healers with the return of group loot) to make up for the lower item level you have now entering Mythic.
Q-9: Is there anything you would love to get back or get implemented in WoW, looking into the future?
Emsy: The first thing would definitely be the point I just talked about – bringing back Heroic week!! Aside from that on the gameplay side, I would really love to see the return of healer and tank-specific loot in raids. Group loot has left healers and tanks being a lower priority on being assigned gear because it’s the most efficient way to gear the raid for progression, but also forces tanks and healers to grind Mythic+ to not fall behind. I think a similar system to what has been in place in the past, with spirit/bonus armor would be really great to see again.
For something I’d like to get back for a class, I have a pretty controversial one: Spirit Shell for Discipline Priests from Shadowlands. I was a Disc main throughout Shadowlands and I absolutely loved playing with Spirit Shell on farm – it wasn’t as fun for my co-healers and ultimately it’s pretty toxic for the game in general, but I had a lot of fun progging with it in Castle Nathria, and covering whole mechanics in a big shell ramp during Sanctum of Domination farm. I miss it!
Q-10: If you could have any pet from in-game as your IRL pet, which one would it be and why?
Emsy: I’m an awful pet collector so this is probably the hardest question of all!! I’ve always thought the dragon whelps models are adorable, and I suppose that is also very on theme with the current expansion. From those, I’m gonna go with Spyragos due to a) purple being my favorite color, and b) the subtle reference to one of my favorite childhood games, Spyro.
Q-11: Do you have any playlists or special songs that you would love to share with us? Which songs get you really hyped? Which songs pump you during progress?
Emsy: I am a MASSIVE Swiftie, and so my default pick for any situation will be something by Taylor Swift. I’ve always been the kind of person that listens to the same music instead of exploring other stuff, and I’ve stuck with Taylor, The 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers for a few years now, so here’s a playlist of some of my favorites from each that I love listening to during prog. 🙂
“I saw the biggest improvement in my play when I started searching for areas to improve on even when I was playing well…Learning how to review your logs and watching yourself play are the biggest tools in improving, and there is almost always something you can learn and do better.”
Q-12: Do you have any advice for players who aspire to play WoW in an increasingly competitive environment?
Emsy: My biggest piece of advice to anyone wanting to improve and play competitively in WoW is to believe in yourself and your ability. I have struggled so much with impostor syndrome in WoW – especially once I started playing at the top 100 level – and it almost ruined so many opportunities for me. Everyone makes mistakes! I saw the biggest improvement in my play when I started searching for areas to improve on even when I was playing well, and constantly asking myself, “What could I do better?” Learning how to review your logs and watching yourself play are the biggest tools in improving, and there is almost always something you can learn and do better. Ask questions – there are so many knowledgeable people out there who love helping others that are there to learn from and see things from a different perspective.
To summarize: aim high, believe in yourself, and always strive to improve. 🙂
Links
About the Author
Picco is an old-fashioned WoW gamer that started back in Vanilla and has played ever since. She is a healer by heart and is currently maining Restoration Druid. She loves Mythic+ and has a great passion for events like the MDI and TGP. Picco is part of the KeystoneMasters team and enjoys jiggling around with ideas for fun new formats of community tournaments. She is also a Mod for several streamers and guilds, particularly during the RWF. Outside of WoW, Picco is a Sprout in FF14, where she explores with her Lala Summoner.
