Esports: Dignitas’ EMUHLEET embraces being a role model for female gamers

The Super Girl Gamer Pro series, the only female-driven, multi-title esports tournament series in the United States, returned to change the narrative of women in competitive gaming.

While 46% of gamers are female, according to New Zoo, less than 1% of professional tournament gamers are female.

Rick Bratman, the producer of the Super Girl Series, believes the third annual event presents a combination of well-known gamers, such as Emmalee “EMUHLEET” Garrido, with other “incredible young women who just haven’t had the opportunity to show what they can do yet.”

After conversations with several female gamers around North America, Bratman and his team were concerned about toxicity toward women in competitive events.

“(The event) gives these women a safe environment to compete and to participate in the industry,” Bratman said. “It lends itself to seeing a lot of new faces competing and it’s something we get excited about.”

SGGP is hosting weekly tournaments for three different games: Hearthstone, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The competition was open to all players in North America; however, all CS:GO teams will be required to have a minimum of three players on their active roster that identify as female.

Garrido, a CS:GO player from Moreno Valley, is one of the more notable female gamers competing at the event.

As a 14-year veteran of the multiplayer first-person shooting game, Garrido understands the importance of being a role model for the next generation of gamers.

“I’m very familiar with the rise of esports,” Garrido said. “I’ve been there to witness it all and that is one of the reasons why I created my team because I didn’t have a female model growing up and I want to be that for little girls.”

Garrido was the founder of one of the top female CS:GO teams, known as Team Karma, which later became Selfless Gaming, before being recruited to Team Dignitas.

In 2015, Garrido led her team to the Women’s World Championship at Copenhagen Games with the guidance of coach David “XP3” Garrido, who would later become Emmalee’s husband.

While trying to juggle practice times with her team, she was working in the medical field helping others in need.

Before joining Dignitas, she was working full-time as a nurse at an addiction care center in Malibu while still maintaining a full-time practice schedule with her team five or six days a week.

To fully devote time to her esports career, she took on a part-time role as a utilization review nurse, where she works with doctors and therapists to fight for patients who might need a longer hospital stay with insurance.

She aspires to one day combine her love for gaming with her desire to care for and rehabilitate people.

Her short term goal for her and her Dignitas teammates is to win in the fourth annual Super Girl Gamer Pro Championships event in Oceanside on October 3-4. Only the top four teams that have earned the most points during the qualifying series will be eligible to compete.

Dignitas is currently third in the CS:GO series after four weeks of competitions with 225 points. Silhouette remains in first place with 350, separating itself from the rest of the teams following a victory over Dignitas July 31.

Dignitas trailed 7-3 early in Week 4 finale against Silhouette, before EMUHLEET made the final elimination in the 11th round of the match and started the first of two rallies. Dignitas would win five of the next six rounds to tie the score at 8. Silhouette held off a second comeback attempt in later rounds to defeat Dignitas 16-14.

In the semifinals, Dignitas came back from an 8-2 deficit against Violent Roses to win 16-10 and advance to the match with Silhouette.

Violent Roses (275) hold second place and ChewbaKAT (125) is fourth in the overall standings.

New teams can register to compete in the Week 5 tournament by signing up here. The CS:GO series continues Friday on Twitch and Facebook.

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