Her Name Is Nuggy Bunny
A young lady fighting the fighting game cultural norms.
She stands all of five feet tall and 100 lbs or so (I didn’t ask for an exact number). She could be a kindergarten teacher (She dresses like one on stream sometimes.) And she competed at EVO 2018 as the hulking, green beast Blanka.
Her gamer tag is Nuggy Bunny. Why Nuggy Bunny? Her boyfriend Joe would call her his little nugget because of her diminutive stature. She embraced it and made her own calling herself a nuggy bunny. Like all good nicknames that make some sense, it stuck.
You can see your happiness and joy when she finds in gaming as lifts the octave and strength of her voice proclaiming her love of her Blanka kitty, but don’t let that cute, smiley vibe fool you. Nuggy pushes back hard against the stereotypes of girl gamers to be the real deal Street Fighter competitive player.
What Kind Of Gamer Is Nuggy?
In the online world of Twitch, female streamers typically fall into two categories: Gamer Grillz and the rest.
Gamer Grillz typically capitalize on their looks with good makeup, nice lighting, and styled hair combined with clothing accentuating their features. The slang, derogatory term is Booby Streamer. They’re perceived as low-skilled and not a real gamer. Instead, they are called entertainers who aren’t true to the authoritarian ethos that skills and results trump everything else.
Make no mistake; there is ZERO shame in this part of the vocation. None of this would happen if there wasn’t a market for it. Twitch is mostly indifferent to the complaints of most as long as it’s not sexually suggestive. The mere presence of cleavage is NOT an issue worthy of attention for Twitch.
However, stories of streamers crossing the line wearing nothing but body paint or even masturbating while streaming for their followers are real. Many are banned, but the fame lives on.
Nuggy is none of this. Yes. She is an attractive young lady. She styles her piles of hair in various ways. She has piercings and tattoos. She has a caring, sweet style that is quickly ripped away by the venom she can bring forth when she is tilted. She bristles at the concept of being a Booby Streamer. The fact she is young, small, and attractive belies the deep desire to be a better FGC competitor.
Getting Better One Match At A Time
There is a technical aspect to fighting games that professionals and those who aspire to be must embrace. Excellence is found in the details of understanding plus frames, analyzing matchups, knowing the move set of each character, and weaving all of this together into a complex puzzle for success in each matchup.
Nuggy routinely does this on stream. She applies focus and diligence to each matchup on the many nights she’s determined to improve. She works hard at adjusting her tactics to beat her opponent analyzing her missteps and poor strategy.
Then she steps back into the grind of the ladder determined to apply the necessary improvements. A little bit at a time.
Those who don’t understand what it means to really compete in esports lament about time she allegedly wastes in front of a monitor that could be better spent doing something “productive.”
That ignorance prevents the deep understanding that esports cultivates qualities in the younger generation that all parents want for their children: Resilience, focus, tenacity, diligence. All the things that lead to being a productive human.
Why Follow Nuggy?
Some people follow streamers for their personality. Others are trolls who hop from stream to stream being as annoying as possible before being banned. Still, others tag along for the technical aspect of belonging to the tribe.
Nuggy has followers who not only appreciate her positive vibe, they also talk the technical side of esports. Sitting in her chat I can see there are many who appreciate her dedication to being better each day.
Then there are days where she plays Dark Souls and talks with her followers. This is a narrative common to all streamers on Twitch, Mixer, Caffeine, or YouTube. They just want to belong somewhere, and Nuggy has developed her community into a solid group of people with her sweet, fierce personality.
Why Should You Even Care?
A personal goal of mine is hunting down and writing about people whose stories flow opposite to that of the prevailing narrative. The narrative around female gamers is usually found wrapped in the vitriol of anonymous keyboard warriors. It feeds the tired trope that somehow women are seen as less than able to survive in the gaming world.
The reality of the matter finds itself in people like Nuggy.
Everyone has the exact same access as everyone else. Access to the same gaming consoles with the same games on the same ladders in the same day to day course that beats most people down. There aren’t any true restrictions other than what we place on ourselves.
The online gaming world is brutal regardless of gender. Choices are made. Some like it, and some don’t. For perspective, read all the fallout from Ninja refusing to stream with other female streamers
Another brutal reality scurrying among the dregs of the daily gaming grind is found in the lobbies. These are some of the rawest and coarse places outside of 4Chan anyone will find.
Still, Nuggy lives her smiling life with the support of Joe who follows her to events and builds her up with his quiet and simple way. Here is where the narrative shifts into something we all hope it can be because Joe is by her side the whole time. In the end, that’s really all we want: someone to travel the path alongside us.
Shifting The Narrative
I connected with Nuggy at EVO as part of a larger personal project. I seek women who game and still have lives as mothers, wives, and regular people. I know this post goes live several weeks after EVO 2018. I couldn’t really figure out why it took me so long to bring it together.
Now I know.
It took a while for my own narrative to really gel in a manner I could put into words. I always understood the equality of opportunity esports provides. I had yet to really put faces to the story. With this post and other coming soon, I pray you will open your eyes to what being a female gamer really means.
Thank you for tuning in.
Bill Wagner is the Chief Relationship Officer for Esports Labs. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
