Rachel "Seltzer" Quirico is arguably the most successful female host in competitive Hearthstone. She got hired for big events such as DreamHack and Viagame HouseCups, which are some of the most popular tournaments. But to put the icing on the cake she hosted both the NA and EU qualifiers for BlizzCon, and she will host the Hearthstone World Championship itself as well. She tries to be as best of an example she can be for other girls in the gaming world, through working hard and always aiming for the best result possible. We spoke to her at the European Qualifiers at BlizzCon and talked about eSports, the future of it and her career within it.
You’re one of the very few female personalities within the gaming community. How is that for you?
I would always love to have more ladies, and I think that a lot more women are actually getting interested. As they grow up they play games, which is getting way more common for girls to do. I can’t wait for them to enter the industry as well.
What would you say is the reason so few women are in this industry?
Well there’s the abuse part, and maybe women are a little more sensitive towards that. But next to that my generation didn’t grow up playing video games because it wasn’t cool. I had girlfriends who played video games in secret, but didn’t even tell me about it. This is different nowadays though, so when they’re the right age hopefully they will explore it more.
Let’s talk a bit more about video games. You’re now seen very often within the Hearthstone scene, but are there any other games you’re interested in?
Team Fortress 2 is one of my all time favourite games. It’s such a good game, and it had such a vibrant community back in around 2007, and to this day has endured. People are still trying to make the competitive scene bigger and I would love to see it blow up to get big. I think TF2 was very unlucky because we didn’t have the streaming services like we do now, so less people get to watch it. But if I can’t have that, I’ll just take Overwatch instead. I’m so ready to play, cast and host that game.
I'm ready to cast Overwatch.
Overwatch is often compared to Team Fortress 2. What’s your opinion on this?
There are so many different ways to play Overwatch, and there are many ways to play Team Fortress 2 as well, which I think is great. I love to play FPS games like Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield. But where I really shine is when I can play a support role. So having a class like Mercy in Overwatch or the Medic in Team Fortress 2 is why I’m so in love with those games.
The Overwatch scene is really hyped for the game. Will the game live up to the hype?
I’ve only got my hands on it a couple of times at Blizzard events or in the office and I think that everyone will be excited. There was no moment on which the game didn’t deliver, or where I thought “Oh this is stupid” or “Hm this mechanic is weird”, it’s just fun.
Let’s talk a bit about different eSports, have you played Heroes of the Storm?
I play a lot of Heroes in my personal time, like when my boyfriend gets home we’ll play one or two games. It’s actually also a really fun game to play with my stream viewers because you can pull players in a group. The good thing about Heroes is that you don’t have to be the best player, but you can still have a really good time.
The Heroes eSports scene isn’t as big as other MOBAs yet, with one of the biggest reasons being its late arrival. What would Heroes need to still make it to the top?
From my view the biggest selling point of Heroes, which separates it from other MOBAs, is the fun and the community. You have to be a good team player if you want to do well in this game. When you work on this game, when you build up your MMR and get to the top, you’re no longer playing with people who can’t be team mates. The only people you log into a game with are successful team mates, and those are usually kind, fun and encouraging people. So rarely when I play I get tilted, or feel anger or any bad emotions. If I log in to League of Legends and just buy a wrong item, I’m already in trouble and the rest of the team can yell at me. I’m too intimidated to even try Dota2, because from what I’ve seen it can be terrifying. So if Heroes of the Storm can just forward the message of the nice community and such, that would really help differentiate it from other MOBA’s and make it bigger.
eSports on TV is just not as much fun as on Twitch.
You were mentioning streaming earlier. Streaming is getting bigger every day for eSports; we even saw a Heroes of the Storm tournament being broadcasted on live television in the USA. Does the future of streaming hold more of this?
I used to want games to get on TV, but that was when TV was really big. Now I don’t even have a cable subscription, and when the Heroes tournament was on ESPN I had to go to my parents’ house and watch in on their television. Television is just not the right medium for eSports right now. Will we see more of eSports on it? Probably. Is it because eSports is growing? Yes. But it’s just on television because they are jealous of the success streaming is having with it. Being able to log in to a stream and interact with it is just so much more fun than just sitting and watching.
Is that why you’re streaming yourself as well? To have fun interactions with the community?
I stream on Twitch and have actually a small community with generally 100 to 150 viewers. The nice part about that though is that after a while I get to know them by name, I know their stories and I get to be friends with them. They’re absolutely wonderful and supportive. The downside of streaming for me is that I hate playing games without being on stream. I’ll play a game and then say something, only to realize it’s just me playing a game on my own, without any viewers. Luckily there are plenty of other stream chats to hang out in which have a great community as well.
Do you have any favourite streamers?
There are a lot of great streamers out there who I love to watch, especially those with a friendly community. I also love to watch my friends’ streams because of that friendly environment. One of my friends, Witwix, has been so successful lately and I’m very proud of him and what he’s accomplished so far.
I never wanted to be on camera. I just wanted to get involved in eSports.
If I ask you to look five years into the future, where would you see yourself then?
When thinking about my career, I remember I never particularly wanted to be an on camera personality. I just wanted to get involved in eSports. I’m looking forward to the next couple of years in eSports. I’d love to find talent and teach them everything I know, and watch them learn things I will never know. Hopefully I then will move on to some other parts of the eSports industry where I can bring my experience and make it useful.
About teaching others, what would your advice be to people who are trying to get big in the scene as shoutcasters or streamers?
The most important part is probably to keep doing what you want to get big in. If you truly love it, you need to practice it on your own. The people who get hired today are those who invest in growing their community, building their stream or YouTube channel and get experienced. It’s hard to get experience for casting in eSports, because you’re either at home in your basement or you’re on a stage in front of 5,000 people, like here. My dream would be to have an apprentice. If I could have some people to give a day camp, training them and showing them around, I think it’d be a good step up for future casters.