23-year-old Sylvia Gathoni Queen Arrow earns over Sh100,000 by playing video games

Many people still don’t get how someone can dedicate their lives to playing video games, much less make money from it.

Sylvia Gathoni is a law graduate and Kenya’s first female pro e-sports athlete. E-sports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games.

E-sports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams.

Gathoni, who is known in gaming circles as Queen Arrow, is among Kenya’s best e-sports athletes and a member of the Global E-sports Federation.

She specialises in Tekken which is a series of fighting video and arcade games.

“I have been gaming since I was little, having an older brother and cousin who were really into video games sparked my love for games,” she said in a recent interview.

According to a feature by DW, the 23-year-old can earn as much as Sh100,000 on a single tournament as the e-sports scene continues to become popular.

“When I started gaming, a lot of people including my parents were indifferent and skeptical that I was wasting time on video games but I know in the West and in Asia, it is possible to make a living,” Queen Arrow said.

She is currently ranked as the 13th best player in the country in Tekken 7 and the first female on the list.

In 2018, she became the first female gamer in East Africa to be signed to a global brand.

“I am hungry to succeed and overcome all these obstacles that have come my way since I started my career, such as my gender, race and age,” she told DW.

In 2021, she represented Kenya in the Redbull Hit the Streets tournament in South Africa where she was described as an ambassador for e-sports.

Gathoni also hopes to use her law degree to help create the e-sports framework and regulations to help support gaming in Kenya.

"I hope to at least create some of the laws that are going to be used as the foundation for the gaming community,” she told CNN in a past interview.

Rolling Stones, a US-based news website reported that in 2022, it’s likely that the global e-sports market will generate nearly $2 billion (Sh227 billion) in revenue.

In June 2022, Queen Arrow will be representing Kenya in the GIGA Games CANOC Esport Series in Guadeloupe.

"I am not only going to be a competitor in the International Tekken 7 Cup (100% dedicated to women) but I am proud to be godmother of the event. I invite all of you to join us and tune in for some good Tekken from the Caribbean this summer from June 29th to July 3rd, 2022 on the Caribbean," she shared on her IG.