Interview: Heather “sapphiRe” Garozzo — “I Think The Milk Cup is Going to be One of Those Historic Moments.”

Taking place in Los Angeles, in early October, is a LAN that’s set to make history. The Milk Cup is offering its all-women Fortnite competitors the chance to win their share of the largest North American prize pool ever offered in women’s esports. But the LAN holds a lot of significance, not just because of its prize pool, but for the incredible talent involved at every stage of its production. 

Heather “sapphiRe” Garozzo, a prominent esports veteran and the first woman inducted into the Esports Hall of Fame, gave us an insight into how The Milk Cup has been built with its players in mind at every step of the way. 

“I've been in esports for a long time, and I've seen a lot of so-so events, but this event really  nailed what it means to host a true competitive, high-class women's event,” Garozzo began. “A lot of the women's events from back in my time were always kind of second tier. The ladies never got the best stuff. They never got a lot of attention or content or storytelling, and we wanted to get that right. And we're so proud that Gonna Need Milk believes in that and the storytelling of these players.”

Gonna Need Milk, the company behind The Milk Cup, have taken the nutritional approach of providing performance drinks to athletes and have branched out into the gaming sphere. Part of their passion extends to providing safe spaces for gamers, particularly women gamers, to compete as their authentic selves. Something that Garozzo and her company Raidiant believe in whole-heartedly. 

The interesting part is that a lot of the top women gamers in the world, they're still not making enough in terms of prize money or salary. So they're having to go to school, they're working multiple jobs at the same time, and they're still making time to compete and be among the best in the world. That's incredibly inspiring.

“Women's events are great stepping stones to the big leagues,” Garozzo said. “I just thought we could do so much better. I knew how many women compete in this space.

If you look at Counter-Strike, it was one of the first games to support women's esports events. There's a reason why Counter-Strike has one of the biggest women's communities, and it's because they've supported these events for two decades now. Then we saw that with Riot Games and Game Changers. Now, you're putting them on massive stages and big arenas — you're putting the women there. That's been followed by Fortnite, which has an incredible women's player base, but a lot of them are content creator focused because they haven't been given as many opportunities for competition.

Obviously, women are not being held back from FNCS, from any of the cash cups — women can play in those. However, we know that there's just a lot of barriers to entry, especially on gender and harassment and how to find other players. If we create these women's only events, we're going to start to grow the pool of competitive players. That was really the two inspirations behind Raidiant; make better women's events and then create women's events for communities that have women player bases.”

It’s true that women are often not barred from major tournaments, but Garozzo’s point that women face numerous barriers to entry is key. In short, there’s a lack of broad support, not just from organisers but from the wider gaming community. Many women gamers are put off from pursuing a competitive career due to harassment, something that has only been heightened by social media. 

“When you normally create events, moderation is maybe the last thing that you're thinking about. That's not the case for the Milk Cup. That's actually one of the first things we're thinking about. How are we going to moderate these online chats? How are we going to moderate socials? Obviously, we can't stop people from saying certain things, but we can be on top of it immediately to make sure it's gone. And for those players, the worst thing you want is for players to go back and watch a VOD and they have a really great moment and then they see something  really negative in the chat, or talking about their appearance.

And so, zero tolerance. All that stuff is immediately taken care of and taken out of the chat. We have a very, very extensive list of moderators, tournament officials that are keeping an eagle eye on any issues that might happen in the chat. We also work with a lot of really, really wonderful co-streamers. A lot of these are men that also feel very passionate about empowering this community. A lot of these women are their friends and their supporters and they want to help elevate them, but they too are also responsible for making sure their chats are moderated.”

Those that do compete often aren’t awarded enough in order to pursue it full-time, or whose storylines aren’t being showcased in a way that allows an audience to become invested in their paths. Without a platform to boost their profiles, the wider esports audience loses out on interesting, unique competitors to rally behind. 

“The interesting part is that a lot of the top women gamers in the world, they're still not making enough in terms of prize money or salary. So they're having to go to school, they're working multiple jobs at the same time, and they're still making time to compete and be among the best in the world. That's incredibly inspiring. To be able to tell those stories is going to show other women that they can do it too.”

The Milk Cup, however, aims to change that. Not only has this tournament focused on the stories of its players, but it has ensured that every qualified player will be able to make it to the LAN on October 5 by covering the full travel and accommodation costs, removing the financial barrier for every competing player. And the results of the investment have spoken for themselves. The Milk Cup has already become one of the most-watched women’s esports events of the year, garnering over 2.5 million views across its three qualifiers. 

“Our first qualifier was the most watched women's Fortnite event ever. It was like 713,000 views, I believe,” Garozzo added. “Qualifier 2 even surpassed that. Over the course of all qualifiers, we've had over 2.5 million views and we're not even at the LAN yet. The great thing is we're broadcasting on multiple channels, too. We're working with Women of the eRena, broadcasting on the Raidiant channel, the Gonna Need Milk channels. We're using TikTok as well, and we're using co-streamers like AussieAntics. We've got a really broad reach and people are excited about it. People are talking about it on socials. They can't wait to see what's happening for the LAN.”

Women competitors aren’t the only talent being nurtured by The Milk Cup. Garozzo’s company Raidiant is also bringing with them an all-women production team, giving the tournament the unique attribute of being made fully with women at heart. Garozzo herself, an accomplished observer for VALORANT and Counter-Strike, takes her work incredibly seriously and is ensuring that The Milk Cup receives the high-level production that it deserves. “Observers are often kind of an afterthought, you don't necessarily see us. In fact, we don't want you to even notice us,” she explained. “The idea is you shouldn't even be thinking about the observing, because it feels so natural. Honestly, a lot of people think it's just AI doing that, and it's not. 

It's very rewarding to be able to in-game direct a certain moment and then hear the crowd start to cheer because you showed that exact moment. There's 10 people on the field and I could have picked one of the other nine. But no, I picked the right person, and the crowd goes wild. So that's really something I'm passionate about, and it also brings me back to what I do with Raidiant. I pick the observing team very carefully, and I love all the women observers that we work with.

One reason why I built Raidiant is because, for the women's events, it was often an afterthought. They might have gotten a League of Legends observer for VALORANT — It's just not going to be as good of quality. So we put a lot of care into that with the Milk Cup as well. We've worked with, I believe, 10 different women observers. Maybe even more for The Milk Cup. With Fortnite, we have to build a really big team, and I am so excited because it’s going to be a lot of these women's first LAN experience, too. So not only are we giving players experience, but we're giving a lot of women production talent new opportunities to work on these events and put their passion into work and get paid for it.”

Tournaments like The Milk Cup serve to grow and improve the wider esports scene dramatically. With a larger pool of talent, regardless of gender, the audience is introduced to new stories, new players, and an enhanced competitive pool. “I think one of the biggest stereotypes is that people think the women don't work as hard, or they're not there for the right reasons — whatever people try to define as the right reasons. You can be there for all types of reasons, but these women, it's so fun to watch them practice, analyze the game, review replays, and learn how to get better,” Garozzo explained.

“They're putting just as, if not more effort than many of the top players in the world. I love to be able to show that. We're going to see that on LAN. Once we have cameras on all the players, you're going to see their passion, you're going to see their drive and how excited they get. I watch a lot of the best esports events in the world, a lot of the biggest ones, the biggest prize pools. But these women's events, I swear to you, are some of the most exciting, emotional, incredible esports moments that should be written in esports history books. I think the Milk Cup is going to be one of those historic moments.”

The Milk Cup Finals will be taking place at Los Angeles Comic Con on October 5, 2024. 99 women players will be competing in trios for a $250,000 prize pool. Those that can’t make it to the event in person will be able to catch the action, in full, on Twitch.