What a 12 months it has been for Northern Ireland Esports athlete Emma 'Emzii' Rose.
Last summer Emzii became the first trans woman to represent Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Esports Championship winning gold in the eFootball category.
She has followed up her fantastic medal success in Birmingham, by winning silver at the inaugural European Games Esports Championships in Katowice at the end of June.
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In a thrilling final Emzii lost 3-2 to Italy's Giorgia Casciaroli. She was disappointed not to secure gold but on reflection the Belfast based athlete was delighted to be part of the competition's most decorated team as the Rocket League team also picked up a silver medal.
"Its been a pretty successful first year in Esports if I do say so myself," she said.
"The fact I got to represent Northern Ireland and now GB has just been absolute pinnacle moments for me! Words simply can't do justice to the feeling.
"We were the most decorated team at the European Games for so that’s always nice!
"Obviously we're all a little disappointed that we made it to two out of three finals and didn’t win any, but you’ve got to be happy with second place.
"The tournament was full of professional players with some of the eFootball guys playing for Barcelona, Arsenal and Bayern and the Rocket League players were all playing for Pro teams too.
"Eight countries took part in the eFootball, with two groups of four.
"There was a double round robin with the top two of each group progressing to the live stage show.
"It was a double elimination bracket with the winner of the upper bracket starting the final 1-0 in a best of five!
"There were some tense games on the first final day and I actually managed to go all the way to the final by winning the upper bracket!
"Sadly though on the day Italy were just too strong for me. They are after all a professional FIFA player so I can’t feel too hard done by!
"I'm very happy that little unsigned nobody me managed to come second! We have a great picture of us all on stage celebrating so I mean that picture tells the story of how happy we are."
Emzii has great pride in representing NI and GB as a transgender woman and has used her platform to champion the LGBTQ+ community.
Representing women and marginalised communities and showing that there is a place for everyone has been a main goal for her on this worldwide stage.
Emzii though revealed that she is unsure if she will be able to take part in the Global Games in December.
"There’s still a talking point whether I can go to that as it's in Riyadh, being a loud proud transgender woman I'm not too sure how that will go down for me," Emzii said.
"We'll see what happens but I still have a busy few months coming up. I will be part of Belfast Pride and I'm also working on something pretty cool with Stephen Watson from the BBC.
"I have a few conferences and panels coming up and whatever else I can manage to squeeze my way into.
"So if anyone needs a speaker or creator on diversity and inclusion please feel free to hit me up."
You can follow Emzii on all socials @emzii192 or for business enquires Emzii192x@gmail.com
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