Elz The Witch is representing a new generation of female gamers: “I just want to beat down the preconceptions” – NME
Elz The Witch has spent the day playing Call Of Duty: Warzone in retro travel agent shop Pacific Adventures, alongside England/Chelsea footballer Mason Mount and Youtuber Chunkz.
Despite Vanguard being released a few weeks back, Raven Software has just released the new Caldera Map for Warzone and the reviews are good. “I really like it,” starts Elz. “The old map was proper industrial but this one is set in the Pacific, so is the complete opposite.”
She’s pretty sure her parents won’t be joining her for a game over Christmas but she is planning on taking her PS5 with her, when she goes to visit her sister just incase things get too intense over the Xmas period and they want to blow off some steam or escape somewhere sunny for a few hours. “The only time I am able to sit and relax is when I’m playing a video game. There’s something really therapeutic about that for me, just being able to completely forget about the outside world and lose myself in a game.”
Elz only started playing Call Of Duty properly a few years ago “so I’m relatively new, but I love all the storylines, the maps are always incredible and they just keep on improving.”
In 2020, she uploaded the video ‘Playing COD Warzone…Badly’ to her fledgling YouTube channel. Twenty months later, her channel has blown up but she hasn’t gotten any better at Warzone. “I’m so bad, “ she laughs. “My dream is to actually be good at it but no matter how hard I try, I just get shot. I’m a gamer, but there are games that I’m just not very good at, such as Warzone.” She figures as long as she’s having fun though, that’s all that matters.
Call Of Duty: Warzone Caldera launch. CREDIT: Parri Thomas NME
See, Elz The Witch isn’t your standard gamer. Sure, she grew up loving Final Fantasy 7 (the music can still bring her to tears) and she recently spent an entire 17-hour flight to Bangkok playing the remastered Grand Theft Auto: Vice City but she also presents a radio station on Kiss FM and is becoming an increasingly regular fixture in professional football commentating, having worked on Match Of The Day in addition to recently joining Manchester City as one of their matchday live presenters. “I want to prove that you can be into gaming, but also like makeup, fashion and sport,” she starts. “I love proving people wrong. I just want to beat down the misconceptions and preconceptions that people have.”
In the future, she wants to create a series of documentaries that “prove to my parents’ generation that gaming is a positive thing. I think they still view it as something that’s addictive, that’s damaging to mental health and inspires violence. But really, gaming opens a whole new world for people to escape their reality, and be whoever they want to be. There are so many opportunities that can come from gaming …….
