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playboy.com / digital culture / feature / kornelia

September 14, 2000

Kornelia Takacs would be unusual just for being a woman who plays the kill-or-be-killed PC game of Quake, or for being a transplanted Hungarian who plays Quake. But at the advanced age of 23, she's also one of the top-ranked players of the game, having won four organized, professional competitions in the nascent "sport" (a feat matched only by fellow star player Thresh). Meet up with her in an online deathmatch and she'll splatter your brains against the nearest wall while maintaining an outward calm reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter's when he made hash out of those two prison guards. The Los Angeleno says it's not the violence that turns her on, though -- it's the competition. Her next public appearance will be at Frag4 in Dallas this month, with $30,000 up for grabs.

Kornelia Takacs: I grew up in Budapest and lived there until I was 16. I went to elementary and high school there. When I came to the U.S., I continued with high school, but mainly I was here to learn the language -- I didn't speak English at all at the time. I got into computers and computer games a few years later, around the age of 18, when my two best friends introduced me to them. I've been heavily involved with computers and gaming since then.

PB: Was this an exchange student program, or did you go on your own?

KT: I first lived with my dad, who's a U.S. citizen. I have a green card and will get citizenship in two years.

PB: Are computer games as popular in Hungary as they are in the U.S.?

KT: At the time I left, seven years ago, computers weren't nearly as accessible as they are today. They've only become commonplace in the U.S. over the past few years, and today in Hungary, most people who are on the Internet are still college students or wealthy people. It should reach the average person in a few years, but it will take some time.

PB: What is your "day job," and how much time do you spend on that compared with the time you spend practicing and competing?

KT: My day job is selling antiques. I specialize in old compasses ranging from the 18th century to the late Forties. I also collect these instruments: It's my biggest hobby next to gaming, and they complement each other very well. Compasses are relaxing and beautiful. They are pieces of a time that is long gone.

Actual competitions don't take up a lot of time -- a big tournament lasts about three to four days. The real time-consuming thing about gaming is practicing for the actual event. Some pro players will practice up to ten hours a day before tournaments. I try to keep a more reasonable schedule by playing a few hours every day. Gaming is a totally different mindset. Competition, adrenaline and the desire to win are the few words that I can use to describe it.

PB: Could you live off the earnings of your appearances and tournament winnings alone?

KT: Living from gaming alone would be difficult at this point, but the industry is changing quickly. More big-name companies are looking to sponsor and endorse professional players with both hardware and salaries.

PB: What is it about Quake that you like so much, and which version is your favorite?

KT: I think the biggest reason I like Quake is because I'm a very competitive person and it gives me a great chance to play tough matches without having to travel far. I can play people all over the western states from home when I have time to hop on my PC. Then I can travel to major gaming tournaments and compare my skills with those of a thousand other gamers there to do the same. My main game at first was Quake I; I took a break during Quake II because the gameplay was too slow for my taste, but I like Quake III a lot and play it competitively.

I put most of my gaming time into Quake III to stay sharp, so I do better at it than other games. I do love playing word games online -- I started to learn English six years ago when I came here and had to learn grammar from scratch only a few years ago. When I met people, I would tell them that I didn't speak English. It would frustrate me when they would say how great my English was, and how well I spoke, when my vocabulary wasn't even good enough to explain that they were wrong, and I was getting by with no one knowing what my personality was like. Now that my vocabulary has improved, playing word games online is great. Since my opponents don't know that I wasn't born here, I can compete against them on an even playing field. I never hear, "You did pretty good for a foreigner."

PB: How do you feel about the violence and the way women are portrayed in games such as Quake?

KT: I don't play Quake for the gore and violence -- I play it because I'm competitive, and it's a quick game of reflexes and strategy. In a way, it's like an extremely fast chess game where you have to be very precise. First-person shooters such as Quake and Doom became a scapegoat for those [school] massacres, but tens of thousands of people can play these sorts of games and see violent movies without ever striking out violently against others. There are an extremely small number of people who have serious emotional problems and tend to obsess about these kinds of games. That obsession is one of the symptoms, not the cause.

The way female characters have been portrayed in computer games has improved a lot since I began gaming a few years ago, but it still has a long way to go. Clearly the computer industry gears its products toward 15- to 22-year-old males, the majority of the game-playing market. It's annoying how popular Lara Croft became. I've heard that if a Barbie doll were alive, she would fall over when she walked because her unnatural body shape couldn't support her. If that is true, poor Lara couldn't even get up. I wish that the female characters would measure up to the male versions in coolness. If a male character has full body armor and clothing, I think the female character deserves it, too. What woman would go into battle wearing panties, a bra and nothing else? Female characters should be tough and dangerous but still feminine, and game developers should try using the high polygon-counts and awesome effects on today's 3D cards to make girl models sexy without resorting to the overdone "underwear warrior" look.

PB: What do your boyfriend and family think of your status as a champion Quake player?

KT: My family back in Hungary support me; they are happy for me because I do something I like and am good at it. My grandma, of course, doesn't really understand what I do and how I can possibly make money at it, but as long as I do make money she knows I'm doing well. My little brother loves what I do -- the big sister beating all the guys in the U.S. sounds very cool to him.

My boyfriend enjoys watching me play. He doesn't play much himself, but that's because he can't give me the challenge he'd like to. I'm very lucky that all the people I love are happy for me and support me. It would be tough if I had to deal with them not liking it for whatever reason.

PB: What different styles of Quake play have you experienced from opponents, and is there one strategy that works best? For instance, I read that you said you don't like to "camp," but that sometimes it's the best strategy.

KT: [Laughs] Camping isn't that effective these days. Some players used to do it excessively back in the Quake I days, but players today are a lot smarter. As opponents, players use a mixture of both defensive and offensive strategies. When I play, I tune my playing style to my opponent's. If he's offensive I play more defensively and vice versa. By the way, where did you read that I don't like to camp?

PB: I read it in your website's page on Quake Con 1997: "Round 4: Kornelia vs. Grayson, 9-15."

KT: Grayson was the first person I lost to. I was winning six to zero when stupid me decided to take a tour of the level and let him take the red armor room, which I've been told that he never really leaves once he gets in. When he was two points away from winning, I realized that while camping, or "controlling an area," is boring and makes me feel cheap, frustrating my opponent was the way to win -- but it was too late.

PB: Why are you just "Kornelia" when you play and not "WarAngel" or "MistressDeath" or something like that?

KT: When I first started up Quake, I couldn't think of a "cool" nickname, so I went with Kornelia. I ended up sticking to it because it's a rare name in this country, so the chance of running into another Kornelia on a Quake server is pretty slim. Thinking back, I was lucky that I picked my name. I know dozens of gamers who picked a name that seemed interesting at the time. They got sick of it after a few years, but people had gotten to know them with that name, so now they're stuck with it.

I do have an alias that I play under when I don't feel like using my real name, when I want to just kick back and not worry about how I play. It's the name of a rare compass that was manufactured 85 years ago. I like it because it sounds cool and nobody knows what it is or what it means. Subtle, but badass at the same time.

PB: Are you hard on yourself when you lose?

KT: I'm hard on myself when I lose a match that I could have won. I don't mind if I lose to a better player, so long as I was playing well. I'm not happy, of course, but playing tough matches is how you improve. No one ever got better winning all the time.

PB: What have been some of your favorite wins?

KT: My most special win was the first tournament I ever won, the 1997 Computer Game Developers Conference. I wasn't nearly as good as I am now, but there's nothing as good as the first victory. It was very pure. I've won bigger tournaments since then, but that was the nicest.

PB: Do you ever suffer physical damage from playing computer games? Strained eyes, sore hands or wrists?

KT: My mouse wrist hurts sometimes when I play for a few hours straight without taking a break, but I do carpal-tunnel exercises for it. Sometimes my back hurts when I sit in the chair too long because I have just a regular office chair. I love the Herman Miller Aeron chair -- my best friend has one, and I borrow it for tournaments.

PB: Do you think gaming will ever become a popular spectator sport like beach volleyball, as some claim?

KT: Quake is actually very exciting to watch. I've seen matches where the whole audience is holding its breath, then all cheering together. Even if you've never played yourself, a two-player match is simple to understand. I think it is only a matter of time before it breaks into the mass media as a spectator sport.

PB: Why did you join the Cyberathlete Professional League?

KT: I joined the CPL a few years ago, when it first started. The idea of professional gaming sounded great. I was playing Quake in my free time as a hobby, and the opportunity to do it professionally was awesome. I've been a featured player ever since, and it's wonderful to see how far it has come under the direction of Angel [Munoz]. He started with an idea and made an organization that is known among gamers worldwide.

PB: What do you hope your gaming skills will lead to?

KT: Right now, I'm going to concentrate on preparing myself for the upcoming competitions. We'll see where it goes from there. This is a great experience for me, and it's very cool to be a respected part of this rapidly growing industry.