Interviewing Fiona Nova

With video games extending their reach, E-sports, cosplay and, more recently, streaming have become veritable ways in which people show their appreciation for the hobby. It’s not uncommon to see a team, cosplayer or streamer having entire communities that regularly follow their work. Fiona Nova is one such individual. She streams, she hosts events, and she cosplays; that’s a bit of everything, really. We managed to get a hold of her and asked a few questions, which she kindly answered. You’ll find more about Fiona, alongside her take on cosplay, the difficulties of streaming and the future below.

 

Question: For anyone who isn't familiar with you, can you tell us a little about yourself?

Fiona Nova: Hi, I’m Fiona! I guess people consider me to be a gaming or nerd personality. I am an esports host for many different esports events and I also cosplay when I can. Oh! And I stream too haha.

Question: How did you get into Cosplay? Did you find it difficult to start cosplaying and gaining such a large amount fans? Is it difficult to pursue Cosplay as a career?

Fiona Nova: I got into cosplay because my little brother actually gave me the courage to. He thought I would do a great job doing it since I knew how to sew and wanted to become a fashion designer. I would look at the outfits of the female characters I would play as in video games and want to recreate them, but I didn’t know cosplay was an actual thing I could do, and there were many different people doing it!

It wasn’t hard to start cosplaying, it was more just building up the courage to do it and figuring out what my first ever cosplay would be. Building any kind of fan base will take time and I was lucky to start cosplaying at a point where it was starting to become mainstream (popular) which helped me build a following in such a short amount of time.

To pursue cosplay as a career is definitely possible but is very hard. I believe that your goal should be to enjoy cosplaying first and if you are able to make money off of it after a while, then just keep on working at it!! Cosplay is supposed to be fun after all, and shouldn’t be a ‘job’ , but if you can make it one, that’s just a dream come true!

Question: Tell us about your affiliation with Evolved. Also, how does your gaming routine look, and how often do you host gaming events?

Fiona Nova: I host gaming events hopefully once a month at cons, or dedicated esports events etc. I currently am under Evolved Talent Agency, where they represent the top talent in Overwatch League. Once I realized that my brand was growing in such a fast pace, I believe an agent would help me manage my gigs, as well as get me new ones. However, having an agent doesn’t guarantee you anything, I still need to constantly work and look for gigs, but it helps to have a helping hand sometimes.

My routine for gaming? I’m not too sure if I have one, I pretty much game every day haha. I don’t stream everyday and have about 3 days that I dedicate to streaming and talking to my chat. However, when i’m not streaming, I’m usually working on my Instagram or YouTube, and then playing some comp games in Overwatch at the end of the day! :p

Question: What do you feel are the challenges of being on Twitch and other video /streaming sites?

Fiona Nova: The biggest challenge I have is sticking out of the crowd. There are so many people streaming and doing so many entertaining things that it’s hard to stick out if you are not amazing at the game you are playing, or if you don’t have a large following. One tip I tell everyone who wants to stream is to not only be consistent and entertaining, but to also grow your other platforms whether it be YouTube, Instagram, twitter etc. If you have more people finding out who you are, the more likely they will drop by your stream to see how you are, live. :)

Question: Do you reckon developers/publishers will start using gamers and cosplayers more to promote their games? And what do you think the benefits of such a promotion are?

Fiona Nova: Yup! I think it’s an incredibly smart move on developers to use gamers and cosplayers because we are the bridge that connects the audience to the developers/publishers. The audience enjoys are content and can relate to us, which is why they follow us in the first place. It’s an amazing marketing strategy that I hope they use a lot more of in the future since it will help incredibly! Fortnite just started realizing this, and invited me to join them at E3 as a cosplayer in one of their skins. I believe I was their first cosplayer that they posted on their instagram account! It was super cool and everyone loved it, including their fans.

Question: What games do you play? Can you remember what was the first game you fell in love with?

Fiona Nova: The first game I fell in love with was actually Tetris haha! I don’t want to brag but I am a really really good Tetris player and still play it to this day on my Nintendo Switch (Puyo Puyo Tetris). I’m currently doing ranked games on there as well, maybe one day I’ll go pro LOL! Other than that, another game I’ve played millions of times was Super Mario Bros 3.

Right now, my current obsession is overwatch. I play it competitively, however , quickplay and arcade aren’t as fun for me anymore, I just play ranked. Persona 5 is another game that I absolutely love playing. I started Detroit and I love it. I also enjoy the legend of Zelda series! Oh, Horizon Zero Dawn was so good too, I think I’m going to play it again cause I feel like I missed out on a lot in that game. Okay, I think I’ll stop there because I can go on and on about games I love haha.

Question: As a female, you probably get quite a few rude and sexist comments. How do you deal with that and does it ever affect you?

Fiona Nova: It used to affect me, and some comments will always sting but at the end of the day I believe I do have an advantage BECAUSE I’m a female, and I have to power through it. I want to become a role model and, i guess a type of ‘spokesperson’ for female gamers/nerds/etc. I want to promote females as well as black female gamers in the gaming industry because we are definitely a minority and there isn’t that much representation for us.

Question: Do you think the increasing number of female cosplayers creating costumes of male characters for themselves will eventually lead to developers taking note and creating more strong female lead characters?

Fiona Nova: I never thought of it that way, but I HOPE SO!!! Some male outfits are so friggin’ cool!! I wish that there was more attention put to the female outfits to look more ‘bad ass’ with a bunch of armor or something, instead of focusing on marketing it to the ‘male demographic’ therefore making it too revealing without a lot of detail.. EVEN THOUGH, I love the sexy outfits and some can definitely look and make the female feel more powerful!!

Question: Do you have any interesting upcoming plans? What can fans expect to see from you in the near future?

Fiona Nova: I do have some amazing plans that might be happening but I can’t speak of them just yet! If everything works out though, I believe you will definitely see more of me :) Otherwise, I’ll still be playing games, and nerding out with my #novanation family :p

Question: What is your own personal highlight from your time working in the industry?

Fiona Nova: I think E3 was one of my favorite moments when I was cosplaying as a fortnite character on their booth. The booth was so CRAZY and I was like, this is nuts I’m actually here!! Especially when they posted me on their social medias, ohhh boyy.. that was one of my favorite days because millions of people saw me and it made what I’ve been doing worth while!

Question: When you are not gaming what else are you up to? What are your hobbies and interests?

Fiona Nova: I LOVE playing volleyball, and I really just enjoy going to conventions with friends and hanging out. I am a pretty introverted person even though I act the opposite or come off as an extrovert haha, so most of the time i’m at home just working, gaming and probably shopping. I’ve always been interested in Fashion, and hopefully one day I can have my own line of clothing! Maybe integrating my love of gaming and tech into it.

Question: So what does the future hold for Fiona Nova and where can we expect to find you?

Fiona Nova: I’m not too sure what the future holds, but I am definitely trying my best to grow my brand and make it big! I want to show everyone that esports can be taken seriously as well as just being a nerd in general. I want to be one of the people to help represent females/POC in the gaming industry as well. Eventually, I also do want to go back to my passion for ‘fashion’ and start involving that side into gaming. Maybe I’ll make it in a movie or 2 along the way haha! That’s just a little dream I had when I was younger, I definitely wanted to be a movie star LOL

Question: As a closing question, nowadays there are quite a few professional gamers. What do you think sets you apart from the crowd?

Fiona Nova: Well, the straight forward answer is that I’m black and a female LOL, that definitely sets me apart in the industry! The other answer is that I am not afraid to be myself. Whether I’m infront of a camera or in my own room with friends, my personality doesn’t change and I am really just the same person everywhere. I am down to earth and I think people like that about me, since they can relate to me and enjoy my content.

Question: And finally, NoobFeed has a lot of love for you. We really think that you’re awesome. What message do you want to leave for your fans here.

Fiona Nova: NOVANATION YOU RULE, I LOVE YOU GUYS, THANK YOU FOR STICKING BY ME AND HELPING ME GROW SO MUCH!! (also if u wanna be a part of it, you can join my discord since we are all in there, nerding out 24/7!!)

 

Many thanks to Fiona Nova for taking the time to talk with us! We wish her all the very best in her upcoming project. If you want more from Fiona, keep up by following her on Twitter and Twitch.

 

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed
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