How Emirati esports star Amna Al Ameri is pushing gaming for women to the next level

Former software engineer, who competes as Moki, wants to increase visibility of female players in region

In October, Amna Al Ameri left her 9-to-5 software engineering job to pursue her dream in the competitive gaming world, becoming one of the first female Emirati esports athletes.

Al Ameri, 25, says even her software engineering career was a result of her passion for video games.

"I thought about wanting to develop my own video games one day," she tells The National.

Al Ameri's love for video games began when she was only six years old, when she owned her first Nintendo Game Boy console.

"My favourite games on that console were Zelda, Pokemon and Tetris," she says.

She soon blossomed into an esports enthusiast when she found herself excelling at League of Legends.

"I thought: 'If I’m getting really good at this, why not take it at the next level and compete?’"

Known in the esports world as Moki, Al Ameri is now taking the gaming world by storm. She took part in her first tournament at Girlgamer eSports Festival Dubai in 2020, geared towards showcasing the skills of female gamers.

"It was huge," Al Ameri says. "That was my first tournament and how I began my e-sports career."

Al Ameri was part of a team known as Galaxy Racer, which came fifth at the competition.

After being part of Galaxy Racer for a year and a half, she joined Geekay Esports as a content creator and then later moved on to Lost eSports as a content creator and pro player. She has now joined the esports and game developer company Barzah Studios as a pro player.

However, being one of the first Emirati female esports athletes does not come without any challenges.

Al Ameri, who streams herself playing League of Legends on Twitch, says she often receives unsettling comments from internet trolls regarding her skills and her gender.

"I always feel like I’m treated differently because I’m a female even though I play at the same equal level as a male," she says. "I get comments like: ‘Oh, you should have done this, you should have done that, you’re not supposed to do this,’ and it kind of stresses me out because I have to play well and if I don’t, it’s like: ‘Oh, you don’t play good because you’re a female’."

But Al Ameri is determined to block out the negative noise and preserve her love of competitive gaming. She hopes to inspire other Emirati female gamers to take part in esports and compete.

She also wants to push the scene further in the region and show support to aspiring female esports athletes. In a society where traditional career paths are favoured, she believes increasing the visibility of female Emiratis in the field will "boost the scene".

"It’s going to motivate the younger generation to actually pursue this as a career," she says.