My first little ice breaker works well as I ask for her to tell me about herself, studies, friends, husband, wife, kids but she is quick to reply that is single and no kids as of yet. Great.

Lidia "lidy" Poulin turns 22 next month and is a full-time student in Quebec City in Canada. Aside from her gaming habits she is an avid basketball player named MVP for her team as well as studying Accounting and Business full-time.

Although an audio interview was proposed, Lidy was quick to play the little girl as she said she was too shy, falling for her womanly ways we decide to do an interview in type and believe me once this girl gets going, she is far from shy.

Malystryx: So Counter-strike, how did it happen?

Lidy: I started playing in 2004 when my brother bought the game. He never really played but I got addicted to it right away. I went to my first LAN just a couple of weeks after I started playing.

That is where I met other girls who played too and we decided to make a team. Missharvey, an old SK.ladies member was on my team at that time.

Malystryx: so is that how you got in contact with Gaming in the first place? Did she give you a reccomendation?

Lidy: I've known the girls in SK for a while. The North american CS girl community is pretty small, so all the girls know each other.

I tried out many times for the team but it never really worked. Yeah, Steph did recommend me and tried to get me on the team.

In a way, I did not want to leave my friends and my team-mates in EG, but it worked out in the end.

Malystryx: so after trialing but it not working out, how did you respond when you were asked to join?

Lidy: I was actually really happy and excited. This was like a dream come true, you know? After waiting for a long time to get on the best girls team, I could not stand still!

It happened really fast. I did not really try out this time. I just rang for the team because they were looking for a 5th for practice. They asked me to join the next day. I got a lot more experience and I think I am more ready now than I was before.

Malystryx: So was this an achievement you could share with your family or friends? Do they know or understand?

Lidy: Of course I told my friends and family! I have been playing this game for a long time. My mom was happy for me because she knows how important this was to me.

Except she was a little bit upset because I will not be able to work this summer. We have a really busy summer! This is a great opportunity for me to travel and get better at what I love.

Most of my guy friends think it is awesome, gaming is not really popular around here and not many girls play.

I even got my basketball coach to download Steam. He got addicted to cs!

I forgot to mention that I'm the starting shooting guard for my college's basketball team. I was named MVP this year and got invited to the Allstar game for the second time in a row.

Malystryx: Oh? Well lets talk about that! So you are a basketball player?

Lidy: Yes, like I said I'm on the starting 5 as the main shooting guard on my team. Ive been playing on this team for 4 years now. Basketball season is over right now.

We got 4th place this year. I miss playing already! I still work out as much as I can in off season. Except that for now cs will take a lot of my time.

Malystryx: You mentioned a circus...?

Lidy: It was not a circus with animals and ladies with beards kind of circus. It was more like gymnastics. I could do somersaults on the trampoline, walk on my hands, juggle, etc. I had my own trapeze solo too. It was a while ago though, I don't know if I can still do all that stuff!

Malystryx: Shame! So would you consider yourself a tom girl, or a girly girl?

Lidy: I don't consider myself a tom girl at all. I think I'm a girly girl! But I grew up hanging out with my brother and his guy friends playing hockey and sports all the time.

I was part of a circus for 8 years when I was young too and I'm also the only girl in my family. I only have guy cousins! So, all my life, I was with guys. It didn't make me a tom boy though! Most of my good friends now are guys too.

I just love sports and competition. I think it just made me stronger as a person. Actually im not sure, haha, now that i think about it I guess I am a tom girl...

Malystryx:But do you spend ages getting ready, love pink, gossip ...

Lidy: Yes, I do take a long time to get ready. I usually wake up early so that I don't look tired when I go to class! I do love pink. I just got a cute pink phone last weekend And gossip... who doesnt like gossip? I enjoy reading Perez Hilton's gossip blog on celebrities everyday! Do you guys know him in Europe?

Malystryx: Haha I can not say I've had the pleasure, well let's call you 50/50, the best of both worlds. You said you have alot of male friends, do they sulk if you beat them at gaming or sports?

LidY: No, Not many play cs though. I usually just show them how good I am, They know they have no chance in beating me. Some of them want to learn and start to play cause they think it is really cool.

At sports my friends are usually better than me. I play basketball with them, well I'm pretty short for a basketball player, so they usually beat me and I'm the one who gets really sad.

Malystryx: Right ok your lucky then! Are you a "gamer" or just a cs player? Do you play any other games?

Lidy: I am a gamer. I've always played games on consoles like playstation & nintendo64 in the past.

I kind of stopped and focused on counter-strike. I also got addicted to WoW a while ago, unfortunately! I stopped after the expenasion pack came out because I did not want to level up to 70!

I miss playing it though but it usually takes a lot of my time, which I dont have a lot during school, as well as homework and basketball practice! Oh yea and with cs practice also.

My brother has an xbox 360 and whenever I go to his place, we play. Its unfortunate he moved out I cant play it whenever I want. But for now, I wanna concentrate on CS only. I want to win and get better.

Malystryx: ok lets get back to counter-strike, you've had a little experience at LAN events already you said? What LAns have you been at and how did they go?

Lidy: I've been to many local lans with the girls team I talked to you about from when I started playing, mainly just for fun though. Then we kind of went our seperate ways. I joined a team called Burntpink and we travelled together to New Jersey and placed second at a tournament there.

Then we got invited to ESWC 2006 where we placed 9th-12th. It was our first international event and I think we were not quite ready and very nervous. We won the ESWC Canada qualifiers in 2007 which allowed us to travel to Paris once again.

We actually did very well but not good enough to go through and placed 9th-12th again. We beat Ladies from Brazil, who were Top seed in our group and we had some pretty close matches. To be honest there is only one main LAN tournament close to where I live and its only once a year. I do not get to LAN as much as I would like to unfortunately.

Malystryx: So do you have any favourite players in CS, male or female? Do you watch demos, and are there any tricks you learnt from a specific player?

Lidy: I dont know much about the european cs scene. So my favorite players are Americans.

Ediz "goodfornothing" Basol is my favorite male player right now. He's helped me a lot with cs and he's a great strat caller/maker.

He plays for x3o, probably the best team in the US right now and he leads his team to many victories. I have the chance to spectate their scrims sometimes and watch hltv of their matches.

I also got the chance to be friends with the whole team too so I play with them a lot and learn from them. Everyone is excited that I finally got on a good team and everyone wants to help by giving me tips and tricks.

My favorite female player is Alice (SK.ali), she's been playing for a long time and played on the best teams and won two ESWC gold medals. I also admire her as a strat caller as well as she's really smart. She spends too much time writing strats during her math class though..

Malystryx: Sorry hang on, during her maths class? Are you in the same class, do you have proof?

Lidy:No, she just told us thats what she does haha instead of listening in class! Im really happy I get to play with her now.

She knows the game well, calls the right strats at the right time and she has helped me already in game.

Malystryx: can you be more specific with what she helped you with?

Lidy: I mean, I was on EG which was pretty much a mix when we played. SK is definately more professional and its a big improvement for me. Our strats are better, teamwork is better.

Malystryx: Pretty much a mix... ?

That's what it felt like playing with EG, ali showed me how to communicate in game, call everything I see, trust my teammates, use my teammates, help each other, have each other's backs.

SK.ladies have a different play style. On my other team I was pretty much on my own, everyone was doing their own thing.

SK also have an agressive playstyle. Ali teaches me how to not be scared and be more confident.

Malystryx: how often do you train with the other SK.ladies now, do you use ventrilo, play public, mixes etc.. or play other teams as practise?

Lidy: We practice 4 days a week now that everyone is done with school and that Christine has her internet back and yes we use ventrilo.

Outside of practice, everyone plays a lot mixes and plays on ESEA. I usually play on deathmatch servers to warm up. I never go to public servers. When we practice, we play guys teams most of the time.

Malystryx: Friendly games or do the guys get intense and aggressive?

Lidy: We usually try to find the best teams to play against. We play intense and serious all the time, but when the guys are losing, they usually start using bad guns, shotguns and stop trying so that they can use it as an excuse for losing. They think we are going to be bad since we're girls.

Malystryx: So what are the plans for you guys for the next few months?

Lidy: We are gonna continue to practice hard for the next couple of weeks. Jso and I, well especially me, are pretty new on the team.

We are bootcamping in late June and attending a tournament in Maryland, USA. We are then going to bootcamp some more in Germany and get ready for ESWC Masters in Paris in early July.

We might go to Vancouver, Canada for another tournament in early August. Then, we will fly to Los Angeles to bootcamp and get ready for ESWC Grand Finals at the end of August in San Jose.

I am not sure if I am allowed to talk about our schedule though but pretty much a lot of practice, a lot of bootcamping, many tournaments, and a lot of travelling.

Malystryx: Thank you for the pleasure of this interview and good luck in the team ! Any shoutouts or last words?

Lidy: Shoutout to my new teammates Sk.Ladies Alice Jane Jso and Christine, EG.girls and Kabak. Thanks to everyone who support and help me.