Rachel Olsen-Cooper

05/06/2024

Hi everyone! It's been a while. A lot has been going on behind the scenes, but I wanted to share with you all an amazing interview I had the privilege to do over the weekend.

I had the opportunity to sit down with fighting game legend Justin Wong. For those who are unsure of who he is, you may know about the moment that made him famous.

Look up EVO Moment 37 on YouTube. While he was ultimately on the losing end of this battle, the moment cemented him into history as one of the greats.

Please check out this interview. This was an exclusive to me and me only. I even had the PR rep from DreamHack asking how I got this interview. My good friend Instill was able to orchestrate this for me and I will forever be grateful 🙏

An exclusive interview with the fighting game legend Video courtesy of EVO Championship Youtube Street Fighter 6 officially celebrated its first birthday on June 2, and they did so in grand style w…

05/06/2024

We had the absolute privilege to talk with on Sunday at . Look for the article at my link in bio! I'll also have it on my Threads!

02/05/2024

We're at with all weekend! Follow us for photos and check out the link in bio for all the socials where you'll be able to find updates!

14/03/2024

Hello everyone! I'm back! The end of January and the entire month of February were incredibly rough for a variety of reasons. But I'm happy to say that my thesis is completed and I graduated this past Friday with my master's degree!

And now, it's time to write, except I get to do it on my own terms.

First up - this past Sunday was the Oscar's, and it came with a bit of controversy from an unlikely source. While Ludwig Göransson accepted his Oscar for the score of Oppenheimer, he thanked his parents for giving him instruments instead of video games.

This obviously didn't sit well with the gaming community. But, why do we have to choose? Can't we do both?

https://thespawnroom.net/2024/03/13/video-games-music-and-why-its-okay-to-do-both/

Image via GameRant via Nintendo

29/01/2024

Women in and have been facing an uphill climb since the dawn of video games. Thanks to unfortunate events like and voice chat toxicity, many women have been turned away from competing professionally. Over the last few years, we've seen a change in the space, but we still have a lot of room to grow.

Read about the stories of women who are trying to make gaming an esports a more inclusive space for women and marginalized genders. Because gaming is for everyone.

How the gaming community can use their voices to create a more inclusive industry In early 2020, COVID-19 had infiltrated the US and was affecting the lives of many, even if they weren’t infected. …

29/01/2024

Only a few hours remaining! Capstone launches officially on my website at 3am cdt. A post will be here at 7am cdt. I really hope that you all take the time out of your busy days to take in the content I created.

So many incredible women helped make this project a success and I don't want their efforts to be in vein. I want their stories to be heard by the masses!

26/01/2024

On Tuesday, teamliquidbr made history, qualifiying for the VCT Challengers Brazil closed qualifier. Let's talk about it. Because, as Sari Kitelyn, the executive director of the Full Sail Armada says in our interview for my project launching on Monday, "talk without action is just noise."

I was originally going to add a snippet about this in my capstone article. I still am, but I became incredibly upset by the lack of coverage over Game Changers roster qualifying in what is normally a male dominated tournament. So I made my own coverage.

For those not familiar, Valorant Game Changers is an all female/marginalized gender league, but they're not limited to just playing in Game Changers. They can also try and qualify into the VCT Challengers, which is the Tier 2 version of the VCT Champions.

Photo credit on X Team Liquid Brazil has been a dominate force in Riot’s Valorant Game Changers league. Last year, they won both stages of Game Changers Brazil, leading them to the Wo…

23/01/2024

Just days away from the launch of my project! How about a title reveal? 👀

Women in Esports Fight Sexism and Toxicity through Action and Representation

Project launches January 29th, stay tuned for more previews.

In the meantime, it's time for vote for The GameHERs awards! http://thegamehers.com/awards-2024 Again I'm up for Diversity Advocate, Journalist, and Rising Star of the year! You can vote for me in each category, but only once. Just look for my name and click the heart! Super simple!

Thank you everyone for your support!

15/01/2024

I have a ridiculous amount of tabs open preparing the article for my Capstone project. Is this a journalist thing? Or a me thing?

Either way, it's coming together! Can't wait to share what I learned about some amazing women in the esports industry!

If you know anyone that wants to learn more about women in esports and the fight for diversity, make sure to invite them to the page! Appreciate everyone's support 🤩

09/01/2024

Hi everyone! A few weeks ago I share a post about nominations for some awards called the*gamehers awards. It's their 4th year running and an awards show for women and marginalized genders in the gaming industry for a variety of things.

Well, I wasn't nominated for two awards. I was nominated for THREE!!! the third was a complete surprise.

Once I have more information about voting I'll post it! (I purpled out my last name cause I was posting it on Twitter lol)

17/12/2023

Hey everyone! I'm hoping you all could do me a huge solid and head over to the*gameHERS awards and toss a nomination in for me for Rising Star and Journalist! I'm hoping that even having a nomination would bring more visibility to my platform and help me land a solid job in the industry.

Instructions: follow the link, in the middle of the page you'll see "nominations" and a plus sign. Click the plus sign so it changes to the number 2, then click register. It'll ask for your info, then it should take you to a new page. You should see 2 nomination forms open on the left. Fill one out for Rising Star, and the other for Journalist. In the area where it says Twitter user name, put crunknwj

Let me know if you have any issues! I really appreciate the support!

AWARDS & DESCRIPTIONS faq STAY TUNED! voting stagecoming soon! MORE INFO PARTNERSHIPS this awards season is made possible by our amazing partners

10/12/2023

When I was working on this video, I had three people all ask me questions about gaming for their kids. This video was already coming together, so I knew it was meant to be and the direction I wanted to take!

Find out why The Spawn Room is your place for gaming and esports content and education!

Years of playing video games, working for companies that sell video games, and working for an esports team for the last five years has led to this moment. Make The Spawn Room one of your favorite s…

03/12/2023

My new about me video. Updated the about me section of my site a little bit too, as my vision of my beat changed throughout the program.

http://thespawnroom.net/about

29/11/2023

Hi everyone! Thanks again for joining the page. I'm going to start posting up some of my articles starting with these two. These were some of my early articles talking about the early days of gaming, as well as some statistics about how gaming can actually do some good.

I'll have an intro video about me by the end of the week, but the about me page on my site gives some great info as well! Happy reading!

https://thespawnroom.net/2023/05/22/video-games-not-just-for-nerds-anymore/

https://thespawnroom.net/2023/07/08/gaming-does-good/

25/11/2023

Hello everyone! Thank you for joining me on this journey. I appreciate you all liking my page and I hope to show off some of the work I've already done, as well as upcoming projects.

I have a variety of goals with this page.

1. Putting all of my articles, photos, and videos in to one place for you all to digest easily.
2. Show of what I couldn't share originally. Mostly photos that never made it to the article.
3. Grow my network.

And #3 is where you all come in! I would love it if you have any friends who are into gaming, or if you or your friends/family have children who might be into gaming but you/they are scratching their heads, that you share this page with them.

I've given myself a goal of 10 new followers by December 31st that are NOT already apart of my social/family circle. So if I put up a post, it would be wonderful if you can share it with your own Facebook to help me grow!

I'm going to have the first article up soon, so be on the lookout :)