cont-lauren-bleszinski

BIOGRAPHY

My name is Lauren “L337Lauren” Bleszinski. I grew up in the hot state of Louisiana in a town called Mandeville. No-one seems to know where that is, but it’s right outside the New Orleans area.

I’ve started gaming around age 5. Having a twin brother, anything he did or gifts he received I needed to play with them too. We got a hand-me-down NES for our birthday and then we were hooked ever since. From console to console video games kept growing on me. I’ve always considered myself mostly a gamer. Though, I did do other kid things like roller blading, catching Pokemon, painting, scoring goals in soccer, reading comics, having my Barbie Dolls kiss my brother’s G.I. Joes, enjoying our crazy laser tag days, etc.

Around age 10-12 I got into computer gaming with the games Monster Truck Madness, Tarzan, The Oregon Trail, and Army Men Online. I honestly didn’t realize that girls in the gaming world were a rarity at that time until around age 14, when I started going to a local LAN center to play with friends. That’s where I began becoming competitive with games.

Throughout the years I’ve competed in games such as Counter-Strike, Guitar Hero, UT2k4, Quakelive, Day of Defeat, Dead or Alive 4, & other titles for various competitions.

After graduating high school I went to college for Computer Animation & Game Design at ITT Technical Institute. While doing that I worked as an Assistant Manager for EBGames/Gamestop for 3 years. The job was just perfect for me as a college student because without spending a dime I could constantly rent out any game for free and get a taste of it! It also kept me up to date with all games and consoles that were coming out.

In 2008 I moved to Mesquite, Texas to work at id Software as a Production Assistant/Build Manager. Total dream job for any gamer! I worked on creating and monitoring a build system for the games Rage & Doom 4. After working there for little over a year I had some personal life changes and ended up moving to Raleigh, NC and currently playing games for a living while traveling to events all year with my co-op buddy for life, CliffyB.