Ricki Ortiz, also known as HelloKittyRicki, is an American professional
fighting game
The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...
player specializing in the ''
Marvel vs. Capcom
is a series of Crossover (fiction), crossover fighting games developed and published by Capcom, featuring characters from their video game franchises and comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series originated as coin-operated arca ...
'' and ''
Street Fighter
is a Media mix, Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. Street Fighter 1, The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by List of Street Fighter video games, six other ma ...
'' series. Ortiz joined the
fighting game community
Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...
in the early 2000s and has since consistently ranked highly in high-profile tournaments.
Early life
In an interview, Ortiz described her childhood as "normal and relaxed." She was raised by an engineer and a
metalworker
Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...
; her grandmother
babysat her while her parents worked. Ortiz first came in contact with fighting games when her father brought her to a
Golfland Entertainment Center in
Milpitas, California
Milpitas (Spanish for or little cornfields) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, part of Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, it is bordered by San Jose, California, S ...
. By the time Ortiz reached middle school, she spent time at the local arcade almost every day after school.
Career
Ricki Ortiz left the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
for the first time in her life in 2001 in order to compete in a major tournament in Texas, following advice of her "friend and mentor"
John Choi. After graduating high school, Ortiz moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in order to experience the local
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game
** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware
** Arcad ...
scene. Ortiz first competed at the
Evolution Championship Series
The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an American annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely Open (sport), open and use the Double-elimination tournament, double elimina ...
in 2003 and has consistently ranked highly since playing games such as ''
Marvel vs Capcom 2'', ''
Street Fighter III: Third Strike'', ''
Capcom vs SNK 2'', ''
Street Fighter IV
is a 2008 fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom. It was the first original main entry in the series since '' Street Fighter III'' in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years. Designed for the Taito Type X2 arcade hardware, ...
'', and ''
Street Fighter V
''Street Fighter V'' is a 2016 fighting game developed by Capcom, Dimps and Taito and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, Windows. The major follow-up to ''Street Fighter IV'' (2008) as part of Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' ...
''.
In 2010, Ricki Ortiz placed second in the Evolution ''Super Street Fighter IV'' tournament. In 2016, Ortiz came in second in the
2016 Capcom Cup, losing only to
Du "NuckleDu" Dang in the finale and winning US$60,000 in the process. Prior to this event, Ortiz trained two and a half weeks straight with
Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez, though she did note that her practice schedule throughout the rest of the 2016 season was less than ideal.
During the
2017 Capcom Pro Tour, Ortiz stopped playing ''Street Fighter'' for several months and was not nearly as active as in past years. However, after NuckleDu pulled out of the
2017 Capcom Cup, Capcom offered his auto-qualification to Ortiz as the runner up of the 2016 Cup, which she accepted. Ortiz lost to
Tokido
, better known as Tokido, is a Japanese fighting game player who plays the '' King of Fighters'' and ''Street Fighter'' franchises. He is known for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including '' ...
in the first round of the tournament.
Style
Ortiz prefers the ''
Marvel vs. Capcom
is a series of Crossover (fiction), crossover fighting games developed and published by Capcom, featuring characters from their video game franchises and comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series originated as coin-operated arca ...
'' franchise over other fighting game series, and has found herself needing to juggle it and the more popular ''Street Fighter'' franchise. In an interview with ''
Yahoo!
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
'', Ortiz stated that she is not comfortable playing
online matches due to the inherent
lag
Lag, or similar, may refer to:
Lag
* Łąg, Poland
* Lag (company), a French guitar maker
* Lag (cue sports), a brief pre-game competition to determine which player will go first
* Latency (engineering), a slower response time in computing, co ...
. She described playing online as being "like I'm playing blind almost, because you're taking my best attributes away."
Ortiz's ''Street Fighter''
character of choice had been
Chun-Li
Chun-Li (; Japanese: , Hepburn: ) is a character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' video game series. She first appeared in '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' in 1991 and is the first female playable character to appear in a fighting game t ...
since she first played the game at nine years old. In an interview with ''ESPN'', Ortiz stated that "
hun-Li isthe one who makes the game fun for me," and that she had great difficulty switching to a different character when Chun-Li was
nerfed in 2017.
Personal life
Assigned male at birth
Sex assignment (also known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex, typically made at birth based on an examination of the baby's external genitalia by a healthcare provider such as a midwife, nurse, or physician. In the v ...
, Ricki Ortiz came out as a homosexual man in 2003, though she noted later that it "didn't feel right". In 2009, Ortiz came out as transgender, noting that ''
RuPaul's Drag Race
''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the Drag Race (franchise), ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder (company), World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, ...
'' helped with this. By 2012,
depression affected Ortiz's fighting game career, though her mental state improved after reconnecting with an old friend and taking advantage of the resources and support groups available. In 2014, Ortiz started
transitioning.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortiz, Ricki
Living people
American esports players
Evil Geniuses players
Fighting game players
Transgender sportswomen
American transgender women
LGBTQ people from the San Francisco Bay Area
Women esports players
American transgender sportspeople
LGBTQ esports players
1991 births