LL: Time for League of Legends talk. You ready for this? Because everyone at GameZone plays a lot.
PH: I am ready!
LL: What’s your current ELO? I think I read it was 1355?
PH: That was actually season one. I asked my publicist to specify that, because I haven’t had time to play in the second season. I mean, I played a few ranked games in duo-queue with a couple of my friends occasionally, but I am at 1198 right now. I think that’s what my ELO is at.
LL: Yea, I’m stuck in ELO hell too.
PH: Yup, that’s why it’s called ELO hell. I’d say I prefer playing Teemo, but really I do whatever it is my team needs. I’m never one of those people that go ‘um, mid or I feed.’ Someone will call top and I mid. I can AD carry. I can jungle… a little bit. I really don’t like jungle because I’m not that good at it. [laughs] But I can play basically everything except for jungle. I own ALMOST all characters. And I can play Cassiopeia. I’m good with Morgana. Back before Katarina had that whole rework, she was one of my favorites. But Teemo’s had such a special spot in my heart. I love cute stuff, so…
Even Pamela would agree that Mega Man just needs to get off the damn moon!
LL: You have any skins for Teemo?
PH: Yea, I love Teemo. I put in a lot of money for RP for the Teemo skins. I got the Legendary, the Panda — I have them all except the Recon Teemo skin. I never liked where they just color him different.
LL: Yea, Reddit was all bent out of shape when they found out you love Teemo.
PH: Yea, everybody loves to hate Teemo. I mean, when you have a Teemo on your team, you’re like ‘Yea. I’ve got those shrooms. I got this little annoying guy that’s just gonna piss off the enemy team.’ But when it’s the enemy team, they’re like ‘F*ck you Teemo.’ I always get it without even doing anything. I’m an AP hybrid. I’m not an AD carry by any means. Because of the way I build Teemo, I get a lot of crap. Everyone loves to hate Teemo, even if I’m 17-1-28, I’ll still get crap for being Teemo.
LL: Have you thought about live-streaming your games?
PH: Actually, I have. I have an account set up on Twitch.tv, but I have to work things out through Playboy and make sure that’s okay. But I will hopefully have a stream up really soon.
LL: Awesome. Do you follow any high-ELO player or teams? And do you have any favorites?
PH: With the World Championship coming up pretty soon, I like to watch a lot of the promoted streams that are on League of Legends. I don’t go watching streams on Twitch.tv a lot. I love Team SoloMid. I’m a huge Team SoloMid fan.
LL: You think they’re going to win?
PH: Ya know what, it’s a tough call. They’ve had such good team play and team comps, and they work so well together, but League of Legends is such a big game that there are always good teams making their way up the ranks. I’ll be rooting for Team SoloMid, but you never know. There could be some team that comes up underneath and just takes them out. But I’ll root for them!
LL: Before we move on with a couple of more questions, I wanted to ask if you could do your best Teemo impression.
PH: Oh, hold on… [in Teemo voice] Size doesn’t mean everything.
LL: That’s really good actually!
PH: Ugh… [Sounds embarrassed]
LL: It’s better than I can do. I can only do Miss Piggy, and no one likes that.
PH: Yea, I’ve played Teemo so much, yea, he’s my guy.
LL: I was wondering, what’s the worst pick-up line you’ve heard from a gamer? I’m sure you must get them when you’re playing and people find out who you are.
PH: I’ve had a guy tell me that I should be honored that he’s hitting on me because of how good of a ‘insert gamer here’ he is. Like, this is my ELO. This is my Arena Rating in World of Warcraft. You should be honored that I’m hitting on you kind of thing. Like, I’m this big crazy gamer, and none of him as a person comes up. It’s just him being cocky in games.
Pamela's not above taking time off from her modeling and helping Optimus Prime save the world… or just rock a sweet pose
LL: That totally works, right?
PH: WELL… not really. I’ve never met a girl gamer that likes a guy being cocky, because women want the playing field to be even. We wish that guys actually saw us as a threat. It’s either the guys that are like ‘girls don’t play video games’ or the guys that are like ‘Oh, show me your tits.’ It’s either one end of the spectrum or the other. There’s never a fair in-between except for a few cases.
LL: Really fast, is there anything you want to say to your fans or people out there that doubt your credibility? Or anything you want them to know?
PH: Well, the whole reason I’m getting this notoriety is because of my issue, and if they haven’t seen my issue, to pick up a copy of this month’s Playboy and check it out. Follow me on Twitter; I do respond to personal messages and tweets and private messages on Facebook. If they have questions about my gaming — I don’t want to say that I’m all about proving myself, but when people have questions, like they think they’re going to stump me with ‘how many sequences are there in the Deathwing encounter?’ Questions like that that I wouldn’t know off the top of my head if I wasn’t a gamer. I can prove myself. I can, and I will. If you doubt me, find me. Come on.
Rockin that resto druid like nobody's business
LL: Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to speak with us. Good luck on all your future endeavors and congrats on being Miss October, that’s a big deal. So congratulations on that!
PH: Thank you!
You can follow Miss October Pamela Horton on Twitter @PamelaHorton13 and like her on Facebook and see her in Playboy's October issue. You can also visit her Etsy store: OriginalsByPamela
You can follow Movies and Culture Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at [email protected]
A couple of days ago, we reported that Playboy's Miss October Pamela Horton was a gamer and plays League of Legends. It was reported by Kotaku and other gaming sites, as well. I had the pleasure of interviewing Pamela Horton. In an interview that lasted over 20 minutes, I learned that she is, in fact, the real deal. When it comes to games — like LoL and World of Warcraft — she is just like all of us. She's a gamer. A gamer that happens to have the good fortune to grace the cover of Playboy. We were able to talk about her hobbies, how she feels about the Kotaku article and gamers' reactions to her, World of Warcraft, and her love of Teemo.
Lance Liebl: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak to us today. I really appreciate it.
Pamela Horton: Oh, my pleasure!
LL: So, you’re from Kansas. You’re not a Kansas State fan, right? Because I’m a Miami Hurricanes fan, and that didn’t go so well…
PH: Actually, I was born and raised in Los Angeles and now I live in Kansas, but I’ve actually never really been big into sports. I get asked a lot whether I prefer KU or K-State, and I don’t really prefer either.
LL: So let’s get to know you a little. I read on your Facebook page that you want to get your Masters in Art Therapy in social and child services?
PH: That was actually my secondary plan, because I thought my first career goal was unobtainable. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and now I’ve got the who you know. So, I’m trying to pursue a career in the gaming field. I’d like to be a character designer for, basically, any video game company. That was my first choice, and art therapy was my second choice, and I’m not really sure I can get certified as a playmate [laughs].
LL: Well, I guess that plays off of your love of drawing and painting. So you draw and paint characters?
PH: I do! I usually go in the cartoony direction; I can do realistic, but most of the time it ends up being cartoony.
Pamela <3s Pandas
LL: Where can we see some of these?
PH: I have a deviant art, but I’m so nervous about… you know… ugh… it’s really hard to say here’s my artwork to see because there’s already a lot of people that are critiquing me for my gaming skills, and I really don’t believe that art should be judged. There’s a lot of people that could be really negative and really judgmental, and I’m sure I’m ready for that.
LL: Also, do you make crafts, as well? Because I read you have an Etsy store?
PH: Yea, I do! The only thing that’s really up on there are these t-shirts that I design. I have these characters called doodle blobs, and they’ve got a little doodle blob on there and they say “Nerds need love too.”
LL: My wife will kill me if I don’t ask the name of your Etsy store.
PH: It’s “Originals by Pamela.”
LL: I also read that you’re into comics. Do you have any favorites?
PH: My personal favorite comic book series is the Phoenix – Endsong Marvel X-Men series. The art for the entire comic is done by Greg Land, and he is my absolute favorite graphic novel artist. It’s my favorite series, not only just for the story, but the artwork is phenomenal. It’s a hardcover graphic novel and it’s just amazing.
LL: So, now for gaming! The press release about you has gotten kind of a mixed reaction on Reddit about you being a model or someone who’s attractive that plays video games. Are you familiar with the site “Kotaku?”
PH: Yea, I actually read that article too.
Pamela also <3s Theatrhythm
LL: Yea, they made it seem like you were faking it to be popular in the gaming community. What would you like to say to people that doubt that you’re a real gamer?
PH: I always let my gaming speak for itself. For the most part, I have public accounts on games like World of Warcraft and League of Legends. And I get a lot of people that say I’m not a gamer because, one: I’m attractive, two: I play too many mainstream games. I think that if you like gaming, you play what you enjoy. You don’t have to prove yourself; you’re doing it for fun.
There’s such a stigma out there for women in gaming that I always have to prove myself. I feel that that’s not necessary. Gaming is for fun. I am who I am, and that’s just something I love doing. I actually posted a picture on my Twitter and Facebook fan page that haters are gonna hate.
LL: It’s funny because Aisha Tyler hosted the Ubisoft Press Conference at E3, and she also got hated on because there is this elitist attitude in the gaming community towards women. Have you gotten mostly positive responses, or has it been a lot of negative regarding you being a gamer AND Miss October?
PH: In the media, everyone’s been really excited about meeting me and wanting to interview me to see if I’m the real thing. But when it comes to gaming in general, without being a playmate, I get a lot of crap for being a woman. I’ll be in-game and have character names that aren’t feminine, but obviously a girl picked the name. Like in League of Legends, if I see someone talking crap to their teammates or enemy players, I’ll say like ‘please be polite, everyone’s just having fun,’ and they’ll be like, ‘get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich.’
Not that that really matters, but I got crap as a woman before I was a Playmate. Now adding on top of that, I have to prove myself even more.
Pam and the Hef!
LL: Do you play video games against any other Playmates?
PH: Yea, Amelia Talon is Miss June of this year. She is into World of Warcraft and Diablo III. I have her on my Real ID friends list. We haven’t actually played together yet because we have such busy schedules. The stars don’t align and allow us to play together.
LL: How are you liking Mists of Pandaria?
PH: Actually, I got Realm first herbalist. I trained really hard in the beta for it and helped someone on my server get Realm first inscription and alchemist. I don’t wanna say I’m hardcore, but I waited five hours in line for the release, like old school. I didn’t get the digital deluxe pack, because there’s some ambiance to waiting in line outside of a game store where it’s either cold or warm, you got a chair, you got a soda, ya know. And I get home and play Mists of Pandaria, and having already played the beta, I knew what to expect, but I was still floored as to how beautiful the game was put together — the music, the characters. I was very impressed.
Pamela enjoys a healthy dose of WoW, if by healthy you mean having almost every class at level 85
LL: What class do you play?
PH: To be perfectly honest, I play all of them on both factions. Not that this means anything now that the cap is 90, but I have almost every class at level 85. I like to say that my main is my druid. Right now I’m a resto-feral kitty druid. Now I don’t have to clarify, cause there’s no feral tank druids anymore, there’s guardian druids — ever since they redid the talents in the last patch.
I used to be two feral specs — one for PVP and one for PVE. Now that they’re basically the same specs with the new talent system, I picked up resto again because I’ve always been a healer.
Continue to Page Two, where we talk about League of Legends.
