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Alodia Gosiengfiao: How An Empress Builds Her Empire 

Alodia Gosiengfiao: How An Empress Builds Her Empire 

Brick by brick, Alodia Gosiengfiao proved that empires can be built through vision, hard work, and passion. She is a living embodiment that sprinkled love and devotion into her craft can turn it into something more brilliant. From casual cosplays and gaming, she is now building a gaming empire through Tier One Entertainment and Blacklist International.

Her devotion carried her to a stage built for empresses. Her struggle to fight for her advocacies opened the eyes of many. Eventually, the support she received led to her coronation. As an empress, she led her people not through arrogance or narcissism, but rather, through genuine care for the state of the community.

Alodia cosplaying as Leona from League of Legends for the Arcane Red Carpet |
Taken from her Instagram post, a photo by Jr Francisco

Play is work for Alodia. For years, she tirelessly breaks the notion that you can’t turn something you enjoy into a profession. Her advocacy and effort gave the gaming community a glimpse of light; hope that one day, everyone will be fully accepting of gamers and streamers who use their game mastery to entertain and give others a chance to unwind.

Alodia Gosiengfiao: How An Empress Builds Her Empire

Humble beginnings

As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It took leaders, manpower, resources, and lots of time before empires arise. Once it does, continuous effort keeps it standing. In history lessons, empires and civilizations are popular topics because each holds a unique story.

Alodia featuring GT7
Alodia featuring GT7, one of the first games she played with her family
on PlayStation | Photo from her Instagram post

The path has been paved for Alodia even before she came into the world. Her pregnant mother played Super Mario, thus exposing her to game sound and music, as Alodia recalled. As early as two years old, the cosplayer already finds herself crawling toward their family computer to play games like Bomberman and Pacman.

Sonic the Hedgehog, Prince of Persia, Warcraft, Battle Realms — she quickly listed the games she enjoyed playing and then proceeded on calling herself “ancient”. Nowadays, she enjoys DOTA 2, Mobile Legends, and Overwatch.

My love for video games pushed me to do cosplay. Me and my sister, we played a lot of Ragnarok Online. That was in 2003. Someone said there would be a launch and that there would be a costume competition. We’d just have to dress up as a character from the game.

Her face slightly scrunched up upon recalling the embarrassment of performing on the runway unprepared. It quickly turned into a smile when she mentioned that they enjoyed it even though they didn’t win. That moment ignited her passion for cosplay.

Judging local and international cosplay competitions became one of her first jobs. Afterward, despite her initial shyness and introversion, she started vlogging because it served as her “diary to look back on after a few years.”

Challenges and societal standards

In some cultures, an empress only meant being an emperor’s wife. Instead of being in a position of power, she serves as a decoration. Instead of rising in power, she receives the title because of an agreement to marry. It takes a long time to prove yourself when you are born female.

It takes a long time before others see your worth. Despite her expertise and experience, Alodia found rubbles blocking her path to the top. Building a gaming and entertainment empire needed a sturdy foundation, and maintaining it required support, both of which were not as strong at first.

Alodia as Horizon Forbidden West’s Aloy |
Taken from her Instagram post, a photo by Ashley Gosiengfiao

In today’s time, society expects the youth to be future engineers, scientists, lawyers, and “world-changers.” This makes it hard for other people who wish to go to unique industries to fit in. For the longest time, picking your profession turned into a question of passion or practicality.

For Alodia, her uniqueness turned into a double-edged sword. While she enjoyed her little world huddled up with her favorite things, people around her, including her mother, found it weird.

She would observe her peers’ daughters going to soirees. But I’m not interested in those because my Saturdays were spent with guild wars. I told her I can’t attend parties because my guild needs me. I was a wizard!

Giving up in-person social interactions to play at home made her mother wonder what was going on in her mind. Their failure to understand felt quite heavy for Alodia as she defended her stance.

Since my line of work wasn’t really considered a job by many, some thought of it as just playing games. But they didn’t know that it’s already a profession. It’s also like a 9 to 5 job because we had a streaming schedule, we have to maintain quality, we had to give it a full attention. Some people don’t understand everything behind that.

It made perfect sense because just like people who made content through movies, short videos, and the likes, game streams count as entertainment. Video game streamers take time building their set-up, perfecting their gameplay, and interacting with their community. Professional gamers undergo the same thing: their mastery and game sense provide hype and leisure for fans.

The preconceived notion that games shouldn’t be used as a profession did not stop Alodia from streaming DOTA 2 and interacting while wearing a pair of stylish cat ears headphones. In fact, it only fueled her desire to make society realize that gamers and hobbyists have more to offer.

Establishing her empire

Undoubtedly, an empress building her own empire can be difficult. But certain traits made her successful, which only means that anything is possible if you choose not to be defined by your struggles.

Taken from her Instagram post

Together with Tryke Gutierrez and Brian Lim, Alodia built an empire called Tier One Entertainment. As the “undisputed gaming and esports entertainment leader in South East Asia,” they serve as a destination for gaming talents. Inside, you’ll find a large stage filled with spotlights, all ready to be used for passionate gamers: both professionals and content creators.

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Alodia’s fame in the cosplay scene not just locally but also internationally helped her grow connections in gaming and media. Instead of using it for herself, she shared her platform with the community. Despite the setbacks, she persevered. Her enthusiasm emanated when she said,

Little by little, they started to understand because we are a growing community.

Today, they have two programs: Amplfy Academy built by streamers for streamers, and Ascend for teams and brands looking for a way into eSports.

The Empress and Her Empire

Her empire is built from layers of passion, devotion, and perseverance. Even though it threatens to crumble from time to time, her belief, as well as her support system, keeps it strong. An empress in the making, Alodia Gosiengfiao’s name reaches places not just because of cosplay and games. Her involvement as Tier One Entertainment‘s co-founder allowed her to venture deeper and farther into the industry.

Taken from her Instagram post |
A photo by Magic Liwanag

TechNode Global named her the Startup Leader of the Year. Additionally, the same organization listed her as one of Southeast Asia’s top 50 rising women in tech last 2021.

Opportunities like these don’t come often so I didn’t want to waste them. I wanted to be able to tell myself that at least I tried.

But even with her recent success and accomplishments, Alodia remains humble. In an Instagram post, she wrote,

Beneath all the glam is still a geek who just likes dressing up as her favorite video game character.

Her resources allowed her to pursue her love for games. Instead of proudly wearing the crown she rightfully deserves, Alodia Gosiengfiao offers it to the next generation of gamers who can further evolve the scene.

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