These days, plenty of people get into gaming thanks to the influence of a parent, but not many can say their first steps toward becoming a fighting game phenom began pre-birth.
"Even before I was born, my mom used to say when I was in her tummy, I'd kick when I'd hear my dad playing Tekken 1," says Jeannail Carter, who goes by the tag Cuddle_Core. "The way I play now—I'm so audio-based, and my dad is the reason, sharing the love of gaming with him."
She grew to love the fighting game genre and became a perfect Player 2 for her father, Angelo, but that didn't mean he was gifting her any victories. "Naturally, as a kid, I would just kind of mess around with buttons," says Carter, recalling her dad's clear advice after losing to him yet again: "'If you want to beat me, you gotta go to practice.'"
With time and dedication, she grew better. Even still, the Chicago suburb of Romeoville, Illinois, wasn't known as a hotbed of competitive gaming excellence. But Carter's father saw her early ability and wanted to foster it. "I bought her a headset. That way she could play with other people," he says. "[When you're] just playing with your sister and you always beat her, you don't get any better. She started competing and playing with other people from around the country."
Carter loved games, but like most people, she didn't see a way into making it a career. She got a degree in illustration and played in local tournaments when possible. "I discovered I had a talent for it just by showing up to local events," she says. She took her licks like everyone does. She got beat, she learned, and she got better. "Ooh, I'm picking up on this stuff," she says as she recalls her "ah-ha" moment. "I'm beating people who used to beat me. I saw I had potential."
Progress came quickly after her college graduation in 2018. Mere months after her debut, she signed with Equinox Gaming before moving on to her current teams, Red Bull Gaming and Cloud9 Gaming. With first-place victories at tourneys including Defend the North, Texas Showdown, and Summer Jam, she put herself on the map as a player of note while finding time to intern for this very publication in 2020. Notching over 60 top-eight placements on the tournament circuit, Carter isn't content to sit back and let anything come to her. Her constant training regimen and impeccable preparedness have become a hallmark of her work in the arena.
Every pro is looking for an edge, though. With Alienware's new Alienware x16 gaming laptop powered by an Intel® Core™ i9 processor, Carter is able to keep her skills razor sharp. "Having a laptop like this positively affects my career because I'm on the go all the time. It's light and easy. This is something I can use always."
This Powerboost doesn't just provide Carter with a leg up, though. Her focus has always been on giving back to her community. She's a staunch advocate for mental health in esports, making a point to bring up her training with a mental health coach through Red Bull Gaming. She's streamed to raise over $10,000 for the 1,000 Dreams Fund, a nonprofit providing education grants to female high-school and college students. She's also served as a coach for XO Academy, helping develop the next generation of female esports stars. When asked about that next generation, she becomes reflective: "My success here shows that women like me, people like me are doing it. I'm a product of it, too. When you see people that look like you doing something, it gives [you] the bravery, the courage, to pursue it. People come up to me and they'll say, 'You're a role model to a lot of people, Cuddle,' and I'm like, I'm really making a difference."
For more information about Carter, follow her on Instagram or Twitch. If you're looking for a Powerboost to level up your training regimen, check out Alienware to see which upgrade is right for you.
