Asian Pacific American newspaper, Pacific Citizen, interviews Ecstacy in depth about her Guitar Hero experiences.

“P.C.: What made you want to set a world record?

Leung: I thought it was really cool and something that if I ever had that chance that I would jump on. When Guinness contacted me last fall I immediately said ‘yes’ and started practicing.

The first week I started practicing [laughs] I think seven to nine hours. I was so tired. My wrist was aching. But I got into the practice and started playing the song better and better. Eventually I set my score.

Guinness World Record holder Annie "Ecstacy" Leung

P.C.: How does an everyday gamer transition to a pro ready for competitions?

Leung: Well, I would say if you’re playing on ‘expert’ and if you’re playing all the difficult songs and you’re hitting either 100 percent or 99 percent, then I would start thinking about going into competitions.

You can just search either on the web, or you could go to the Guitar Hero community forum to look up different tournaments or anything that’s going on in the area. Enter into that and see how you do.

P.C.: Do you ever get tired of gaming?

Leung: Oh, absolutely. Sometimes like before a competition I will practice two weeks or a few weeks in advance and just play every day for a couple of hours. After my competition, I’m so worn out I don’t touch the game for maybe a month or two months, unless there’s another event coming up.

I notice that when I do take a break and come back into the game I actually play better. I notice that I hit sections of a song that I could never do before. ”

Read full interview here.

The full interview from Guinness World Records about Annie’s Guitar Hero 3 record is now available on their gaming news section. Here are some highlights:

GWR: Which do you prefer the competition side of gaming or the performance aspect? Or do you like both?

AL: I love doing both sides. I love the competitions because it really solidifies my position in the community in my rankings. But I love the performance because I can dress up and have fun and just interact with my fans and be more relaxed around them.

GWR:  So when did you realise that you were good enough to compete professionally, and what made you decide to go for the record?

AL: I think actually in the first year of playing I started getting really high scores on songs that I never thought I could. I started comparing my scores to all the top players in the community. When I saw that I was beating their scores I started entering into competitions like World Cyber Games and that’s when I first won my first tournament. So my first year.

Read full interview here.