By David Stasiak
Special to The Tuscaloosa News
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 at 11:20 p.m.
When Luicelena Perez was 8 years old, she woke up on Christmas in her hometown of Naguanagua, Venezuela, and received a small gift from her mom. That $30 stocking stuffer gave birth to her life’s passion.
The gift was Nintendo’s Virtua Tennis for Sega. She spent hours playing as the pixelated pros.
“I remember that I started on the easy (playing) level,” Perez said. “At the end of it I was like, ‘I want harder. I’m so good at this.