At Level Winner, our commitment to delivering in-depth and insightful mobile game guides is fueled by the expertise and passion of our distinguished editorial team. Behind each meticulously crafted article lies a team of seasoned professionals dedicated to elevating your mobile gaming experience.
Andrew Lanot
Prior to joining the Level Winner team in 2021, Andrew was a fitness coach and a former journalist. He worked as TV reporter in a state-ran network in the Philippines. Apart from that, he has years of experience as a sportswriter, covering many sporting events. He eventually focused on combat sports when he got affiliated with global MMA promotion, One Championship, in 2013.
Before developing any muscles for lifting or his writing skills, he became a gamer first. The evidence is his first-ever investment as a kid: a Sega Mega Drive!
Gaming officially sneaked its way into his career path (or the other way around) when he became the full-time fitness coach of the biggest esports talent agency in Asia, Tier One Entertainment. Speaking of sneak, he is into genres where stealth is of prime importance; in particular, the Hitman and Commandos franchises.
He also loves MOBA and RTS games which explains his team player nature and his drive to offer tactical instructions which can be seen in his articles.
Charlie Panelle
Charlie Panelle started her journey with video games at a young age watching her parents play games on a SEGA console. As she grew older, she got introduced to the Playstation where she fell in love with titles like Final Fantasy XI, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and Tekken 3.
Video games always had a prominent role in her life. From watching gaming youtubers such as Jacksepticeye, CheesyPaninie, and Angry Video Game Nerd to taking an internship at a mobile game company and creating graphics for indie devs.
When it comes to mobile games, she has a love for hero collectors, point and click games, puzzle games, and time management simulations but has a great disdain for in-your-face jumpscare horror games.
However, she does make exceptions to slightly creepy but mysterious games that have an intriguing storyline and no jumpscares. Despite her preferences, she is always open to trying games outside of her comfort zone and learning something new.
Eli Manikan
Eli Manikan started his gaming journey thanks to a cousin needing to do chores in the middle of a game of Warcraft II. The gift of an NES on his 5th Christmas sealed his future, and he would spend many years squaring off against some of the console’s titans such as the entire Super Mario Brothers series, the first Contra (which he finished without the Konami code), and Life Force (the ported version of Salamander, and yes, without the Konami code too).
He moved to other consoles soon after such as the Game Boy – and Pokemon Blue, Yellow, and Gold – the SNES, and the Playstation 1, where he would dwell until the gift of a PC. Since then, he became a dedicated PC gamer thanks to MMORPGS like Ragnarok Online, a trend that’s mostly stopped in favor of trying to finish his massive Steam library.
These days, he enjoys roguelikes such as The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, sandbox games like Minecraft or Terraria, and 4X games such as Civilization VI and Age of Wonders 4, which help sate his delusions of grandeur.
Fred Santos
Fred Santos started tinkering with a computer even before he could talk. Just like every other kid born in the 90s, the first game he (probably) played on a PC was Minesweeper. This gateway game led him to appreciate PC gaming more than any other kind of medium or format.
He had a brief stint with a Game Boy and a PlayStation but he knew where his heart belonged to. Fred made it his goal to build his own rig and that dream came to fruition in mid-2021, during the video card shortage. He dubbed thee, “Black Rhino.”
For the past 10 years, Fred’s mainstay game has been Warframe. Though to avoid burnout, he also explores other first-person shooters or indie games. Besides Warframe, Fred is also currently playing Deep Rock Galactic and, to pass the time, Burger Shop 2.
Fred became part of the Level Winner team in late 2020. This allowed him to fuse his love of gaming and writing into something that he hopes assists fellow players. Game on!
Marc Robbins
A conqueror of realms and gacha game enthusiast. Born with a controller in his hands, he was already playing titles like Strider, VectorMan, and Ikari Warriors. Eventually, the Castlevania franchise shaped his taste in gaming but he also fell in love with the likes of Metal Slug and Contra.
Ultimately, RPGs became his favorite genre, having countless of hours in titles such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Dragon Age: Origins, Diablo 2, a few Final Fantasy titles, and two Breath of Fire games. Sometimes he really prefers to play on PC, but don’t tell anyone!
He’s powered by sushi, hamburgers, and green tea. When he isn’t busy chasing the next Gundam model kit, he writes for Level Winner. He lives with his wife and his army of fluffy cats and his bodyguard iguana.
Michael Vaccaria
Michael Vaccaria is a Gen Z with the insufferable attitude of a millennial and a boomer. This stems from the fact that he spent more time on online forums built in the mid-2000s rather than the social media apps kids flock to these days. Even so, this made him shift his attitude towards games with more clarity—and less of the glamour his peers do when it comes to it.
If you tell him what game you want to play, be ready for him to show you a Notion database of the games he has played or is interested in. While he might be good in competitive matches, he has given up trying to reach a higher rank (because, in his own words, “I get more out of a well-created game made by an artisan”). He plays for the sake of his friends.
Because of this, he also ends up in other genres you’d never expect him to be. From horror aficionado and FPS glorifier (blame Ultrakill) to cry-ugly-to Visual Novels. To say this man lives and breathes games is an understatement, as he also takes his time to create fun and improve himself at the art of reviewing. This, in turn, has made him take a gander at reviewing mobile games, as he is fascinated with the odd and bizarre ecosystem that has differentiated itself from the other norms. That isn’t exactly why he took the job, but he’s doing it regardless.
His first game is Super Mario on the NES, and his first authentic experience is Aveyond 2: Ean’s Quest. He has no specific ‘favorite’ games besides those he can classify as favorites from different genres. A list would suffice for it.
- Horror: Darkwood
- FPS: ULTRAKILL
- RPG: Final Fantasy Tactics
- Ludonarative: Inscryption
- Platformer: Bloodstained/Blasphemous
- Puzzle: Portal
And many more that you’d have to see for yourself…
And that’s all there is to this man. And now, he will explode. As he always does with his epilogues.
Oscar L. Schmidt
From the terrible hell portals on Phobos to the burning skies over Cascadia, Oscar has been playing games since before he could be counted as being old enough to do so, with the first game they can distinctly remember being Doom II on the PC.
Their favorite series of games bar none has been Ace Combat, of which he’d played both the Western release and the Project Nemo fan translation of Ace Combat 3, then Shattered Skies, Unsung War, Zero, X, and Skies Unknown. They’d also watched California get nuked multiple times over in Project Wingman and shot down kamikazes in Heroes of the Pacific.
Other than arcadey melodramatic air combat games, they’ve also played indie titles like Undertale, Terraria, Anarcute, and Cave Story. Games he typically plays with friends are mostly old RTS games, where he and his allies scream in terror watching their men die in horrific numbers in games such as Company of Heroes and Red Alert 2. And of course, on his phone, he prefers action games, historical war games, and gacha games with either war or cute characters, with the ones he liked most being Cookie Run Kingdom, Project Neural Cloud, Magic Rampage, Smash Legends, European War 6: 1914 and Terraria’s modern mobile port.
Oscar spends most of his off-work time committing various heresies against culinary propriety. Failing that, he also enjoys videos about things ranging from war history documentaries to gaming YouTubers.
Philip Reyes
Philip was initially exposed to the Atari 2600jr as a kid and has then since had a strong fascination for video games of all sorts. As a gamer, he dabbles into a wide array of game genres across every gaming platform he can get his hands on.
When he’s not hunting for trophies and achievements in current console, mobile, and PC titles, he spends time clearing a game from the collection of retro games in his Retroarch Library.
His all-time favorites include Double Dragon II (NES), Chrono Trigger (SNES), Streets of Rage 2 (Megadrive), Castlevania: SOTN (PS1), Monster Rancher 2 (PS1), Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1), Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast), Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (PS3), Pokemon Go (Mobile), Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (PS4/PC), Diablo III (PS3/PS4), and Farmville (Facebook) just to name a few from the ever-growing list.
Rachel Robbins
Crazy cat lady and puzzle addict. She loves playing puzzle games (of course), matching games, word games, fighting games, and anything that has a great story.
She spent many of her childhood summers playing old titles like Tetris, Snood, Plants vs. Zombies, Bookworm, Mad Caps, Street Fighter, and Threads of Fate, among many others. There was a time when she got so addicted to Candy Crush that it ultimately broke her first smartphone.
Outside of writing for Level Winner, she doodles on her notepad and reads some spicy manga. Rachel lives with her husband, his bodyguard iguana, and their army of furry felines that she’s training to cause a worldwide cat-astrophe.
Tim McNeil
Tim is a mobile gaming enthusiast, who writes mainly about Candywriter’s popular virtual life simulator BitLife for Level Winner. Having discovered BitLife early on, he was immediately drawn to the game’s immersive and realistic simulation of life.
With a keen eye for detail, Tim unearths the nuances and Easter eggs scattered throughout BitLife, delighting his readers with little-known secrets and quirky features. His ability to weave anecdotes and personal experiences into his articles creates a relatable and immersive reading experience that keeps fans eagerly anticipating his next piece.
When he’s not busy crafting captivating articles for Level Winner, Tim can often be found exploring new iOS and Android games or immersing himself in the vibrant world of cinema. He draws inspiration from various sources to fuel his creativity and deliver engaging content that resonates with his audience.
As BitLife continues to evolve and expand, Tim remains at the forefront of the community, enlightening and entertaining readers with his in-depth knowledge and unparalleled passion for the game. Whether you’re a seasoned BitLife player or just starting your virtual journey, Tim’s articles are a must-read for anyone looking to unlock the full potential of Candywriter’s game.