Gamer attacked by samurai sword-wielding girlfriend: ‘Winning the fight with my bare hands was just absolutely the best feeling’

A gamer who spends up to 12 hours a day battling online enemies used all his training to fight off a samurai sword attack by his jealous girlfriend.

Alex Lovell says he woke up from a dream to find Emily Javier trying to hack him to death with the weapon she bought from her local mall in Camas, Washington.

The 29-year-old suffered deep cuts to his fingers, arm, feet, legs, torso, neck and head but managed to survive by relying on his knowledge of the martial art wing chun before grabbing her in a bear hug.

“The feeling I had when I won the fight with my bare hands is just absolutely the best feeling,” he told the Oregonian.

“I saw the look in her eyes, and it scared the living poop out of me. I told her I loved her, and she was killing me. She needed to call police, or I was going to die.”

He added: “I’ve been preparing my whole life for something like this.”

Ms Javier, 30, gave in and dialled 911 to tell the operator she had stabbed her boyfriend and thought he was dead.

When officers arrived she complained that her boyfriend "sits at home all day playing video games and dopes not do anything to help".

Ms Javier, who had lived with Mr Lovell for two years, said she had discovered he had been cheating on her a week earlier. She found the Tinder app on his phone, noticed scratches on his back, and a red hair in the shower drain.

"I thought, I was gonna stab him while he was sleeping," she said, according to a police report.

Ms Javier said she bought the sword about a week before the attack in the early hours of 3 March.

She said she decided to go ahead with the plan after her boyfriend came home without even acknowledging her.

After taping the sword and two knives on the side of the bed, she waited until Mr Lovell fell asleep and used the light from her phone to illuminate her target.

She then swung the samurai sword at his throat.

"I was trying to kill him for cheating," she told officers. "That was my purpose."

Ms Javier pleaded not guilty to first-degree attempted murder when she appeared at Clark County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Mr Lovell, who had to have three of his fingers reattached, has now left hospital after spending more than a week recovering from his injuries. A gofundme campaign has so far raised more than $8,100 (£5,700).

He is known as "Biggie" in his local gamer scene and in the days before the attack spent 12 to 13 hours a day playing "PlayerUnknown's Battleground", a Battle-Royale style fight to the death.

Mr Lovell describes himself as an "Ethlete" who trains for the game with hand and wrist exercises and by practising mouse moves and techniques "to maximise performance".

He denied cheating on his girlfriend and told Buzzfeed that his rigorous video game training left him too exhausted to give her enough affection.

"It killed my sex drive," he said. "I was training too hard, it exhausted me. I felt bad because she needed the affection. I just couldn't keep up. She thought I was having sex with other people."