Katherine Gunn (born April 20, 1988), also known by her online alias Mystik, is an American

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

player and

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

er. She won the second season of

WCG Ultimate Gamer ''WCG Ultimate Gamer'' was a reality television program that aired on Syfy, sponsored by Samsung and the World Cyber Games (WCG). The show was hosted by Hannah Simone and co-hosted by Joel Gourdin. The first season began airing on March 10, 2009. ...

in 2010 and also competed in the

Championship Gaming Series The Championship Gaming Series was an international esports league based in the United States, with teams from several other countries. The CGS was preceded by the 2006 Championship Gaming Invitational, a television pilot featuring several futu ...

. Gunn is featured in the

Guinness World Records 2016 Gamer's Edition ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for being the highest-earning female gamer. The book states Gunn has earned $122,000 since 2007. However, when her earnings from the 2007 and 2008 seasons of the Championship Gaming Series are factored into her income, Gunn's earnings jump to over $160,000 since 2007, as her salary alone was a minimum of $30,000 per year during the CGS.

Early life

Gunn was born on April 20, 1988, in

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

, California.

Career

Gunn was part of the female gaming clan

PMS Clan PMS Clan (previously short for Psychotic Man Slayerz, now short for Pandora's Mighty Soldiers) is an all-female multi-platform online gaming group. It was founded in 2002 to provide a competitive, fun and positive environment for female gamers, ...

, but it didn't last long due to creative differences. Gunn attended the

World Cyber Games 2006 The World Cyber Games 2006 was held from October 18 to October 22, 2006 in Monza, Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the M ...

National Finals in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. Gunn took the opportunity to network with the WCG executives and work her way into the competitive '' Dead or Alive'' scene. The following year Gunn attended the inaugural

Region 1 Combine in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Shortly after, she was drafted in the third round of the 2007 Championship Gaming Series draft by the Carolina Core as the 18th selection. Her team would go on to take second place at the World Finals, losing only to the Chicago Chimera. Gunn stayed with the Carolina Core for a second season. The team lost to the Birmingham Salvo in the semi-final round of the World Finals. In 2010, Gunn auditioned for the second and final season of the ''

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show. She was targeted early by the other contestants due to her abnormally high gamer score. She won the season and $100,000, becoming the final winner of the show as it was not renewed for a third season. She made an appearance at the fourth

IGN Pro League ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

(IPL) tournament in Las Vegas and made a few contacts, which led to an opportunity to commentate on the initial round of the "I'm a Fighter" World Championship at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo. While most enjoyed Gunn's commentary, she was not pleased with her overall knowledge of the unreleased ''

Dead or Alive 5 is a 2012 fighting video game developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo Koei for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the fifth main entry in the '' Dead or Alive'' fighting series and the first to have a multi-platform release since '' Dea ...

'' and began studying the game. Gunn is featured in the credits of ''Dead or Alive 5'' because of her IPL contributions. She continued to work for the IPL until IGN closed down the league in April 2013. Gunn also created the professional gaming and cosplay team, Less Than 3 (LT3). The team was sponsored by

Mad Catz Mad Catz Global Limited (formerly Mad Catz Interactive, Inc.) is an American Chinese-based company that provides interactive entertainment products marketed under Mad Catz, GameShark (gaming products) and TRITTON (audio products). Mad Catz distr ...

and featured notable cosplayers such as

Jessica Nigri Jessica Nigri (born 1989) is an American-New Zealand cosplayer, promotional and glamour model, YouTuber, voice actress, and fan convention interview correspondent. She has been cosplaying since 2009 and modeling since 2012, having served as an ...

and

Linda Le Linda Le (born December 15, 1982) is an American cosplayer, costumer, model, artist and Internet personality of Vietnamese Americans, Vietnamese descent. She is also known as Vampy Bit Me, or just Vampy or Vamp; "Vampy" is also a name she has giv ...

. While the team was sponsored by Mad Catz, they also attended

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

PAX Prime PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...

and many other events for

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

. At present Gunn streams almost daily on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

. She frequently streams with her sister or father. In addition, Gunn continues to travel to events, such as

BlizzCon BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including ''Warcraft'', ''StarCraft'', '' Diablo'', '' Hearthstone'', ''Heroes of the Storm,'' and ''Overwatch''. The first BlizzCon was hel ...

, as a brand ambassador for

Gigabyte The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix ''giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB. This defini ...

Newegg Newegg Commerce, Inc. is an American online retailer of items including computer hardware and consumer electronics. It is based in City of Industry, California. It is majority-owned by Liaison Interactive, a multinational technology company. Hi ...

and other companies. On October 16, 2015, Gunn began hosting GamerChix, Newegg's weekly YouTube show, with her co-host, Hailey Bright. The show is produced by

Tom "Tsquared" Taylor Tom Taylor, known by the gamertag Tsquared, is a former professional gamer and captain of one of the most successful teams in Major League Gaming (MLG) history, Str8 Rippin, and was also the coach of Status Quo during the 2010 National Champion ...

of G4 fame and airs every Friday. She is also featured on a weekly Newegg live stream known as Game with Newegg.

Filmography

Television

Cosplay

Video games

Comics, anime and film

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunn, Kat 1988 births American esports players American YouTubers Cosplayers Dignitas (esports) players Female models from California Fighting game players Gaming YouTubers Living people People from Los Angeles Women esports players World Cyber Games Twitch (service) streamers 21st-century American women