cover story Gaming 5 Female Gamers ChallenGinG the world Boudhaditya Sanyal Women are competing in every filed and gaming is not an exception. Over the past couple of years, the gaming world has Scarlett: Sasha Hostyn seen multiple skilled and passionate female gamers

or the longest time, gaming has been Hostyn’s career started. In a StarCraft II League, considered a “boy thing”. The community NESL Iron Lady, she competed online in the was and still date dominated by males in only for women tournament. Twice in a row that almost every game. Even the circuit year, she won tournaments. Hostyn won the Fwas dominated by male players from all across the “Sponsor Me!” tournament by Playhem in the next world. This is true for both mobile and PC gaming. year. This victory gave her a place in the IPL 4 Not just gaming, the streaming side of things open qualifiers in Las Vegas. She was breaking is no different. There are more male streamers through. She rampaged through Canada later around the globe that are famous. What names that year’s StarCraft II World Championship. Her come to mind when you hear the word “streamer”? final opponent was defeated in the Grand Finals, Names like Shroud and Chocotaco come rushing making Hostyn the national champion of Canada to the mind of people who have been following with a remarkable 12-1 record. With the same streamers for some time now but that does not record she won the 2012 North American WCS mean that the female representation has been nil. Championship. The Zerg player has participated in Over the years the gaming world has seen multiple 178 tournaments throughout her career. skilled and passionate female gamers and its time that people know that gaming is no more a playing 2. HaganeNoTema – Sioban Bielamowicz field of one particular gender. Hailing from Australia, HaganeNoTema is a The gamers in this list have proved that taking pro player who competes in fighting games such the first step is the hardest and that it all gets as Attack on Titan and Brawlhalla. She is a World easier once you are in the process of doing and Cup Champion and has competed and won in the achieving something great. gaming Olympics for Attack on Titan, which is her most successful game. She has competed since 1. Scarlett: Sasha Hostyn 2014 and had her most successful years in 2017 It can be traced back to April 2011 that and 2018. Bielamowicz is considered one of the

44 PCQuest A p r i l 2 0 2 1 pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] Chan – Marjorie Bartell

HaganeNoTema – Sioban Bielamowicz Tinares

best Attack on Titan players of all-time, and just one of the best fighter players of any game ever.

3. Kasumi Chan – Marjorie Bartell Bartell is an American player. She became the runner-up for a CGI competition featuring the title Dead or Alive 4 in 2006. Her career was boosted because of her affiliation with Chicago Chimera, an organization that she represented during her biggest win. She ravaged through the competition in the CGS 2007 and came out on top. She has been missing from the competitive scene since then, despite the increase in both money and female gamers. The two tournaments she participated in were offline. If it’s at all unclear how skilled this player was, she’s known as the very first female gamer to get to the finals in the Championship Gaming Invitational.

4. Tinares Tinares is a Fortnite player who competes in the NA-East region and comes from the USA. In the 3-year history of the esport, she is considered one of the most successful female players there is. Her most famous win is the TwitchCon 2019

competition, which featured the biggest names Ananikova Anna Ant1ka – in all of Fortnite. She won $4,000 from that event and has made the rest of her money from various online competitions. She streams regularly and her skill in the game has nonetheless been has gained immense population since winning recognized. There is clearly some real talent. TwitchCon in 2019. Much of her success arose from her membership in Team Secret. Ananikova won her first Minor 5. Ant1ka – Anna Ananikova tournament with this team during the 2016 Having been a part of teams like Team Secret, eSports World Convention. Lazarus, Counter Logic Gaming, and the Russian These gamers are some of the most famous National Team, she is one of the most decorated and followed part of the gaming community who CS: GO players of all time. Even after not have proved their talent and skill set time and participating in many cash-winning tournaments, again in their respective games and esports.

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