Not just a boys' game

Valley Press ^ | Thursday, July 17, 2008 | LIANE M. ROTH

[BenLurkin]

She's wanted - Dead or Alive. Her gamer tag is "Mystik" and she is a top-ranked player battling for world domination in the video gaming industry.

Katherine Gunn, a 2006 Quartz Hill High graduate, is a professional "Dead or Alive 4" gamer who won a playoff spot in the Championship Gaming Series tournament this month at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

"Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4)" is the fourth game in Team Ninja's "Dead or Alive" series. It is an interactive fighting game based on avatars combining the skill of martial arts with assorted weapons to assassinate enemies. The Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated this game M due to blood, partial nudity, sexual themes and violence.

Gunn plays DOA4 for the Carolina Core, a team of 10 players competing in four games: Counter-Strike Force; Forza Motorsport 2; FIFA 08; and DOA4. This is Gunn's second season with the team after being drafted again by general manager Mark Dolven. She is the only female on the team.

The Core dominated at the World Championship Quarterfinals last week against five American teams to become the 2008 CGS North American Champions.

Hoping to keep the momentum, Gunn said her team is fighting against teams from around the globe for the CGS World Championship title at the end of this month. The single-elimination tournament will culminate in a final round of games on July 28.

"There are eight teams left."

[Domandred]

For reference

Katherine "Mystik" Gunn

[socialismisinsidious]

Video gaming once was dominated by male players, but female players are catching up. The CGS League's 2007 first-round draft pick was Vanessa Arteaga, a then-20-year-old professional gamer from Modesto who goes by the tag "PMS Vanessa."

Ha! Bet the Feminazis had a hard time with that one. She broke into the male dominated gaming world only to call herself PMS.