Kat Gunn

Mystik
Katherine "Kat" Gunn
Status	Active
Date of birth	(1988-04-20) April 20, 1988
Hometown	Palmdale, California
Nationality	American
Current team	Dignitas
Games	Hearthstone H1Z1 Halo Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Championships	DOA4: Championship Gaming Series, WCG Ultimate Gamer
Nickname(s)	Mystik, OptiMystik

Katherine Gunn (born April 20, 1988), also known by her tag "Mystik", is an American professional gamer and cosplayer. She's most well known for winning the second season of WCG Ultimate Gamer on the Syfy Channel. She also competed in the Championship Gaming Series which aired on DirecTV. She currently streams on Twitch.tv as a member of the professional gaming team Team Dignitas. She plays a variety of games from all genres, but considers herself most proficient in first-person shooters and fighting games.

Early Life

Kat Gunn posing with a pillow of the Team Dignitas mascot. Photo was taken during Anime Expo 2014.

Kat Gunn grew up in Antelope Valley, California, primarily in Lancaster and Palmdale. Her father, Patrick "Wolf" Gunn and mother, Pamela "PJ Salty" Gunn, raised Kat alongside her older brother Peter and older sister Samantha (aka Cherry). The entire family played games together as Kat was growing up. Most notably, they would play the original EverQuest.^[1]

Outside of video games, Kat's family owned No Weasels, a comic book and trading card store in Canoga Park.^[1] It was one of the highlights of Kat's youth and helped feed her interests in video games and trading card games. With easy access to trading card games, Kat's love for Magic: The Gathering grew, but that wasn't the only TCG she played. Kat would dabble in the Pokémon trading card game, securing several rare gold foil Japanese cards.

When Microsoft first announced the Xbox Live online gaming service, Kat was one of the original beta testers. MechAssault quickly became one of her favorite games, alongside Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. It didn't take long for Kat to hit the top of the leaderboards in the Wild Chicken online mode.

Career

Kat Gunn was part of the female gaming clan PMS Clan,^[2] but it didn’t last long due to creative differences.^[3] Gunn attended the World Cyber Games 2006 National Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada. She got a low seed in Dead or Alive 4 and played eventual champion, Team 3D's Emmanuel “Master” Rodriguez. She was then double eliminated by Bryan “DrDogg” Dawson, also known as the author of the Dead or Alive 4 strategy guide.^[4]

OptiMystik took the opportunity to network with the WCG executives and work her way into the competitive DOA scene. The following year Gunn attended the inaugural Championship Gaming Series Region 1 Combine in Los Angeles, California.^[5] 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 WCG Ultimate Gamer reality television show.^[6] She was targeted early by the other contestants due to her abnormally high gamer score.^[7] 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 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 Kat’s commentary, she was not pleased with her overall knowledge of the unreleased Dead or Alive 5 and began studying the game. Gunn is featured in the credits of DOA5 because of her IPL contributions.^[8] She continued to work for the IPL until IGN closed down the league in April 2013.^[9]

Kat also created the professional gaming and cosplay team, Less Than 3 (LT3). The team was sponsored by Mad Catz and featured notable cosplayers such as Jessica Nigri and Linda Le.^[10] While the team was sponsored by Mad Catz, they also attended Anime Expo, PAX Prime and many other events for Sentai Filmworks^[11][12] and Tecmo Koei.^[13]

At present Gunn is co-owner of a printing company in Palmdale, California known as Printing Boss and streams almost daily on Twitch.tv as a member of Team Dignitas.^[14] She frequently streams with her sister or father. In addition, Gunn continues to travel to events, such as BlizzCon, as a brand ambassador for Gigabyte, Newegg and other companies.^[15][16]

On October 16, 2015, Kat began hosting GamerChix, Newegg's weekly YouTube show,^[17] with her co-host, Hailey Bright. The show is produced by Tsquared of G4 fame and airs every Friday. She is also featured on a weekly Newegg live stream known as Game with Newegg.^[18]

Guinness Book of World Records

Kat is featured in the Guinness World Records 2016 Gamer’s Edition for being the highest earning female gamer.^[19][20] The book states Kat 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, Kat's earnings jump to over $160,000 since 2007, as her salary alone was a minimum of $30,000 per year during the CGS.^[21]

Filmography

Television

Cosplay

Videogames

Comics, Anime and Film

Cosplay Gallery

See also

• List of cosplayers
• 2007 Region 1 CGS Draft

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kat Gunn.

• Kat Gunn on Twitter
• Kat Gunn on Facebook
• Kat Gunn's channel on YouTube
• Katherine Gunn's channel on Twitch
• Kat Gunn at the Internet Movie Database
• Team Dignitas site