Highest-Paid Female Gamers in E-Sport

Tom Johnson

Esports

Affirmative action` has helped women become leaders in many fields. In traditional sports, we have seen the struggles that women have gone through to match their male counterparts. Their efforts have somehow paid off, but they still have not fully matched men’s physical abilities, often termed discrimination. However, in e-sport, things are different. Gamers don’t require to be in great shape with lean muscles and strong bones to take part in the games. Instead, it’s all about having a cognitive ability and being highly alert, and according to research, women have more cognitive abilities than men. For these reasons, women have a great chance of appearing a mong the highest-paid e-sport gamers.

We have seen many females rise to popularity in various leadership positions across various areas in the industry. Mostly in e-sports, where the games are getting more prevalent by the day, and more women and girls have access to them at all times. Today, women have a significant presence in the industry. The presence is seen and felt even more in the tangible rewards women are getting. The rewards are in terms of sponsorships and winnings. Many women in the industry are now getting paid better and earning higher salaries than male’s gamers. This article highlights some the highest paid females in e-sport and how much they make.

Scarlett

Sasha Hostyn debuted her gaming career in April 2011. She began competing in an all-female online tournament in StarCraft II league, the NESL Iron Lady. She won the tournament for two consecutive years. The following year Scarlett also won the Sponsor Me tournament and got rewarded with a trip to Las Vegas, where she got into the IPL 4 open qualifiers. Scarlet has won several tournaments and championships over the years, some of which she won enormous amounts of monetary rewards. For instance, in the 2012 WCS North American Championship, they rewarded her with €20,000 ($24,000), and IEM XII–Pyeongchang tournament, where Scarlett earned €41,800 ($50,000). Scarlet has competed in 178 tournaments throughout her career. She is currently the highest-paid female player earning €277,000 ($332,066). This is almost three times the amount the second female gamer earns. 

Mystik

The highest-paid e-sport players a making a comfortable living from gaming. Female players are making great strides in this industry.
The Highest-paid e-sports players are female, and they are taking a sizeable chunk of all athletes’ payments | Image: Clem Onojeghuo/ Unsplash

Her official name is Katherine Gunn. She debuted her career In the CGS competition in 2007. Mystik played Dead or Alive 4 and emerged in second place. She received a reward of €12,500 ($15,0000). The following year, she tried out the same competition but did not do as well as in the first tournament. She got third place and won €5800 ($7,000). She took a professional break from e-sport after these results but came back a while later, even better than before. Her return came during the release of Thank You and Farewell title. Mystik and her competition received a copy of the game before its release to give them time to practice and perfect their skills before the launch and the tournament. During the tournament, Mystik was the first to fifteen kills and won €83,640 ($100,000) when she took the first position in the competition. 

Ricky Ortiz

Also referred to as HelloKittyRicki, she is a fighting game expert, and one of the highest-paid in the industry. Her first competition was EVO2006, where Ortiz played Capcom vs. SNK 2 and earned €1600 ($2000) after finishing second. Ricki has taken part in over 60 tournaments throughout her career and won approximately €67,500 ($80,780) in total. The most notable earnings are from Capcom Cup 2016, where she played Street Fighter V and won €50,000 ($60,000) for the second place finish. Apart from the monetary rewards, she has several sponsorship deals, the most notable being the Evil Geniuses in 2010 for her determination and consistent results.

Kasumi Chan

We also know her as Marjorie Bartell; a hardworking and determined e-sport gamer. In 2006 she took part in a CGI competition that featured Dead or Alive 4 title and finished second, earning €4,100 ($5,000). During the biggest win in her career, Bartell represented Chicago Chimera, which propelled her career. In 2007, she received a monetary reward of €41,800 ($50,000) after winning the CGS competition. Kasumi Chan is the first female gamer ever to qualify for the Championship Gaming Invitational finals. The 2007 CGS competition was the last one she took part in despite being an exceptional female gamer in the e-sport industry. 

Sarah Lou

She also goes by the name Sarah Harrison. She is among the highest-paid female e-sport gamers. Sarah is the only gamer from the UK on this list. Like several other female players on the list, she took part in the Dead or Alive 4 and did well by taking first place during the CGS competition in 2008. She received a monetary reward of €41,800 ($50,000) for her exceptional performance. It was the last competition Sarah Lou ever took part in. She felt that the fighting game was too simple and easy for her liking. However, before participating in the competition, she had put in a lot of effort and hard work to sharpen her skills. 

zAAz

Zainab Turkie has been a passionate and dedicated e-sport gamer for the longest time. She has been a professional Counter-Strike gamer since 2002. She joined the Counter-Strike club when she was 14 years old. Her skills have seen her join several e-sport teams in her almost 20 year’s old career. The Swedish player is currently a part of the Besiktas e-Sports team. She has taken part in 32 competitions throughout her career and earned €36,000 ($43,201) in monetary rewards. 

Ant1ka

Anna Ananikova, a renowned CG: GO player, has played as a team member in several teams. These include Counter Logic Gaming, Secret, Lazarus, and the Russian National Team. She currently does not take part in monetary reward competitions, making it hard to know her current position among the highest-paid gamers. However, she has at some point earned large amounts totalling €16,700 ($20,000) in a single competition. Her prowess in gaming has made her receive recognition and become successful. She became even more recognized when she was a part of the Secret team. Her first-ever win was during the e-Sports World Convention minor tournament in 2016 while still playing for Team Secret. 

Xchocobars

Xchocobars Janet Rose is a Canadian player whose effort and dedication in e-sport have made her achieve a lot in a relatively short time. Her most notable success was playing League of Legends, where she won the 2019 Twitch Rivals competition. She received a €5,00 ($7000) reward for the first position. Xchocobars later earned €8,300 ($10,000) after taking the second position at the Club Standings in Fortnite Fall Skirmish Series. The most significant amounts she has earned were €11,500 ($13,750) for the Skirmish Series and €32,600 ($39,100) from ten competitions she has taken part in.

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