Katherine “Mystik” Gunn
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Although she blew away Yaz Ammari at the WCG Grand Finals, it wasn’t an easy path for the female gamer to get there. At the conclusion of last weeks episode, Gunn, Cesar Noriega and Jake Pfister faced off in a round of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell for a spot in the last three. The twist was that they could only see the screen from mirrors that were constantly spinning at different intervals.
“Its definitely a lot better to be sitting with Hannah and Joel,” said Yaz, who was the first to ten kills which guaranteed him a spot in the final three. He got to sit in a chair with the hosts and wait for the other two to qualify. “I wish I had done that for every challenge.”
Gunn came back with two rapid kills to edge out Noriega and Pfster, who were both one shot away from victory. “I actually wasn’t aware that we were done,” she said. “I thought there was going to be another round of Splinter Cell.”
Noriega quickly edged out Pfster to take the final spot. Then they were sent home with the warning that there would be one more test before the last two could advance to the final showdown. About a month later, host Joel Gourdin showed up at each gamers house to reveal the titles for the final competition. They were:
– Green Day: Rock Band, where they had to play drums on the song “American Idiot” on expert mode. They were also given an Ion drum kit to help them with their task. (Gunn mentioned she had just bought the $300 drum set for her brother for his birthday. “It’s for the extreme drum person, a lot of people tend to break the regular one,” she said.)
– BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger with the Continuum Fightstick. First to win five rounds won the challenge. (This had Yaz the most worried. “BlazBlu: I didn’t know what the game was,” said the PC gamer. “I had never heard of that.”
– Halo: Reach (which was given to them months before the game came out so they could practice). First to 15 kills won the game.
The three went to LA for the WCG Grand Finals to compete. But, before they were allowed to take the stage, host Hannah Simone surprised the three by telling them they had to compete in a ten minute round of Tron: Evolution. No one had ever played the game; it won’t be out until December 7, 2010.
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“It’s really rare that you get to play the game before the day of release,” Gunn said. “Normally you can play the download version, but this was an unlimited multiplayer trial. Nobody had experience so I wasn’t worried.”
If you’re familiar with the original Tron game or if you’ve ever played Snake, then this won’t be too difficult to understand. Get the other players to run into light trails from your Light Bike. Noriega was dominant in the one hour practice session, but the competition was a different story. Although not shown on TV, Noriega put down his controller with 20 seconds to go because he knew he couldn’t win.
“Right before we went live, when me and him were at the bathroom, we were standing in the urinal,” Ammari said. “I said, ‘You’re rocking all of us!’ He giggled like he knew it. When I saw what happened, I was completely shocked.”
Right after the Tron: Evolution session, the two winners were whisked away to compete in the main event. (In order to throw everyone off, Noriega competed against Pfster as well, so no one knew which real match was the final.)
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Ammari was super excited for Rock Band, seeing as how he usually played drums with his friends. “Drumming takes a lot of stamina,” Gunn explained. “It takes a lot of energy to do the kick pedal and independent drum beats. It takes a lot of talent for drumming. Yaz was obviously in a lot better of a position. Yaz said, ‘I play it all the time with my friends.’ I didn’t know if he was telling the truth. (At the Grand Finals), he was doing really well, I thought ‘Oh man he was right.’”(He was doing well was an understatement: He doubled Gunn’s score.)
However, Gunn came back with a 5-0 victory on BlazBlu. Yaz said his loss was because Kat conveniently picked the counter character to his fighter, which he thinks she heard he was going to compete with prior to the competition. “If I got to replay the finals, I definitely would have change things up,” he said. “When I said my character name, she just kind of yelled. It was simple to fix for me. I beat myself when all she did she was just air dash and come in with a normal swing. I knew what was happening.”
Gunn finished off her win by destroying Ammari with a 15-1 score on Halo: Reach.
“I spent a few hours a day on Green Day: Rockband – four to five hours a day at least. I probably got eight hours just in between the different games just rotating games,” she said.
Granted, she was competitive in the Xbox version of Halo when she was a teenager, and Ammari, who was mainly a PC Counterstrike player felt he was at a disadvantage. “I think I did good because I’m an overall good gamer, and I can adapt and see strategies,” he said. “It’s definitely a disadvantage not coming from a console background. These people have years of experience against me.”
“Since the final I haven’t turned on my Xbox,” he said, adding that he still keeps in touch with Noriega and Ryan Burnett. “I don’t want to play Halo with (the other gamers who competed) after I just got destroyed.”
Though Gunn said she’s still friends with Ammari, he sung a different tune. “Ever since that day, we’re cool, but I wouldn’t say were friends. I wouldn’t be like, ‘Hey Kat lets go hang out,” he explained. Ammari was going to retire from professional gaming, but he recently started a new Counterstrike team with some friends and is hoping that he can get another sponsorship.
As for Gunn, she’s enjoying her win. The first thing she’s going to buy with her money has nothing to do with gaming. It’s a blender for her Mom and Dad. “I told them I’d buy them a really nice blender,” she said laughing.