There was a time when spending your free time playing video games was not frowned upon by elder generations but seen as a fruitless waste of time. Nowadays, for those who are skilled and committed enough the world of gaming has evolved well beyond a pastime that was limited to bedroom programmers and LAN parties.
In 2018, video gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry with AAA games that rival and even outperform the biggest blockbuster film franchise or the best selling music albums. So naturally, the world of eSports has become a global event with millions of dollars worth of prize money up for grabs for the best players in the world.
As the industry has grown so have the number players and that means female players who compete in female-only tournaments and mixed gender competitions. Unfortunately, the pay gap for female players in comparison to their male counterparts is something that needs to be rectified as soon as possible.
The male perception of a female gamer is often limited to Twitch streamers who are often only there for the cash donations provided by their fans. The ladies on this list, however, as gorgeous as they are, are serious professional players that are the real deal.
25 Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere
Belgium born Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere was a professional gamer that competed in the Unreal Tournament ‘99 leagues.
Her nickname is the phonetic spelling of “shocks” in Dutch which is derived from her favorite Unreal weapon the Shock Rifle.
With her national Belgian team, Sjokz competed and won several Clanbase Eurocup tournaments before moving on and becoming a freelance journalist. In her journalism role, she produced content for the German professional eSports organization SK Gaming.
After establishing herself in eSports, Depoortere was later hired to present the European League of Legends Championships. Her presenting work has taken her all over the world and has presented across Europe and America.
24 Mounira ‘Goosebreeder’ Dobie
Canadian professional Counter-Strike player Mounira ‘Goosebreeder’ Dobie as part of the Team Dignitas female unit.
Dobie was introduced to gaming by her older brother and fell in love with it since. She also played competitively alongside her brother and friends in League of Legends and Soldier Front.
Dobie casually discovered Counter-Strike in 2013.
After quickly gaining skills with Counter-Strike she began to upload her performances to her own YouTube channel. This gained her recognition and was eventually recommended to the Ubinited team.
In 2016, Dobie joined the Team Dignitas female CS: Global Offensive team alongside Emmalee ‘EMUHLEET’ Garrido, Carolyn ‘artStar’ Noquez, and Catherine ‘Cath’ Leroux. The team spends six hours a day for five days a week practicing for their ESEA tournament matches.
23 Amanda ‘Rain’ Smith
Amanda ‘rain’ Smith is a Canadian professional eSports player that competes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments across the world.
Rain’s main role in her team is as a fragger for Team Dignitas.
Amanda’s first introduction to gaming was Counter-Strike 1.6 in 2007 but she didn’t start competing professionally until 2014 with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. She formed a team with other female CS: Global Offensive players Lynnie ‘artStar’ Noquez and Emmalee ‘EMUHLEET’ Garrido.
In 2017, rain and Team Dignitas came second place losing only to Team Secret at the Intel Challenge Katowice. However, in 2018 the team won the grand final at the same tournament winning the world title in February.
22 Jennifer ‘jso’ So
Jennifer ‘jso’ So was a professional Counter-Strike player from the United States. Before retiring in 2014 she made a name for herself competing in Counter-Strike for over thirteen years and won several eSporting events such as the ESWC.
Jennifer began playing for SK Gaming in 2006.
She eventually joined an all-female team called SK Ladies alongside the likes of Christine ‘Potter’ Chi, Stephanie ‘missharvey’ Harvey, Diane ‘di’ Tran, and Benita ‘bENITA’ Novshadian. So and her team came first place at six events at the EWSC winning a total of $56K in total.
In her retirement from competitive gaming, Jennifer graduated from her university with a law degree and pursued a career managing a specialist clinic in hearing aids.
21 Alice ‘ali’ Lew
Alice ‘ali’ Lew has been professional Counter-Strike player since 2004 with the SK Ladies team alongside Christine ‘Potter’ Chi, Benita ‘bENITA’ Novshadian, and Stephanie ‘missharvey’ Harvey. The team eventually formed a new company called Ubinted.
Her total wins have earned her prize money in the sum of $14,800.
Alice’s passion and enthusiasm for gaming began with the Nintendo and Duck Hunt. Her love for gaming continued into adulthood with MMORPG World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series. However, it was with Counter-Strike where she found her niche when she played casually in 2003 before successfully moving on to the professional league.
20 Vladyslava ‘Vladyslava_Z’ Zakhliebina
Vladyslava ‘Vladyslava_Z’ Zakhliebina is a former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player from Ukraine.
She is the former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team manager for the HellRaisers company.
Her role as the chief manager for the HellRaisers was to handle the video and photo contents from events and provide the teams with as much exposure as possible through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VK, and Instagram.
Nowadays Vladyslava is the content manager for Starladder. In addition to her managing duties, she is an analyst caster, entertainment host, and reporter for Starladder eSports competitions. She also has her own Twitch and YouTube channels to stay in contact with her fans.
19 Catherine ‘Cath’ Leroux
Canadian eSports player Catherine ‘Cath’ Leroux from Montreal. She is a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitor that plays for Team Dignitas.
Catherine first got into games by using it as a much-needed break from her studies in finance and business.
The games that she played were Diablo, Smite, and Counter-Strike 1.6. It was through her hobbies that she developed enough skill to become a professional competitor.
However, it was Catherine’s sister that introduced her to the Counter-Strike series and ignited her passion for the game making her more determined to make a career from playing video games. Her pro career began in 2014 with the squads Ubinited, Counter Logic Gaming, and Selfless Gaming before joining DIG.
18 Rumay ‘Hafu’ Wang
Rumay ‘Hafu’ Wang is an American professional gamer that has competed in World of Warcraft, Bloodline Champions, and more recently Hearthstone.
Rumay is also a very popular Hearthstone streamer on the Twitch platform.
She was introduced to the World of Warcraft through a friend and became so engrossed in its online world that she not only skipped classes but her own graduation too. Her dedication paid off because she quickly started taking first place prizes in WoW tournaments.
In addition to her Hearthstone streaming, Hafu also competes for NRG Esports’ Hearthstone roster and places very highly in worldwide events. She’s one of the very best pro gamers to compete and consistently performs well in competitions.
17 Carolynn ‘artStar’ Noquez
Carolynn ‘artStar’ Noquez is currently a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player from the United States. She is a part of Team Dignitas and operates as the team’s rifle user.
ArtStar dropped out of University where she was studying Biomechanical Engineering so she can commit her time to playing video games at a pro level.
She started playing video games at the age seven playing games on the SEGA Master System, and since then loved to perfect her skills at whatever her chosen video game was. Noquez eventually discovered Counter-Strike 1.6 and started competing in LAN events before transitioning to CS: GO.
Her Team Dignitas teammates are EMUHLEET, artStar, rain, Cath, and Goosebreeder and they compete across the world at esporting events.
16 Rachel ‘Seltzer’ Quirico
Rachel ‘Seltzer’ Quirico is a former professional Team Fortress 2 player that used to compete in eSports events worldwide. She used to play for the team known as PMS Clan also known as the Psychotic Manslayers.
Seltzer and her team came to mainstream attention on the Syfy’s WCG Ultimate Gamer television series in 2010.
These days, Quirico is hosting ELEAGUE’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on TBS . She has become one of the few original gaming personalities to cross over into the mainstream media with her television work and Twitch streaming shows and has appeared on the comedy YouTube Red series Good Game.
15 Stephanie ‘missharvey’ Harvey
Stephanie ‘missharvey’ Harvey is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player that played for the Counter Logic Gaming Red team. CLG: Red Team is one of the first all-female teams to compete against men in pro tournaments.
Stephanie has won five world championships in Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions.
In addition to competitive gaming, she also works as a designer and developer at Ubisoft Montreal working on the open world quests for Far Cry: Primal. Additionally, she has worked several other undisclosed Ubisoft projects.
As a gaming personality, Stephanie uses her position to speak out against gender inequality in the professional gaming industry in terms of gamers earnings and the abuse female players suffer both online and verbally.
14 Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie
Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie is a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player from Sweden. Zainab takes the position of a rifle user for Team Secret and then RES gaming.
She has competed in 18 tournaments winning over $20,000 in CS: GO.
Zainab is one of the most experienced players in the world and has worked with several teams such as Meet Your Makers, team ALTERNATE, and Fnatic. She has a winning streak spanning over seven tournaments such as the Cross-Border eSport female, Intel Challenge Katowice, Starladder female stars championship, and others.
Zainab only lost one tournament in two years but is confident that can regain her streak again in 2018 with another tournament lined up in China in March 2018.
13 Emmalee ‘EMMUHLEET’ Garrido
Emmalee ‘EMUHLEET’ Garrido is an eSports player from America that competes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Her team is Team Dignitas and she takes the role of team leader and main AWPer in the game.
Emmalee fell in love with gaming when she played GoldenEye on the N64 with her brother.
She discovered Counter-Strike 1.6 at the age of 14 and already started to dedicate her time to being the best player she could be. Emmalee attended monthly LAN tournaments between 2005 and 2009 in order to up her game.
However, it was when she entered the Electronic Sports World Cup in 2014 that she really dedicated her life to CS: GO even going as far as to quit her nursing job so she could practice her gaming skills.
12 Lizette ‘LKS’ Scheich
Lizzette ‘LKS’ Scheich is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. She started by playing Counter-Strike 1.6 in 2004, but only started playing professionally in 2013 after the release of CS: GO.
Lizzette started playing for the Planet Odd Female squad in May 2017.
Prior to joining Planet Odd Female, she started with Team-Tactic in August 2013 to compete in the Copenhagen Games in early 2014. In addition, she played with overGaming Female, eSport Engine Female, Icy Phoenix, and LGB eSports Female.
Lizzette’s main role is as a Lurker, but she has also played as the team’s mad-fragger and at times the in-game squad leader.
11 Eloise ‘Eloise’ Tang
Tang ‘Eloise’ Haiyun is a professional gamer from China that competes in Hearthstone tournaments. She is a member of the team Tempo Storm which consists of other well known competitive gamers like Gaara Ratsmah, JustSaiyan, Reckful, and Kaldi.
Eloise who has a reputation for being quick-witted and funny has a Twitch following of over 200,000 followers.
She originally started competing professionally in World of Warcraft competitions when she was at university. In addition, Eloise was a member of the WoW Guild Stars until 2014 when she decided to start playing Hearthstone instead favoring the one on one aspect of the series.
Tang joined the American team Tempo Storm so she could get the chance to compete against Western opponents for bigger prize money. She recently took part in the Titanar Hearthstone Elite Invitational and took home the prize money of $1,500.
10 Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn
Canadian born Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn is a professional Starcraft II player. Additionally, she is the most successful female professional player to date.
She has competed in 145 tournaments and earned a total of $255,993 making her the highest earning female gamer today.
Scarlet began playing Starcraft II in April 2011, and quickly joined a female-only league called the NESL Iron Lady and won two tournaments that same year a just a few months later.
The following year Scarlett won the online Playhem Tournament for amateur players. She was awarded an all expenses paid flight to the IPL 4 tournament in Las Vegas with a performance that earned her recognition and full sponsorship from the likes of Acer.
Scarlett continued her success in 2018 with another win at the Intel Extreme Masters in February which was held in PyeongChang before the 2018 Winter Olympics.
9 Samantha ‘Ricochet’ Whale
In 2008 Samantha ‘Ricochet’ Whale is one of the UK’s first professional female eSports players. In one of her first performances in a professional competition, she set the record for the highest score accomplished by a team of two on Halo 3 with her teammate Michael ‘Bazza’ Barrett.
She was featured in the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records.
She left Lea Manor High School and quickly became a pro gamer competing for the Birmingham Salvo Team in October 2007. Not only did she show great talent with the Halo series but in 2007-2008 she also represented her team in the fighting genre with Dead or Alive 4 at CGS.
8 Christine ‘Potter’ Chi
Christine ‘Potter’ Chi is an American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and the current captain of the Counter Logic Red female team.
Christine discovered her love for competitive gaming at the thirteen.
She accompanied her older brother to an amateur Counter-Strike match at the Mug and Mous LAN Cafe in Dallas. It was there that the game and the high-level competitiveness that the players had piqued her interest and passion for gaming.
Chi’s teammates include other well known and accomplished players Stephanie ‘missharvey’ Harvey, Benita ‘bENITA’ Novshadian, and Diane ‘di’ Tran. She continues to be one of the most successful and highest earning pro players in the world with six wins at the world championships at the Electronic Sports World Cup.
7 Livia ‘Liefre’ Teernstra
Livia ‘Liefre’ Teenstra was a professional Esports gamer from New Zealand. She made a name for herself competing in New Zealand and was one of the top competitors in the first person shooters Quake, Painkiller, Castle Wolfenstein, and Unreal.
Livia eventually moved on to the European competitions and joined an all-female team called girlz 0f destruction in 2003.
The tournaments Livia and her team competed in were QuakeCon, World Series of Video Games, The Cyberathlete Professional League, and the Electronic Sports World Cup. Teenstra’s biggest earnings came from transitioning into the fighting game genre with Dead or Alive 4 and placed third in at the CGS in 2007 and 2008 earning a total of $14,000.
6 Julia “Juliano” Kiran
Julia ‘Juliano’ Kiran professional eSports player that competes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. She is the team captain for Team Secret and is one of the highest earning Counter-Strike players n the world.
Kiran’s team came first place when she played for the WeRunThisPlace squad in the Intel Challenge Katowice in 2016.
Her squad known as WeRunThisPlace joined Team Secret which was originally a Dota 2 team in March 2016. Her team consists of Ksenia ‘vilga’ Kluenkova, Michaela ‘mimimicheater’ Lintrup, Anna ‘Ant1ka’ Ananikova, and Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie.
Juliano’s passion for gaming began with Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. However, it was in her teenage years that she discovered games like Dota 2, and Heroes of Newerth, and started competing in Counter-Strike competitions fro 2012.
