Yoon “Harusol” Chang became the first woman to win a major Hearthstone tournament last night.
Chang represented Cornell University at the AfreecaTV International College Championship in Korea and defeated fellow American Matt “Dart” Orgel of Team Illuminati in the final to win the $5000 first prize. Orgel took home $3000 for second place.
 Woman have so far been underrepresented at the highest level in Hearthstone, with Haiyun “Eloise” Tang the only active competitive player on a major team. But women like Chang are poised to change that.
In the online qualifiers for the event, Chang outlasted players like Austin “SilentStorm” Li, David “Dog” Caero and Chris “PHONETAP” Huynh.
This was the second tournament win in recent times for Chang. She also won the controversial International Women’s Invitational in China. The tournament was criticized for its presentation of the women involved instead of focusing on the competitive aspect of the event.
In an interview with CSL ahead of the collegiate event, Chang agreed that the Chinese event was “pretty sexist” and revealed that even the staff there described what the players were being asked to do as “kinda pervy.”
But she provided an even better condemnation this weekend by reinforcing the fact that women don’t need to be dolled up to get noticed in Hearthstone.
Image via Galokot/Twitter
Published: Aug 24, 2015 09:48 am