Geguri Appears in Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders List

Se-yeon "Geguri" Kim, offtank for the Overwatch League's Shanghai Dragons, was named one of Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders on Thursday.

The piece describes Geguri first playing games with her mother at five years old before delving into her oft-repeated origin story in Overwatch.

As she rose to prominence in the South Korean Overwatch scene bolstered by her excellent aim, several male players accused her of using aim assist tools. Geguri streamed her gameplay and hand movements live to prove those players wrong, and following a Blizzard investigation, many of the players who accused her of cheating reportedly left the scene in disgrace.

For her part, Geguri went on to join the Shanghai Dragons during Overwatch League Season 1 as the first — and to date, only — female player in the league. While the Dragons went winless in that first season, the team has since improved dramatically to stand in the middle of the pack among 20 teams.

Geguri still prefers to think about playing her best rather than about standing as the only woman in the Overwatch League, but she acknowledges the role she plays as something to which other women can aspire.

“Since I am the only female player in the whole league, I think there are a lot of people who look up to me and see me as a role model,” she told Time. “Knowing this, I’m trying a lot harder to inspire others to get to where I am today.”

Photo by Robert Paul/Blizzard