The Divide Between Male & Female Esports Players: Should There be All-Women Tournaments?
One of the biggest debates in esports right now is if male and female players should play together.
This comes after the news that esports organisation DreamHack announced they would be having an all-female Counter Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO) tournament with a prize pool of $100k.
But there have been calls by people online as to whether there should be a tournament just for females.
Prominent esports journalist Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau has had his say over Twitter, stating:
“Women’s esports tournaments aren’t replacing anything, they’ll lead to more women competing in esports, and women’s tournaments are overall a great thing for the industry.”
A strong argument; more women competing means more women in esports. Inclusivity is something esports can have over other major sports, if you have two hands and a brain then you have a right to play regardless of gender, and DreamHack AB Co-CEO Marcus Lindmark said:
“Inclusivity at our events is a huge part of DreamHack — we aim to be the esports and gaming festival where all groups feel welcome.”
However, while they want the tournament to be inclusive, DreamHack appear to stereotype women by calling the $100k prize pool a ‘prize purse’ in the promotional material.
Sarah ‘Andromyda’ Marchand, an Overwatch console esports player for Nebula Uni, spoke about her experience in esports saying things like the promotional material stereotypes woman where they are trying to fit in:
“I don’t really like that, they should have called it a prize pool. I don’t see why they would have to make any different.” Marchand continued: “I guess they are trying to make it more girl-themed but not every girl wears a purse and it also sounds corny.”
However, while she does not believe the promotional material is doing any good, Marchand likes the idea of an all-women’s tournament:
“I think it’s a good thing for womens esports because it gives it more exposure since there’s not a lot of women that play video games at a competitive level.” She went onto say that she feels “like it’s good to have an all-females tournament just to bring more attention to the smaller demographic.”
While there is the question of gender mixed tournaments, there are mixed feelings online, as esports is a male-dominated sport. A lot has been said regarding the tournament (the Reddit thread comments on the announcement on the tournament are very mixed). When asked whether comments such as one user saying they are “excited for some great comedy” reducing women’s esports to a joke right now, Marchand said:
“I would say so, because in my personal experience I play Overwatch, and when I’m playing by myself I tend not to turn my microphone on because I don’t want them to hear my identity as a female because they’ll instantly judge my gameplay.”
She went on to say “people that watch games just automatically assume that women don’t really know what they are doing or don’t know how to do it as well as guys. But they’ll be pretty surprised when women pull off some pretty amazing plays.”
Marchand then confirmed as well that she has been the target of sexist abuse from males because of her gender:
“Yes and I’m sure that most women that play video games relatively frequently would agree with me.”
There is still a harsh stigma against female gamers, and this tournament can be the first of many for women to finally show off what they can do on the esports stage. There have already been glimpses of females entering the stage alongside males, most notably Kim ‘Geguri’ Se-Yeon signing with Overwatch League team Shanghai Dragons. However, female only tournaments seem the way forward to fully introduce women into the sport.
