“You’re a girl, you’re being targeted”: Women in esports navigate toxicity, other barriers
NEW YORK — Susie Kim thinks the women gamers are out there. As general director to get a championship esports team, she’d know.
She’s not surprised none of these are around her roster.
The Entertainment Software Association reported this year that 45 percent of U.S. gamers are female, yet women make up a scant part of the expert esports player pool. Executives for games like “League of Legends” and “Overwatch” say they are ready to add girls to expert rosters, where players can make thousands and thousands of bucks. Nevertheless LoL’s Championship Series hasn’t had a female gamer since 2016, and the Overwatch League’s season featured just one.
The sector has grappled with harassment and poisonous behavior since the Gamergate scandal of 2014, when a group of male gamers organized to target girls throughout the business. Ladies say they are feeling marginalized within the neighborhood and are regularly subject to horrible comments about their ability or appearance. For elite gamers, much of this comes from lovers, but opponents and teammates are from time to time equally as challenging. At the lower levels, girls are often bombarded by hyper masculinity in a distance where most everybody is anonymous.
Kim’s London Spitfire won the very first Overwatch League championship in June. Talking to The Associated Press before the grand finals, she stated there are “totally ” women gifted enough to be enjoying in the Overwatch League.
“But they’re like, ‘It’s a headache. I don’t need to be a part of this whatsoever,’” Kim said. “I don’t blame them. ”
AT THE TOP
Maria “Remilia” Creveling is the only woman — and only transgender woman — to compete in the LoL Championship Series (LCS), the top pro league for the world’s most popular esport. Her stay in the LCS was short-lived and not the inspiring breakthrough some fans had hoped.
Creveling was a standout support player and qualified for the LCS with team Renegades in 2015. She made her debut the next year under intense scrutiny. Many celebrated her, but the comment sections accompanying live streams of Renegades matches were flooded with sexist and transphobic harassment. Fans disputed her gender identity, wrote critically about her appearance and bashed her abilities.
A few weeks into the season, Creveling removed herself from the Renegades’ roster, citing anxiety and self-esteem issues. She hasn’t returned to the LCS since.
Creveling declined to be interviewed by the AP, but did say she has resumed competing and will be looking for a new team soon.
Other major esports have similarly thin histories of women at the highest levels. The NBA 2K League said it had one woman in a pool of 250 finalists for roster spots in its inaugural season. She did not land one of the 102 available slots. The Overwatch League had one woman for its inaugural season, Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon with the Shanghai Dragons. Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn, a transgender woman, won a major “Starcraft II” tournament in February and is the only woman to win such an event in that game.
Se-Yeon and Hostyn have been reluctant to embrace the spotlight as female role models. Both have said they simply want to be seen as talented gamers.
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“Being the icon or being looked up to because I’m female — I’m grateful,” Se-Yeon said via translator at a press conference in March. “But I don’t really have any thoughts about it. That’s not how I want to be known. ”
AT THE LOWER LEVELS
Tiffany Chang is a fan of Se-Yeon’s. The amateur player doesn’t blame the “Overwatch” pro for shying away from attention as a woman. Chang sometimes gets the urge to do the same.
Chang hosts Twitch streams of herself playing “Overwatch” and other games to collect donations for charity, and routinely plays online against strangers. Women like Chang encounter a lot of toxic behavior, much of it the same sort of trolling women see elsewhere on the internet. They’ll get remarks about their appearance, the tone of their voice, and more than anything, a dismissal of their ability and knowledge in the game.
Even if Chang can tune out the harassment, it can still affect her performance. Esports like LoL and “Overwatch” are heavily teamwork and strategy dependent. Each player chooses a character, and those characters are designed for specific roles, like attacking, holding territory or healing. A good “Overwatch” team needs tanks and healers, just like a football team needs quarterbacks and left tackles.
Women are often pressured to play as female characters, and female healers in particular. In “Overwatch,” that character is usually Mercy, a fairy-like flying doctor who can heal and resurrect teammates. Chang has been harassed for playing as other characters, but also gets snide comments when she plays as Mercy. In certain games, it becomes impossible for her to assume any role, even if she’s simply trying to help the team.
“You want me to do this, and you’re going to harass me for it? ” she said. “It’s definitely something that we face. ”
Briah Luther gets the same treatment in LoL. Sometimes when the 35-year-old school teacher shouts out a key bit of information, like the location of an attacking opponent, men simply ignore her, leading to a huge tactical advantage for opponents. It’s a common complaint from female gamers, and that lack of trust can sink a team and affect players’ rankings in the competitive sphere.
“The second they realize I’m a woman, I no longer have power,” Luther said.
Ella Lasky has pro gaming aspirations, and the 12-year-old is on a promising path. She is one of the top players in the “Minecraft” City Champs circuit operated by Super League Gaming. Most importantly to her parents, video games have played a key role in her social development.
“It’s given her a sense of pride,” said Ella’s mother, Johanna.
Ella was featured on a Nickelodeon TV show about the league, and that exposed her to a different side of esports. Internet commenters did not respond well to a woman taking center stage on a video game broadcast.
“‘Why is the girl so loud? Why is the girl shouting? The girl needs to shut up. She’s annoying me with her voice,’” Johanna recalled reading. “I explained to her, ‘I believe part of this is that since you’re a girl, you’re being targeted.’ ”
Ella wasn’t fazed and intends to keep gambling. But she’s keenly aware of the assumptions made by many in the esports community based on her gender.
“I don’t believe girl gamers get as much respect as boy gamers,” she explained.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
Publishers have made advancements responding to harassment complaints because the Gamergate scandal, however, video games are still not a distance known for gender equality. Riot Games, which publishes LoL and works the LCS, was criticized just this summer for the treatment of female employees in a narrative by Kotaku. Riot apologized publicly to fans and employees, and it has outlined a strategy of actions to deal with the difficulties.
More in-person gaming might help. Women say boys and men tend to be better behaved without the anonymity of internet play. The Laskys believe ’s one benefit of the Super League contests, where teams collect in movie theaters to compete face.
Some fans also are disappointed by the number of women encouraged by the streaming service Twitch, in addition to game publishers.
1 difficulty at the expert level is the housing scenarios for elite teams. Esports athletes are usually put in swanky team home, however sharing a living space with a group of college-aged men isn’t perfect for lots of women.
Subsequently there’s the stress about the spotlight. Fans have dismissed barrier-breaking female gamers as mere PR stuntsas well as the burden is even greater on girls whenever they find themselves on this stage.
“It ultimately comes down to the community and also the fan base,” Kim said. “(Women) don’t need to cope with the toxicity. They don’t need to deal with the media going mad over them. They don’t need to deal with living with the boys or getting preferential treatment. They don’t need to deal with all of that. They just kind of want to play. ”
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