Photo by Philippe Wojazer / Reuters

How We Fight For Women In E-Sports

Although a survey conducted by Statista found that within the United States roughly 41% of gamers comprised of females in 2020, the discrimination and harassment women face while gaming is all too common–something that may stem from the belief that they are a minority within the gaming community, but grew into something much more monstrous and harmful. 

Stereotypically believed to be poor gamers or just flat-out uncommon, women have to grapple with these stereotypes while participating in multiplayer games or gaming communities. While the issue is less prevalent in singleplayer games, in multiplayer games that require players to communicate or work together, the issue is exemplified. Because of this, some will use voicechangers or altogether avoid voicechat, create gamertags that are unisex or masculine-seeming, or avoid certain competitive games that require team communication or a reliance of teammates, scared that if they make a mistake or even speak they’ll receive vitriol. If they do use voicechat, many find that their male gaming counterparts will harass them, throw their games on purpose, or team kill them. Some go as far as to dodge games or reprimand female gamers for not playing their proper “roles” in games (primarily support or healing roles). 

This issue of sexism is something that has become a persistent, almost staplemark of the gaming community. For example, the infamous Gamergate harassment campaign in 2014 that specifically targeted women who worked in game development, as well as female gamers in general. This harassment campaign was also not just simple sexist remarks but extended as far as rape or death threats, highlighting the true danger and harm of these stereotypes. If women participate in Youtube gaming or Twitch streaming, they are often told their success amounts to how attractive and sexualized they look. However, this issue extends to every corner within the gaming community.

E-Sports, Gaming, and Sexism

Photo of Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon by Robert Paul

Within the newly emerging but increasingly popular e-sports industry, we find that most pro gamers are male. If a team does include a female member, that player often has to face issues or accusations from the player base–including harassment on social media, or specific and harsh criticisms when making mistakes, or even accusations of cheating. One notable example of this is Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon, a competitive pro Overwatch player for Shangai Dragons, who was accused of cheating due to her mouse control, a skill that was not only comparable to her male counterparts, but better. Because of this, she was investigated by Blizzard but was found to be innocent, especially after she livestreamed her mouse movement while playing. But despite being proved innocent, the damage had already been done. The harassment Geguri faced from both the players who accused her and the community during the entire debacle left her in tears. It was almost as if the player base could not believe that a woman would have the skills necessary to compete, even if those skills are comparable to their male counterparts. If they present better skills, the harassment and disbelief only gets worse. This harassment can be especially violent if that gamer is a trans-woman. 

Rampant transphobia within the gaming community is a well-documented issue, but trans-women have to experience sexism and disbelief on a scale that is unlike any other. If they compete in all-women’s tournaments, many transphobic comments will claim that it is cheating. Most of these comments come from cisgender men, not from the women themselves who will be competing. However, there is also sexism involved within that harassment itself. If a trans-woman displays incredible skill in aim or gameplay, that disbelief of their gender is incredibly common. There are recorded instances within the VALORANT community of bets being made on whether or not an enemy competitive player was actually a man or woman. Many transgender women also avoid using voicechat, especially if their voice is not deemed “feminine” enough to pass without incident.  What’s worse is if their voice is feminine, then they experience sexism on top of transphobia. To protect and fight for women in e-sports, we must remember trans women in our conversation because they are women, and deserve protection and mention, too.

Another popular misconception is that women do not like to play competitive games and therefore it is less common to find female players to add to rosters, rather than it being an issue of sexism. While it may appear that less women play competitive games, much of this might come from unsupportive communities. In singleplayer games, there is no voice chat or public open-communication that would give players a way to be toxic and sexist, therefore becoming more appealing to women. In singleplayer communities, there is also a sense of solidarity and support amongst the fanbases–including games like Stardew Valley, Sims, The Elder Scrolls or singleplayer story games. In MMORPG’s, for example the earliest example being World of Warcraft, the community was overall supportive of women, and the most prominent competitive aspect would be the PvP battlegrounds or arenas, game modes where communication was sparse either way.

However, when it comes to competitive games, primarily FPS, there are communication modules included with the purpose of helping a team win, but are often abused and instead used for toxicity and harassment. The harassment women face in competitive games dissuaded some from playing as more and more time went on, something that is slowly changing as communities become more supportive. For example, the 2020 released first-person shooter game VALORANT has blossomed as a popular competitive game. Within that community, an all-women Discord server called Galorants has climbed to 10,000 members in less than a year–all comprising of women gamers–a testament to the popularity of competitive games amongst female gamers. However, this support of female gamers comes primarily between female gamers. The female player base took charge in creating their own communities, support systems, and accountability for harassment. For the instances of harassment they face, they often use the report system to no avail, but can take the instance to social media where they can receive support. Even then, there are few male gamers who support women. They will discredit their stories, continue the harassment, or laugh at it. So as far as support goes, women gamers have created a community between themselves.

But is that enough? Not quite. Within gaming communities, support between female gamers is necessary and appreciated, but it does not change the discrimination women face in the gaming industry and community as a whole. This issue extends further beyond the community, but seeps into the professional gaming industry as a whole, e-sports and development alike. Due to these stereotypes and discrimination, women’s opportunities and support within the professional e-sports industry has become lacking or, at times, downright exclusionary. And while Galorants and other similar women-comprised communities have taken strides to include women in e-sports and provide chances for them to create teams and compete, the opportunities for female pro-gamers is still lacking in large-scale tournaments. So in what ways can we fight for women in e-sports? How do we build both a competitive pro-community comprised of women, but also give them the opportunities they deserve for their hard work? 

Thumbnail from the C9 White Youtube Channel

Ways to Fight for Inclusion

The first stride would be larger scale tournaments for all-female teams. By providing opportunities for women to participate in these tournaments, you not only gain the audience of female gamers to watch the tournaments themselves, but also give more incentive for women to play in competitive games with the goal to improve. While most gamers play competitive games casually in general, or at least play without the desire to compete professionally, there are many women who wish to be professional, just like their male counterparts. If larger scale tournaments were more common, that hope to become professional will be much more feasible. Women are barely a minority in the gaming community, making it plausible that they would (and should) receive just as many opportunities. And although many sexist comments claim that women are simply “less” interested in competitive games or e-sports, this could primarily be due to similar reasons why women don’t get involved with games like poker or chess–a long standing reputation of places where women regularly face discrimination or unequal opporutunities. If that problem was partly remedied with an increase in opportunities, women would feel more inclined to participate in competitive games.

The second way to fight for women in e-sports would be to provide opportunities to compete on co-ed teams or compete against all-male teams. Although many traditionally athletic sports are divided between genders, citing physical reasons, that physicality becomes less of a viable reason when considering e-sports, something that is based on both skill and player game sense. With more practice and more opportunities, many all-female teams may find themselves on the same level as their male counterparts. One instance of this would be C9 White, which are a relatively new team and were still able to hold their own in VALORANT tournaments against all-male teams. For co-ed teams, the possibilities are endless, you could join an all-female team or have the opportunity to join the roster with male players. To cite Geguri’s skill once again, it’s clear that women have the potential to hold their own among male players. This opportunity is also beneficial for teams themselves. There are many skill sets or talented players that may be left out if women are excluded from joining male teams.

The third would be accountability– for there to be no sexism, discrimination, or harassment for women in games that goes unpunished. To do this, more accountability and consequences need to be enforced by both the community and the management teams behind games themselves. Reporting systems need to be improved, with harsher and more frequent bans for harassment. The community needs to denounce sexism when encountered during gameplay. Sexism needs to be reprimanded and reported when encountered during tournaments in stream chats or comments. Through this, harassment and discrimination will become less common and less appealing. And the women who are participating in these games will get the justice they deserve for the harassment they face.

However, the fourth and most important way would be for the community to take a turn itself. For women to have to report, or block, or reprimand sexism would mean that the harassment itself has already occurred, that the damage has already been done. When dealing with toxicity in game, it can often affect game performance and, more importantly, it can hurt someone. It’s already known that the videogame community is infamous for its toxicity. Whether that be sexism, racism, transphobia, harassment or out of game threats, every gamer has dealt with toxicity at one point. If the community itself took a turn to become more positive and less toxic, then women would be able to use voice chat without worry, or would be able to display their personality more in game. The same goes for e-sports. If the community itself were to change and become more positive and welcoming, women in e-sports would have an easier time competing. 

A Long Road to Change

Even though it may be a long road to change, through these steps we can improve the gaming community by both rectifying the rampant sexism and harassment while also providing more opportunities for female pro-gamers. But the stance is as simple as this: Women (including trans women) deserve a place in the e-sports industry. But the issue is not as simple as whether or not they deserve a place in the industry, it’s whether we are providing the opportunities and support necessary to achieve that place. So far, the answer is no, not quite. As time goes on and the industry begins to change and become more inclusive, we are seeing that support and opportunity, but it is far and few between. If we uproot the long-standing stereotypes and foster a change, while having a hard stance on accountability for any lingering harassment, we can move away from simply declaring women can become professional gamers, but that they should become professional gamers. Because women don’t simply deserve a presence in e-sports, it’s that esports is made better with their presence.

The 7^th day of the 7^th month is not just my brother’s birthday but also Bungie Day. Celebrating Bungie Day started as a player-hosted celebration of Bungie and the games they make. Then Bungie decided to jump in and use Bungie Day as a way to celebrate its community both locally and virtually. During this time of isolation and restricted access to places outside my home, I have been more thankful than ever for my clan, my Destiny friends and fireteam, and my Destiny community. It has helped me to stay connected, and even on bad days, I always feel better getting on Destiny to kick some bad guy butt.

In a video released today, Bungie breaks down the different organizations they are supporting, not only as a part of Bungie Day, but as ongoing support during the pandemic insanity. I was so moved by the way Bungie has been helping their local and gaming communities, I wanted share with you, our Icon community, some about what they’re doing.

Giving back to the local community

Firstly, due to the pandemic, kids are out of school, and for many kids from lower income homes, that means their regular meal source is now gone. The Boys and Girls Club has started a meal program for kids out of school, and Bungie has financially partnered with them to support this program. They have now helped provide over 30,000 meals to children since the pandemic started.

A big way Bungie is helping their community is through the Bungie Foundation’s iPads for Kids program, their official Bungie Day 2020 fundraiser, that is supplying iPads to hospitalized children, not only for entertainment and therapy but also as a communication tool. Being hospitalized as a child is hard enough, but during the pandemic, these pediatric patients are much more isolated as the hospitals try to reduce their exposure risks, something that is especially hard on kids. The iPads allow these kids to communicate with family members and also help reduce the amount of times that health care workers have to enter their rooms, helping minimize exposure to keep them safer. As a former health care worker myself, I am so moved by this program. I’ve seen first-hand how hard being hospitalized is on kids. Bringing these kids joy and peace of mind through donated iPads is truly an incredible gift.

Another way Bungie is helping their community is by hosting a fundraiser and donating to Direct Relief, a program that is supplying invaluable PPE (personal protective equipment) to healthcare workers currently at the frontlines of the pandemic. COVID-19 has really financially stretched what protective equipment our hospitals have available for their workers, and this is an incredible program that is helping share some of that burden to protect those on the front lines of this pandemic. Bungie hosted a fundraiser for them that raised over $700,000!

Bungie has also partnered with Make-A-Wish foundation to help grant terminally ill children specifically with technology wishes. They have been helping make those wishes come true in new and innovative ways during the pandemic, so these kids can still get their wishes granted while in isolation.

Celebrating with the Destiny community

In true Bungie fashion, they are celebrating Bungie Day and supporting these different programs with their Destiny community through loot, sweet wonderful loot! We all love good loot, this is why we always come back for more Destiny. And Bungie has some great loot for us both in-game and real life.

Real life: The Bungie Store is currently having a huge sale on many of their items to celebrate the community and give us some sweet, sweet deals.

In-game: If you make a direct donation of $25 or more to iPads for Kids (100% goes to the program by the way), then Bungie will email you the code for a beautiful unique emblem.

Another in-game way you can support and get loot is to purchase the Exotic Empathetic Ghost Shell from Eververse, which is freaking adorable I must say, and 100% of those profits will go to the iPads for Kids program as well. It has perks of Guiding Light, Speed Demon, and a random destination perk.

Destiny Updates

Moments of Triumph

In addition to all the Bungie Day celebrations, this week is just an exciting one in Destiny. Moments of Triumph dropped at reset on Tuesday. There are 28 total triumphs, some quite challenging, to overcome this year in order to get the seal, but the rewards are pretty cool.

Raid reward limits lifted

Yes, to celebrate and also help us achieve the MMXX seal, Bungie has lifted the weekly reward limits on the Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, Spire of Stars, Crown of Sorrow, and Scourge of the Past raids. If you don’t yet have the exotics for these, now is the time to spam the raids and get them! Especially because some (perhaps all?) of these raids will be going away once Beyond Light starts in September.

Season of Arrivals

The season progresses further this week with two new exotic quests, another story mission giving us another piece to the Darkness puzzle, and a new Contact event on Titan. The Pyramid ships are advancing, and if you look at the game map, you can now see ships over Io, Titan, Mars, and Mercury. The number of Taken enemies has grown on Io and Titan. And, I’ve noticed while playing that enemies seem to be hitting harder and more aggressively than usual. As the story unfolds, it is also building on itself, making the excitement of what is to come ever more enticing.

Well that’s it for now guardians. Let’s celebrate Bungie and Destiny together as a gaming community. Stay safe out there. I’ll see you on the battlefield with my Ghost.

See more information and get some cool high resolution wallpapers here.

Apex Legends Season 5 – Fortune’s Favor is set to launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Respawn has further expanded on the game into Season 5 by including the new Legend Loba, new Quests mode, major map changes, an all-new Battle Pass, and more.

• New Legend: Her powerful teleportation skill allows Loba to get a jump on her foes, while her passive ability gives her a leg up when scoping out loot. Loba’s ultimate ability, the Black Market, will open up a one-stop-shop for her squadmates to collect the best loot in the area.

• Quests – A brand new mode in Apex Legends, players looking for riches, glory and additional story can hunt for treasure and participate in a nine-week series of PvE quests in Season 5.

• Map Changes: Loba’s entrance to King’s Canyon to hunt down and destroy Revenant has had a ripple effect on the arena, shaking up beloved drop-in locations including Skull Town, and changing how competitors may choose to navigate their next strike or defensive hold.

• Battle Pass – An all new battle pass boasting over 100 exclusive items including skins, Battle Pass content and Apex Packs.

• Ranked Leagues Series 4: Ranked Leagues Series 4 is introducing “reconnect.” If players get disconnected due to internet weather, a quick brownout, or a crash in the game they can now restart and reload back into the session.