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[eSports] Insanity. International e-Sports Federation Says: No girls allowed!
vagrant_winds
Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XXRegistered User regular
Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XXRegistered User regular
I... I... wha?
Full article here: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/02/hearthstone-tournament/
And another one here: http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/2/5864437/hearthstone-esports-gender-blizzard
Long story short, the Finish eSports Federation is banning Female players form playing in its Hearthstone and other tournaments because if they won the qualifier, they wouldn't be able to compete in the IeSF World Championship. It would 'be a shame' if a Girl beat a Boy at a fucking card game and would advance to the world stage, only to get disqualified because she has ladyparts when we could have had an inferior Boy compete in their place.
What are the events at the IeSF World Champinoship? Dota 2 (Males onle). Starcraft 2 (separate and segraded Male + Female competitions). Hearthstone (Males only). Ultra Street Fighter IV (Males only). Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Females only). You read that right. Apparently only men are allowed to play Card Games and MOBAs and gender dictates what Fighting Game a player is allowed to play, not personal preference.
The official statement?
"The decision to divide male and female competitions was made in accordance with international sports authorities, as part of our effort to promote e-Sports as a legitimate sports."
Translation: "Real" sports are divided by gender, thus in our effort to transform e-Sports into "Real" sports we will arbitrarily divide our video games with no physical components at all by gender as well, because we're all giant assholes and are terrified of the concept of men getting their asses kicked by women. Never mind that e-Sports aren't gender divided in North America and you see girls kicking ass at Evo (and other fighting game tournaments), MOBA (LoL & Dota 2). and various online tournaments all the damn fucking time but Europe has to bend over and bow to sexist policies started in Korea.
This makes me sick. There's no fucking logical reason for this besides blatant sexism.
Edit: Score one for internet-wide rage (and probably notification to the sponsors)! All IeSF formally "Male Only" events are now “Open for All” events.
http://ie-sf.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=iesf_notice&wr_id=105
Edit #2: It was Blizzard that laid down the smackdown.
Full article here: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/02/hearthstone-tournament/
And another one here: http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/2/5864437/hearthstone-esports-gender-blizzard
Long story short, the Finish eSports Federation is banning Female players form playing in its Hearthstone and other tournaments because if they won the qualifier, they wouldn't be able to compete in the IeSF World Championship. It would 'be a shame' if a Girl beat a Boy at a fucking card game and would advance to the world stage, only to get disqualified because she has ladyparts when we could have had an inferior Boy compete in their place.
What are the events at the IeSF World Champinoship? Dota 2 (Males onle). Starcraft 2 (separate and segraded Male + Female competitions). Hearthstone (Males only). Ultra Street Fighter IV (Males only). Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Females only). You read that right. Apparently only men are allowed to play Card Games and MOBAs and gender dictates what Fighting Game a player is allowed to play, not personal preference.
The official statement?
"The decision to divide male and female competitions was made in accordance with international sports authorities, as part of our effort to promote e-Sports as a legitimate sports."
Translation: "Real" sports are divided by gender, thus in our effort to transform e-Sports into "Real" sports we will arbitrarily divide our video games with no physical components at all by gender as well, because we're all giant assholes and are terrified of the concept of men getting their asses kicked by women. Never mind that e-Sports aren't gender divided in North America and you see girls kicking ass at Evo (and other fighting game tournaments), MOBA (LoL & Dota 2). and various online tournaments all the damn fucking time but Europe has to bend over and bow to sexist policies started in Korea.
This makes me sick. There's no fucking logical reason for this besides blatant sexism.
Edit: Score one for internet-wide rage (and probably notification to the sponsors)! All IeSF formally "Male Only" events are now “Open for All” events.
http://ie-sf.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=iesf_notice&wr_id=105
Edit #2: It was Blizzard that laid down the smackdown.
Blizzard has been in contact with the organization about the segregation imposed upon tournaments of its card game Hearthstone and understood that it updated the rules "to make it clear that their Hearthstone tournament will be open to all players."
"One of our goals with eSports is to ensure that there's a vibrant and also inclusive community around our games," Blizzard said in a statement provided to Polygon. "We do not allow the use of our games in tournaments that do not support this, and are working with our partners to ensure they share the same goal."
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One of the great things about e-sports is that it doesn't have to be limited by the barriers that are in place for mainstream sports. Male, Female, young, old...doesn't matter! Anyone can theoretically compete! E-Sports should be TRUMPETING that fact from the rooftops! Not trying to change it.
Hilariously, another response: "International standards. IeSF is very close to get e-Sports recognized as a true sports like it should be. Part of that efforts is to comply with the international sports regulations. For example, chess is also divided into male / female leagues."
Because Chess doesn't allow Women to compete in the normal "Mens" competition. And the highest ranked female chess player for the last 20 years hasn't only ever competed in the "Mens" competition and never the Women's league. I must be miss-remembering things. Oh wait. It's the exact opposite.
(Non-sarcastic translation: Judit Polgár, the best female chess player in the world, eight top ranked player overall in the entire world, and winner of multiple tournaments has only ever competed in the "Mens" chess tournaments and never any "Women-only" tournaments.)
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Not a great week to be a woman gamer apparently (more than I usual I imagine).
What's so hard? She's a girl that kicks ass at SC2.
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Do big organizations like this need some sort of official Blizzard stamp of approval to operate with their games? It'll be interesting to see what their response is to this mess.
They technically don't need the seal of approval, but good luck getting a worthwhile SC2 tournament without it. Blizzard sets up remote servers at major tournaments to take care of online lag. So Blizzard could step up in a big way here.
The segregation of the genders in physical sports makes sense on the basis of the general disparity between the genders in physical ability.
It obviously makes no goddamn sense at all in a "sport" played entirely by people sitting on their asses in front of screens.
That it was apparently motivated by a desire to seem like a "real" (physical) sport only shows how stupid and counter-productive that desire is. Video games are not a weird fringe thing only nerds like anymore. An entire generation of people have grown up liking sports and also liking video games. We don't need to try to pretend "eSports" are the same thing as physical sports to get people to like them; "eSports" will only ever look ridiculous when they try.
I think anyone that wants to gender separate e-sports tournaments might struggle with the concept.
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Who are they? I hadn't heard about this, and my attempts at googling for more info are turning up mostly satirical articles.
There have been female hockey players who have played alongside/against men, although I don't know of any who've done so at the top level except in exhibitions. One example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manon_Rhéaume
I am not aware of any women who currently play in predominantly male (American) football leagues. There have been some women who have played on men's college football teams.
Eh, there's non-sexist reasons for wanting women's only tournaments, even in e-sports. Women do face discrimination when it comes to competitive sports, no matter either it's a physical sport or not(as seen here), and women's leagues can be a way to help counter that, from a feminist perspective. The idea being similar to the region locking in e-sports; providing a environment where female players can get established and make a name for themselves. Scarlett in Starcraft 2 got her start from the women's only Iron Lady series of tournaments, for example.
Of course, that's an argument for women's only tournaments, and not an argument for hard gender segregation, especially at the top levels. IeSF is clearly in the wrong here.
Jennifer Welter, two time Woman's Football gold medalist, is a player for the Texas Revolution (League: Indoor Football League) and was promoted to Starter for the 2014 season.
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Is contacting Blizzard a possibility here that might actually yield results?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Mitchell
not mentioned in this article: a few days after Mitchell struck out Lou Gherig and Babe Ruth, the league commissioner voided her contract and declared women "unfit to play baseball"
I don't know whether to Awesome this for the strike out, or Hail Hydra this for the blatant sexism after being beaten by a girl.
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People are contacting Blizzard on Twitter already, but it doesn't hurt to add another voice.
And I'd imagine Blizzard could have something to say about it considering they were able to stop StarCraft tournaments for a while there.
I mean, "being beaten by a girl would upset people" is an actual justification by the organizing body? Good fucking lord.
Thing is, you don't need segregated leagues to promote diversity. Want to make the league safe for women to complete? The minute a male player (or spectator) starts being a sexist shit, they're removed from competition permanently. People will either get in line quick, or the whole thing will burn to the ground, either of which are OK by me considering the end goal.
You can segregate women in an effort to avoid discrimination, or you could say "don't be fucking sexist dickwads" and enforce rules against it when it happens.
I hate when "but people will be mean to them" is the reason to exclude a group of people from something. How about taking on the real problem, which is the people who are actually in the wrong?
not sure you read the article
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Dawg, you can't link to something and tell people not to click on it. People gonna click on it! Like I just did!
Because I'm a dumbass!
Ugh...
I read this article:
What. The fuck.
It's still utter and total bullshit that any level of this competitive scene is gender-restricted.
Looks like I'm as stupid at e-sport details as I am with actual sport details.
The Finnish organizers don't seem to have any ill intent in this business besides having to the tow dumbshit IeSF policies if they want to send players.
One of those funny old laws.
themoreyouknow.jpg
Round of X is a common term in international football competitions
Hey good to know that auto racing isn't a legitimate sport. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples as well.