I’m surprised at how long it takes for some companies
to learn that the internet is a thing now, and that a good action should
be executed before fan or customer backlash forces them to. This is the
case of the male-only championship policy of the International
e-Sports Federation (IeSF), how it affected the actions of a Finnish qualifying
tournament, and how the internet told them to knock that noise off.
Yesterday afternoon I read some disturbing details on the Hearthstone competition
at the Finnish Assembly Summer 2014 eSports tournament coming up at the
end of this month.
You had to have two things:
(1) Finnish citizenry
(2) A Y-chromosome
Yes you read that correctly – the Hearthstone tournament
was classified as being for Finnish men only. So all
those ladies with their two X chromosomes were asked to hit the bricks.
The winner of this tournament would qualify for the
IeSF World Championships later this fall, where they will be representing
Finland in the contest. So I get the part where you have to be a bona
fide Finn to enter the digital ring here. But why – why why why in seven
hells weren’t women allowed to play? It’s 2014, and for the life of me I
couldn’t figure out why.
PC Gamer,
who picked up and later confirmed this information from a member of the Reddit
Hearthstone community
named
Karuta, seemed to be
wondering the same thing. So they asked Markus Koskivirta, the head admin
for the Assembly Summer 2014 Hearthstone Qualifier:
"Your information is indeed correct, the tournament is
open to Finnish male players only. In accordance with the International
e-Sports Federation’s (IeSF) tournament regulations, since the main tournament
event is open to male players only. This is to avoid possible conflicts (e.g. a
female player eliminating a male player during RO8) among other things."
Oh. So that’s the issue. The IeSF championships
are men only. So if a woman wins the Finnish tournament, then they
wouldn’t be eligible to compete there. Further, according to the
IeSF’s site and
Facebook
event page, the IeSF even went as far as to have different games for
different genders at the worlds. Male competitors will be playing
Hearthstone,
Dota 2, Starcraft 2, and
Ultra Street Fighter IV while
the female competitors will be playing
Starcraft 2 and
Tekken
Tag Tournament 2. In this case, The organizers of Assembly Summer
2014 are doing it this way because of IeSF rules, and
doing
it under protest.
So to make it even worse, women were
only to compete in 2 games at the championship level while the men’s
division got 4. And not only that, but while they will both be playing
Starcraft
2, it won’t be together.
Naturally this caused some waves in the gaming community, as
it damn well should. A number of users took the IeSF to task on
their Facebook page, and received some answers explanations thinly
sliced excuses for those asking questions. Direct from
their Facebook page:
"Let me elaborate a bit on the decision to create both
male and female competitions. This decision serves two main goals of the IeSF:
1 – promoting female players. We know that e-Sports is
largely dominated by male players and females players are actually a portion of
the overall player base. By hosting a female-only competition, we strive to
promote female gaming on a global scale.
2 – 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.But, we want you to know that we listen to you, and
appreciate your feedback! Our efforts does not clash with the community opinion
– but on the contrary – we are here for the future of e-Sports and will do our
best to promote it as best as we can.”
Ok.
As I tried to bend my head around it all I could come up
with were different ways of saying WTF:
Why is an all-female gaming competition the only way one can
come up with to highlight and promote female gaming on a global scale? By
making it a different thing, what’s being said is that it’s different than
men’s gaming, and in this particular case, unequal as well. If equality
was a factor to the IeSF, then there wouldn’t be male and female brackets in
their
Starcraft 2 contests. But there are, and that’s absolutely
absurd. The one and singular reason I was able to come up with was that
maybe some female gamers would be more open to joining all-female tournaments
due to the boy’s club that is e-sports as a whole and the very real sexual
harassment that happens in the gaming community. A lot of these cases began
coming to light (well,
really coming into light
publicly) a couple years ago. We remember
Aris Bakhtanians’ creepy-as-sin antics at CrossAssault
and his defense that sexual harassment was “part of the culture.” And we
all remember the steady stream of misogyny and vitriol
flowing Anna Sarkeesian’s way just by merely
suggesting that the design of female video game characters fit lazy stereotypes
and tropes. Last year
Starcraft 2 player Eve
retired and deleted her social accounts due to sexual
harassment. So there may be a lot of points leading to a women’s division
being a logical thing to make women feel more comfortable at events. But
it still feels wrong.
Then
Ben
Kuchera over at Polygon actually summed up my thoughts on that far
more eloquently than I could: “The onus is on YOU to make every player feel
welcome, safe and invited. Segregating the genders is evidence that you
have failed at that job, or simply don’t feel you’re up to the task.” I
can’t really put it any better than that. Now instead, IeSF had decided
to lean into that image and strengthen it further.
Are they trying to do something like weight classes
like there are in grappling sports? Is it to make eSports the “true sport”
it deserves to be? Well luckily I have some experience in grappling
sports, so allow me some words on the matter.
Here’s the thing about e-sports and (hell I’ll say it,
someone should) real sports. They’re different.
I’m into martial arts and have been so competitively in the past, where
we’re divided by gender and weight class in competition. The last time I
competed (many moons ago) I fought heavyweight, meaning everyone i was matched
up with was like me - men above 219 lbs. Why? Because that’s fair,
and a fair contest is what it’s all about. Making me square off against a
lightweight weighing in at 130 is crazy, because the odds would be
ridiculously stacked in my favor on size and weight. The thing with games
on the other hand, especially one like Hearthstone, is that
it’s purely a mental exercise in strategy. Hearthstone is
just about strategy and fun, where a player gets out the effort they put in.
There’s no muscles or weight involved. It’s mind vs mind. A
match between two opponents of equal skill would not favor one or the other due
to physical prowess or strength. So why can’t everyone compete in an open
contest? It’s another message that men and women aren’t on the same level.
Well, with all the posts on the IeSF’s
Facebook page and all the backlash on Twitter and Reddit and most social media
and the internet at large, As of this morning (Friday July 3, 2014), the IeSF
has reversed their position on a men-only championship. In a release
on their site today they publicly changed their
tune:
On 2nd of July, 2014, the IeSF’s policy
about gender division, which separates the female division and the male
division, has been brought into question. The IeSF has listened to the gaming
community and has carefully considered their opinions. Upon hearing these
concerns, the IeSF convoked an emergency session of the IeSF Board to respond.As a result, IeSF shall have two event categories: “Open
for All” events and events that are reserved for women. The events which were
initially set aside as the male division will now be open to all genders, and
the events which were initially set as the female division will remain as they
were.
The IeSF Board addressed its reason for maintaining
events for women, citing the importance of providing female gamers with ample
opportunities to compete in e-Sports—currently a male-dominated industry.
Female gamers make up half of the world’s gaming population, but only a small
percentage of e-Sports competitors are women. The IeSF’s female-only
competitions aim to bring more diversity to competitive play by improving the
representation of women at these events. Without efforts to improve
representation, e-Sports can’t achieve true gender equality.
Well damn.
Is it the ideal scenario? No, not really. I mean
don’t get me wrong, I’m very pleased that the main championship is now open to
all and that everyone has a chance to play for the
title. But it still classifies a women’s division as a separate entity
from the main championship. Arguments can be made for it along the same
data I presented a little ways back up this page, but it’s a band-aid on a much
deeper wound.
The problem is a culture that prevents everyone to feel safe
and included as part of that culture. While change – albeit very slow
change – is happening, that culture has a long way to go for real intrinsic
transformation into a self-policing community where everyone feels welcomed,
and more importantly, safe. And until that’s achieved, more and more of
these band aids will have to be applied. And while yes, they may stop the
bleeding for a short time, the underlying cut will still remain. I wish
there were answers for an easy fix, but systemic change is anything but a
speedy process.
While the IeSF made a change for the main championship, it
took a great amount of internet backlash to do it. The fact still remains
that without input from the masses, they themselves thought a men only
championship was a good idea. So I’ll call this a good step in the right
direction, but with a long way to go for the community.
