All-Female Pro League of Legends Teams? Just a Matter of Time, Says Riot

[ron1n]

I still don't understand why e-sports titles have 'female only' leagues.

I mean, in certain sports, it makes sense because of the inherent physical difference between the average male vs the average female.

But no such advantage is present when it comes to competitive gaming.

If there are good enough female players/teams, they will rise through the ranks and earn their way.

Why women only? Why not just have the men and the women on the same team?

The point is not to overcome any inherent disadvantage that may exist (because there obviously isn't one) but to overcome the current male dominated scene through encouragement of participation. Because this style of thing is largely a male thing (70% I think were the latest numbers for lol?) and traditionally hardcore gaming is a male past time the institutions of e-sports have inherited a male heavy pro base. This makes it hard for women to enter, even if we assume there is absolutely no sexism going on.

It is a self perpetuating problem - There are only men so women think it is a boys only club and that women are not welcome so very few women join so there are only men so women think...

This set of circumstance can also lead to sexism and exclusion. [ENGAGING HYPOTHETICAL SEXIST ATTITUDE!] After all, something like 30% of lol players are female. Why aren't 30% of pros female? obviously it is because girls are bad at lol.[DISENGAGING HYPOTHETICAL SEXIST ATTITUDE!]

The womens league is meant to combat this problem by creating an area where it is clear women are welcome. This strategy has been successful in the past (chess did this, for example.)

I fully support the idea myself. It is a proven effective strategy in dealing with a potential sexism problem that has no negative impact on the sport or male players.

So your solution to combat sexism and exclusion is to separate them by sex into their own safe proverbial kiddy pool in full display of everyone?

These girl-only tournaments just reinforce the notion that the girls 'aren't good enough to play in the big leagues' and creates the very negative stigma you would supposedly be trying to prevent.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

1) There's "no reason" female pro teams haven't taken off? I'm going to go out on a limb and take a vague guess...it might possibly have to do with the typical turnout being something like this:

One could be excused for thinking the above were male-only tournaments, but there's no such thing - virtually anyone can to sign up (or just be part of the audience).

2) Why even talk about "all female" tournaments? Segregating females into their own tournament (in which no males are allowed) will achieve WHAT exactly? Right now all major e-sport tournaments are fully open to all genders and ages. That's one of the biggest strengths of e-sports - it brings together all genders, races and ages across the world and judges them purely on their capability.

In order for the world to respect female pro gamers, those females have to climb the same ladder everyone else is climbing. No gender-division bullshit - face ALL participants and let the results speak for themselves.

 

[antipunt]

Cause we all know how well it went LAST time hahaha

Inb4: Sirens

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Separate 'all-comers' and 'women only' tournaments seems to work out for Chess.

The purpose being, of course, that because Chess "looks" like it's male dominated itself leads to fewer women being inclined to participate, so having a minority based tournament structure helps turn that perception around a bit.

Given the starkly harsher culture surrounding LoL then that of Chess, which had it's own rash of "women will never be as good as men", I could see why a Women's only tournament makes sense.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

In short? No.

A big part of the set up is that it isn't "Men only, Women only." Women can and do participate in the general tournaments. The purpose of the Women only league and tournaments is to interest women who wouldn't otherwise be interested in competing in what's seen as a male dominated arena. And considering the vitriol that can be expressed in video game communities for games like LoL, I consider that a good thing.

EDIT: Cleaned up some embarrassing English problems. i tiiep gud.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

The purpose being, of course, that because Chess "looks" like it's male dominated itself leads to fewer women being inclined to participate, so having a minority based tournament structure helps turn that perception around a bit.

All that does is reinforce the perception that women simply can't compete with men :S

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

As opposed to reinforcing the notion that "girls don't play these sorts of games"? Which is where we are now. There are always a couple, like the top-ranked female Chess player who's never played in the Women's league.

But if you want more women to join up you have to get rid of the perception that only men play LoL.

 

[mrdude2010]

At a certain point, physiological differences in things like reaction time are going to catch up. To compete against the best largely male teams, they're going to have to get very good at anticipating things.

 

[Jennacide]

They did try to make a pro team once, Team Siren. Although they hadn't quite proven themselves ready for the pro leagues http://www.gameskinny.com/hzi5j/league-of-legends-team-siren-disbands-valuable-lessons-learned

Yeah, but Team Siren put us back like 5 years in equality. Gamers like myself were downright offended by their "reveal" video, and they constantly fucked everything up they could. Before the reveal even happened one member had bailed because of the affair going on between the captain and their coach, plus her awful attitude. Then it came out the reason they had a jungler that was only Plat 1 is because they had originally got a D1/Challenger jungler, but kicked her off the team when they discovered she was a transexual. So then it was apparent it was merely a publicity stunt, and nothing to do with proving girls could compete on the same level.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

At a certain point, physiological differences in things like reaction time are going to catch up. To compete against the best largely male teams, they're going to have to get very good at anticipating things.

Err males can anticipate things too. Also you're not supposed to actually SAY stuff like "males react faster" here, that would be interpreted as sexist.

Just sit back and watch :/

 

[Cronenberg1]

At a certain point, physiological differences in things like reaction time are going to catch up. To compete against the best largely male teams, they're going to have to get very good at anticipating things.

Yea... To be good at esports you need to be good at anticipating things...
Is that a gender thing? Has that ever been a gender thing? Are we seriously trying to justify gender segregation with made-up prejudices? Is that really how low we've sunk?

Apparently you don't even need that good reaction time to be good at esports. I remember N0thing, a pro counter strike player once took a reaction test and his results were only slightly above average. If there are any biological differences in reaction time then it probably wouldn't even matter enough to make much of a difference. Biological differences do exist but they really don't matter outside of highly physical contact sports. The only real reason women aren't in esports is because most of those events aren't very welcoming to women. Things like this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KviNnwH0EE4] probably aren't helping women get interested in the scene.

 

[luvgaming]

Why not, there are some good female LOL players out there on Twitch. They could make a good team.

 

[DrOswald]

I still don't understand why e-sports titles have 'female only' leagues.

I mean, in certain sports, it makes sense because of the inherent physical difference between the average male vs the average female.

But no such advantage is present when it comes to competitive gaming.

If there are good enough female players/teams, they will rise through the ranks and earn their way.

Why women only? Why not just have the men and the women on the same team?

The point is not to overcome any inherent disadvantage that may exist (because there obviously isn't one) but to overcome the current male dominated scene through encouragement of participation. Because this style of thing is largely a male thing (70% I think were the latest numbers for lol?) and traditionally hardcore gaming is a male past time the institutions of e-sports have inherited a male heavy pro base. This makes it hard for women to enter, even if we assume there is absolutely no sexism going on.

It is a self perpetuating problem - There are only men so women think it is a boys only club and that women are not welcome so very few women join so there are only men so women think...

This set of circumstance can also lead to sexism and exclusion. [ENGAGING HYPOTHETICAL SEXIST ATTITUDE!] After all, something like 30% of lol players are female. Why aren't 30% of pros female? obviously it is because girls are bad at lol.[DISENGAGING HYPOTHETICAL SEXIST ATTITUDE!]

The womens league is meant to combat this problem by creating an area where it is clear women are welcome. This strategy has been successful in the past (chess did this, for example.)

I fully support the idea myself. It is a proven effective strategy in dealing with a potential sexism problem that has no negative impact on the sport or male players.

So your solution to combat sexism and exclusion is to separate them by sex into their own safe proverbial kiddy pool in full display of everyone?

These girl-only tournaments just reinforce the notion that the girls 'aren't good enough to play in the big leagues' and creates the very negative stigma you would supposedly be trying to prevent.

Except this strategy has a proven track record of doing what it is supposed to. It works. So I don't see the problem.