We are Team Siren

RyQ_TMC

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Apr 24, 2009
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I'm on the fence about this one.

1) I remember "WE'RE AN ALL GIRL TEAM!! WOOOOOO!!" being a thing waaaaay back in the glory days of Counter-Strike. Back then, it made some sense. Gaming was viewed as a guy thing, and the novelty aspect made the team stand out, they had a "theme" that let you root for them even if you weren't too much into the competitive gaming circuit. Nowadays though... I thought it's pretty much accepted that there's plenty of female gamers out there. And the video sends all sorts of "girl power" vibes. Like the "it's all men up on the top, we're gonna change that!" Doesn't that kinda run contrary to the idea of competitive gaming? That it's the ultimate equalizer, because you don't know who's on the other side, you don't know the ethnicity, gender, or age of the person you're playing against? That there are no age-specific or gender-specific leagues? It's like they're trying to bring a gender divide into an activity which doesn't have one.

ON THE OTHER HAND:

2) I don't know LoL. I've never played it or interacted with the community. All I know is that it has a pretty nasty reputation. If it really is rampantly misogynist and the "90% of players being male" thing is caused by female players feeling pushed away because of the community's attitude, then all power to them. Leading by example and so on. As long as it doesn't become some sort of gender war.

PS. And I'm quite happy they don't try to play on "sex appeal". Because I remember those all girl CS teams back in the day being spun to no end as "sexy femmes fatales" by game journalists. Which was rather disgusting.
 

major_chaos

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Feb 3, 2011
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I love how everyone automatically jumps to sexism. I think the bigger reason people are mocking them is A. that video is awful and B. they are not nearly good enough to compete at the pro level (lol gold 1).
 

LAGG

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Jun 23, 2011
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Quite surprising to see people finding it so odd, female eSports are quite common actually.
(if you find the video too big just skip straight to 9:00 for the most important grand final clip)

 

Ilikemilkshake

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Jun 7, 2010
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I'd just like to point out I would've found that video annoying if they had all been male.

However I still think this is a fairly important development for the LoL scene (which I'm not actually a part of)... We should be encouraging more females to play the games we like rather than trying to chase them away with pitchforks.
 

Harlemura

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May 1, 2009
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I have a friend that writes for a gaming team called Infused and they used to have an all-female Counter-Strike team. I never knew they were all women until I went to an event they were playing at. Only reason I found out was because I saw them, not because anyone told me or it was made a big deal of or anything.
For this reason, I don't really have that much respect for girl teams bigging themselves up over their gender. I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt and assume Team Siren are going with this kinda thing because they're new, so aren't really "out there" yet. If they get themselves noticed through playing they might start advertising themselves through who they've beat and how far they've got in tournaments and all that.
Hopefully.

Disclaimer; Not to be taken seriously in any way.
 

Defeated Detective

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Sep 30, 2012
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You know Anita Sarkeesian's argument about feminism and gaming?

The existence of Team Siren stomps her argument, especially when Team Siren's selling point isn't their skill but rather because of how attractive their players are. This also paints what kind of community LoL is since you don't get to see this kind of shite in Dota.
 

Syzygy23

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Sep 20, 2010
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I like this version of their Team Trailer better:


Hope they have fun playing LoL, I couldn't in to it. Community is HORRID.
 

Doclector

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Aug 22, 2009
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I'm not sure anyone's winning here, but...meh, team siren are kinda annoying with their whole "HEY WE'RE GIRLS AND WE PLAY LOL" thing, and the people against them, well, they're just kinda being sexist. Which isn't annoying. it's full on wrong.

So yeah, I'll side with the kinda annoying people over the full on bastards anyday. Besides, they're perfectly within their right to behave that way if they want, it ain't really harming anyone.
 

hazabaza1

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Nov 26, 2008
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Well they're certainly not helping the issue there.
I'd also feel more sympathetic for them if that video wasn't absolutely awful but hey whatever.
 

MeChaNiZ3D

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Aug 30, 2011
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On one hand, I don't like it when all-female is a key characteristic of a team in any competition because it makes gender an issue when it doesn't have to be. I doubt the male teams intentionally excluded females who could have competed on their own merits. I'm not accusing the Sirens of doing that, just saying the largely male composition of teams probably isn't due to oppression and so setting themselves up as 'fighting' that is sensationalising. On the other hand, if they want to make a certain kind of team that's their prerogative. They're not doing this for attention (although the thumbnail is chosen deliberately for one audience and you know what it is), they will be competing based on skill, which has very little to do with gender.

So basically, I don't mind that they're all female, but I'd rather they were a bit less antagonistic about it.

EDIT: And I may be being a bit presumptuous, but I think some of the other people who come off as sexist are like me and just don't like the attitude that males being the majority of the playerbase is a bad thing and needs to be rectified. You know what's sexist? The approach the Sirens are taking, because they're highlighting gender when it shouldn't be an issue, and acting like if they were the first female team to be successful it would mean something just because they're females. Which in turn implies there is some sort of obstacle to females that makes it harder mechanically for them to achieve something in LoL, which is either sexism or a biological disadvantage, both of which are sexist views. In physical activities, like mountain climbing, yeah, first female to do x is still a thing, because females aren't as strong as males, biologically. Not so with games.
 

Tien Shen

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Mar 25, 2010
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As someone who regularly follows the LoL competitive scene, I have to say the only reason these girls are getting any attention is because of their gender. Skillwise, they are worse than the amateurs that tried for the NA LCS several months back. They are so bad that CLG HotshotGG, TSM Wildturtle and some random scrubs beat them in a few days ago, and neither HSGG nor Wildturtle were playing their usual lanes.

The fact of the matter is, Sirens are privately sponsored and they already have a house and a monthly income. Other teams got their sponsorship from actual companies or professional gaming organizations because people saw they had potential and only after they had made a name for themselves by taking part and doing well in competitions. Sirens have taken part in NO TOURNAMENTS yet have all this stuff that other teams had to work hard for. How many other teams have tried and failed to reach the level where they get a gaming house and regular monthly income? How many teams disbanded after failing to qualify or were relegated in the NA LCS?

If they were guys, and they had the same skill level and lack of any competition record, would they have gotten a sponsor and a gaming house?
 

razer17

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Feb 3, 2009
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Considering the amount of crap I see from the LoL community (Probably a vocal minority, but maybe it is that most of them are douchebags, I dont know), I hope this team, abrasive as they may be, cleans house at whatever tournaments they have for LoL.
 

Davey Woo

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They're stat is wrong anyway, they say that men make up all of the top teams, but I'm pretty sure TPA have a girl in their team, I think she is a substitute player but she was in all of the team pictures during the championships last season.

I'm surprised that this is the first I've seen of an all girl competitive team. But let's face it, other than athletics, the world of sport, even 'e sport', is dominated by men, and probably always will be.
 

IrishSkullpanda

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Aug 8, 2012
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I've said it before regarding this topic and I'll say it again.

If you want to be taken seriously as a professional gamer that happens to be female in any gaming scene, no matter if it's League of Legends or Dota or Halo or CoD or anything, you need to integrate, not segregate. You need to be a professional player that is on par with the best in the world skillwise first, be a woman second.

Honestly, I'd be far more proud of these girls if they made it onto say, CLG or Curse or any other team in the NA LCS that are having issues with consistent players in a starting role (IE, most of them) seperately. Having a mixed team because everyone is equally skilled is far more appealing and is something everyone should look up to- Having a sole-gender team where everyone is essentially chosen BECAUSE of that gender is not.
 

SecondPrize

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Mar 12, 2012
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Davey Woo said:
They're stat is wrong anyway, they say that men make up all of the top teams, but I'm pretty sure TPA have a girl in their team, I think she is a substitute player but she was in all of the team pictures during the championships last season.

I'm surprised that this is the first I've seen of an all girl competitive team. But let's face it, other than athletics, the world of sport, even 'e sport', is dominated by men, and probably always will be.
They say men make up 90 percent of pro teams, not all of them.
That's why I'm fine with it. The breakdown of LoL players by gender can't be that one-sided. Hope they do well enough to actually compete at the top level.