Asian Games Introduce ESports Medals, Excluding Female Competitors

The inclusion of ESports as a medal event at the Hangzhou Asian Games was celebrated as a significant milestone. However, only eight out of nearly 500 gamers participating in what was intended to be a mixed-sex competition are women.

Excited video game fans flocked to a shiny new arena in the Chinese city on Sunday as eSports made its debut at the Games as a medal event seen as a major step towards Olympic status.

But while the fledgling sport has made great strides in official recognition, fans say it has a long way to go when it comes to women.

A large number of young women arrived for the first day of matches at the purpose-built China Hangzhou Esports Center, picking up souvenir pins from the stadium shop and posing with staff dressed as characters from the wildly popular Arena of Valor game.

Their enthusiasm made the gender imbalance on stage even more striking.

Only two women, Sabina Ibragimova of Uzbekistan and Nguyen Thi Phuong Yen of Vietnam, qualified to play in the tens officially during the mixed games on Sunday.

“Many competitions are pioneered by men, and only after slowly expanding do they allow women to participate,” Pan Yuxuan, a 25-year-old gaming enthusiast who was among the spectators, told AFP.

She said women often face discrimination from male players.

– Role models –

For years, the global video game industry and gaming community has had a reputation as a “boys club”.

The 2014 “GamerGate” saga of online harassment evolved into a heated debate about sexism and racism in video games and the male-dominated industry that makes them.

Even when women make it to the top eSports, they face assumptions of lower skill levels than male players, as in the case of Overwatch star Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon.

Opponents accused her of cheating in 2016 because they felt her movements were too precise to be unassisted – all because she was a woman.

It’s such a widespread mindset that some female gamers embrace it despite the lack of scientific evidence. 18-year-old Zhu Lijing told AFP that he thinks “men may be biologically better than women in terms of their reflexes”.

According to video game market research company Niko Partners, 37 percent of players in Asia are women, and in China the proportion is up to 48 percent.

But in the Asian Games, this ratio is dramatically lower.

– “Give them a chance” –

Chen Shuhong, a 22-year-old longtime video game fan who attended Sunday’s matches, said he believes greater representation at professional events could encourage more female fans to switch from casual gaming to competitive gaming.

“With more and more women on the stage, girls will see that their eSports skills are really good… and more and more will become athletes,” Chen told AFP.

Fellow spectator Tong, a 30-year-old Arena of Valor player, said she thinks “more eSports competitions especially for women” like many other sports.

Tournament organizers have increasingly catered to women-only events in recent years, including the International Esports Federation’s Women’s Asian Championships in Saudi Arabia this year.

In addition to the competitions, gaming enthusiast Pan said that he had encouraged the boom in the growth of female livestream players, especially in China.

“Having these highly influential female gamers promote themselves will help people realize that girls can play games – you just have to give them a chance.”