Women Rise in Competitive Gaming

In 1983, Nintendo Entertainment System made gaming an inexpensive, enjoyable, and unlimited source of entertainment for all age groups. Of course, in those times, gaming leagues were scarce and did not appeal to females. But in this present day, much has changed. The gaming industry has not only become a source of revenue but an obsession with a majority of the youngsters all around the globe, with MLG Championships becoming a great deal. But the interest of women and their participation in these gaming tournaments is considered to be the biggest surprise of all.

Women are now competing in male-dominated tournaments like the First Person Shooters (FPS). One professional gaming team is The Frag Dolls that are challenging the conventional male-entry-only rules in the Major Gaming Leagues. The women on this team are not only beautiful but have at least one major tournament win to their name. Things have changed for the better as feminism is prevailing even in E-sports. Things have progressed so much that now, it’s no longer insulting for a guy to lose against a woman.

Despite the many achievements, there are some issues that women who participate in the MLG are battling on a daily basis. There have been around 360 female gamers that competed in various MLGs in the past ten years, with only 171 of them earning a prize of over $1000. Team Secret, the top female team in the world, is led by Julia Kiran. She says: "Female teams are never taken seriously. Male players see us as a side game that doesn't count." The only way to overcome such hurdles was the launch of female-only tournaments. But women tournaments have issues of their own. The money offered in women based gaming leagues are much lesser compared to the male tournaments, thus reinforcing gender disparity. In the mixed competition, the Paris E-sport World convention awarded its winners $75,000 while the female-based competition had a cash prize of $15,000.

According to the research carried out by the Pew Center, it was revealed that both genders are equally likely to play video games, but for some reason, only men consider themselves as gamers. Online women abuse, rape threats and harassment cases have been common in the gaming community for years. All this because women are daring to participate in MLG.

But the women are fighting back. One woman whose name cannot be skipped is the Halo princess, Xena (Bonnie Burton). She was the first female Major League Gaming pro and bagged the 5th place, three times, in the MLG tournaments held in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. Now she is employed under Bungie, working as a game developer.

Another name in a list of women who are contending in hardcore MLG tournaments is Optic Midnite (Ashley) who has been gaming since she was 5. She was the second ever female gamer to become a member of the team OpTic Gaming and has gained immense fame from posting her gaming videos on the Youtube Channel boasting of almost 700k subscribers.

The gaming world has witnessed a sudden development in video games over the past decade as developers finally realized the benefit of developing games that target the female audience as well. Games such as Tomb Raider, Fallout 4, Dishonoured 2 and, Mass Effect, etc. allow gamers to play as a woman.

ESL’s managing director, Ralf Reichert has stated that the growth of women in the gaming industry is astounding, remarking that the physical barriers that prevent women from taking part in the real-world sports arena cannot be applied to the gaming industry.