11 ms·

Wait instead of men's and women's, it's now women+men and women-men? How is that equal?

• TwiztidK 12y ago
  Systems like this are pretty common in programs where one gender greatly outnumbers the other (such as eSports). At my university, which is mostly (75%) men, broomball is a popular sport among students. Within our broomball organization, there was a main league (for men or women) and a women's only league. The main purpose of the women's league was to get them involved in a male-dominated sport in a way that makes them feel more comfortable. In the case of Hearthstone, the main tournaments are primarily men anyway. So having the women's league in addition to the mixed league will help women get involved in the activity. As the gender gap gets closer to 50-50, the need for the women's league decline and they could consider switching to a mixed only league.
• brazzy 12y ago
  From TFA: "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."
• untog 12y ago
  It isn't intended to be equal. Women are very under-represented in eSports compared to the gaming population at large and they're attempting to change that. Once the level of eSports participation matches gaming in general perhaps they'll do away with it.