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Ugh. The article made the mistake of making it sound like the casters were amazed by the fact that Scarlett is female. This is the sign of someone who's clearly

Ugh. The article made the mistake of making it sound like the casters were amazed by the fact that Scarlett is female. This is the sign of someone who's clearly an onlooker and doesn't pay close attention the eSports scene. While there's definitely things such as GamerGate and such making the gaming scene look terribly unsavory for female participants, in truth the eSports community has long since fully welcomed Scarlett as a true gamer, girl or not. I dislike articles forcing this focus on her being a girl and somehow sticking out for it, much like women in tech hate being glorified just for being "a woman in tech." They have real skill and contribution outside of being an outlier for their gender. If anyone who knows what's going on is ever amazed she won it's because she was actually an underdog in the specific matchup, not because she's a female, let alone for being a "foreigner" (non-Korean). In fact, the amount of amazement for being a foreigner winning was pretty low by the time of the match the article writes about. I remember watching the game mentioned here last thanksgiving, and it coming down to the wire, and the audience didn't care that Scarlett was "a token female" or anything, we were just excited about the awesome match and that Scarlett pulled a miracle win. The casters were no different, all eye-popping was purely about the awesome decision making and creativity leading to an excellent game. Don't make the gaming community sound more sexist than it already does on its own. Scarlett may have faced difficulties or felt singled out in the past for it, but it certainly wasn't true in the fashion depicted in this article.

Sephiroth87 12y ago
Considering just this summer there was that "male only" Hearthstone tournament controversy, I'd say it's not just GG but the gaming community in general... eSports might be getting better at it, but it's definitely not there yet...
- invesari 12y ago
  That tournament was run by IeSF - an organization that is grossly incompetent and disconnected from reality. They have very little traction in the eSports scene and are in no way representative of eSports as a whole.
  - Sephiroth87 12y ago
    That just sounds like an excuse, same as GG saying doxing and sexism has nothing to do with them and it's just a small group of few unrelated people...
    - debacle 12y ago
      As a comparison, IeSF is to eSports as ISIS is to Islam. Make of that what you will. I, for one, would rather not be grouped with them. Disclaimer: I support women-only events. I think they're an important tool in helping decrease the immense disparity when it comes to men/women in eSports. I don't think they're necessary because women can't compete with men, but I think they encourage more women to participate.
    - invesari 12y ago
      I don't know how can you make this comparison. IeSF was universally condemned for that decision on various gaming subreddits and by prominent community members on twitter. In fact that controversy is the most publicity they've ever gotten. Their actual event has gone largely unnoticed, got ridiculed a bit on /r/starcraft. It seems like you have an axe to grind.
debacle 12y ago
Scarlett is not female. Female is a sex. Woman is a gender. Scarlett identifies as a woman, but is not female. While a minor point, it's important to remember when discussing eSports, because apart from Scarlett no woman has had nearly the same success (as a player). Edit: Come on guys. How else do you want me to say it? I tried to be as PC and limited as I could. The downvotes are unnecessary. It's impossible to have a discussion on this topic when it's not okay to point out that Scarlett may have an advantage in that she was exposed to male levels of hormones for most of her life, socially developed as a male at one point, and didn't face the adolescent stigma of gaming that girls her same age would have. I have nothing against Scarlett (except that she plays Zerg) and her life choices are her business (except that she plays Zerg), but she isn't female and, barring some significant advances in biology, never will be.
- Igglyboo 12y ago
  Just to be clear, Scarlett is biologically a male, correct? The terminology is confusing me, not trying to be offensive.
  - debacle 12y ago
    I'm not sure what you mean. Scarlett was born a male, but as to her current physiology, that's her business.
  - theklub 12y ago
    Yes, at birth.
- keerthiko 12y ago
  You are technically correct, she was born biologically male, and she certainly must have had a more straightforward relationship with gaming while growing up that was more socially accepted than if she were born a girl. I wouldn't make the testosterone argument, definitely not as an "advantage". There's little evidence that biological characteristics actually affect gaming tastes or skills other than correlation (if this is false I'm happy to read any sound studies). It's also remotely possible she doesn't attract (that much) hate from the gamer community because many of the guys just think she's just even more of a societal misfit than themselves. But today she has a large and respectful fanbase, several of whom don't even know she was born male. While there was a bunch of flaming when she first came on the scene over 2 years ago when she first attended Iron Maiden tourneys, she's now quite well-loved because of her skill and online personality (she's one of the most-followed SC2 players on twitter).
Igglyboo 12y ago
For anyone else who doesn't know much about the Starcraft scene, it's a huge deal to be a top-level non-korean player. The term "foreigner" means a non-korean in the context of the SC scene. A lot of high level foreigners will actually end up moving to Korea to play and train with their team.

Sephiroth87 12y ago

Considering just this summer there was that "male only" Hearthstone tournament controversy, I'd say it's not just GG but the gaming community in general... eSports might be getting better at it, but it's definitely not there yet...

invesari 12y ago
That tournament was run by IeSF - an organization that is grossly incompetent and disconnected from reality. They have very little traction in the eSports scene and are in no way representative of eSports as a whole.
- Sephiroth87 12y ago
  That just sounds like an excuse, same as GG saying doxing and sexism has nothing to do with them and it's just a small group of few unrelated people...
  - debacle 12y ago
    As a comparison, IeSF is to eSports as ISIS is to Islam. Make of that what you will. I, for one, would rather not be grouped with them. Disclaimer: I support women-only events. I think they're an important tool in helping decrease the immense disparity when it comes to men/women in eSports. I don't think they're necessary because women can't compete with men, but I think they encourage more women to participate.
  - invesari 12y ago
    I don't know how can you make this comparison. IeSF was universally condemned for that decision on various gaming subreddits and by prominent community members on twitter. In fact that controversy is the most publicity they've ever gotten. Their actual event has gone largely unnoticed, got ridiculed a bit on /r/starcraft. It seems like you have an axe to grind.

debacle 12y ago

Scarlett is not female. Female is a sex. Woman is a gender. Scarlett identifies as a woman, but is not female. While a minor point, it's important to remember when discussing eSports, because apart from Scarlett no woman has had nearly the same success (as a player). Edit: Come on guys. How else do you want me to say it? I tried to be as PC and limited as I could. The downvotes are unnecessary. It's impossible to have a discussion on this topic when it's not okay to point out that Scarlett may have an advantage in that she was exposed to male levels of hormones for most of her life, socially developed as a male at one point, and didn't face the adolescent stigma of gaming that girls her same age would have. I have nothing against Scarlett (except that she plays Zerg) and her life choices are her business (except that she plays Zerg), but she isn't female and, barring some significant advances in biology, never will be.

Igglyboo 12y ago
Just to be clear, Scarlett is biologically a male, correct? The terminology is confusing me, not trying to be offensive.
- debacle 12y ago
  I'm not sure what you mean. Scarlett was born a male, but as to her current physiology, that's her business.
- theklub 12y ago
  Yes, at birth.
keerthiko 12y ago
You are technically correct, she was born biologically male, and she certainly must have had a more straightforward relationship with gaming while growing up that was more socially accepted than if she were born a girl. I wouldn't make the testosterone argument, definitely not as an "advantage". There's little evidence that biological characteristics actually affect gaming tastes or skills other than correlation (if this is false I'm happy to read any sound studies). It's also remotely possible she doesn't attract (that much) hate from the gamer community because many of the guys just think she's just even more of a societal misfit than themselves. But today she has a large and respectful fanbase, several of whom don't even know she was born male. While there was a bunch of flaming when she first came on the scene over 2 years ago when she first attended Iron Maiden tourneys, she's now quite well-loved because of her skill and online personality (she's one of the most-followed SC2 players on twitter).

Igglyboo 12y ago

For anyone else who doesn't know much about the Starcraft scene, it's a huge deal to be a top-level non-korean player. The term "foreigner" means a non-korean in the context of the SC scene. A lot of high level foreigners will actually end up moving to Korea to play and train with their team.