Update: The IeSF has lifted the ban on women entering men's tournaments in a statement on its website.
Women may now enter men's events while the female-only divisions remain unchanged.
"The IeSF has listened to the gaming community and has carefully considered their opinions. Upon hearing these concerns, the IeSF convoked an emergency session of the IeSF Board to respond.
"As a result, IeSF shall have two event categories: "Open for All" events and events that are reserved for women. The events which were initially set aside as the male division will now be open to all genders, and the events which were initially set as the female division will remain as they were.
"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."
Original story: A Finnish Hearthstone tournament has elected to forbid women from enterting due to an ongoing effort to have eSports recognised as "legitimate".
The Summer Assembly 2014's guidelines state that "participation is open only to Finnish male players." While sports such as soccer and golf are segregated along sex lines due to possible physical discrepencies, such concerns do not factor into eSports, so why are women banned?
Assembly Summer 2014 Hearthstone IeSF Qualifier administrator Markus 'Olodyn' Koskivirta issued the following statement to PC Gamer:
"Your information is indeed correct, the tournament is open to Finnish male players only. In accordance with the International e-Sports Federation's (IeSF) tournament regulations, the main tournament event is open to male players only. This is to avoid possible conflicts (e.g. a female player eliminating a male player during RO8) among other things."
The 'conflict' would appear to refer to the possibility that if a woman were to win, she would not be eligable for entry to the IeSF's World Championship final.
The IeSF is a Korean based organisation whose objective is to raise the profile of eSports worldwide and the sixth World Championship final is set to take place this November in Baku, Azerbaijan – a country accused of numerous human rights violations and authoritarian practices.
According to the organiser's Facebook page, these are the games available for the two sexes:
- Male Competition: Dota 2, Starcraft 2, Hearthstone, Ultra Street Fighter IV
- Female Competition: Starcraft 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Quite how the IeSF decided to segregate games along these lines is unknown but the organisation's reason for doing so is stated as: "The decision to divide male and female competitions was made in accordance with international sports authorities, as part of our effort to promote e-Sports as a legitimate sports."
The IeSF lists Blizzard, Hearthstone's developer, as an official partner on its website alongside Valve, Bandai Namco, and Capcom.
Aside from Hearthstone, Koshivirta insists that all other events are open to all genders, adding "We would also like to point out that the Finnish eSports Federation is currently lobbying for the equal rights of male and female players in the IeSF tournaments. This is an ongoing process and we of course welcome any support in this matter."
On Facebook, the IeSF commented:
"1 – Promoting female players. We know that e-Sports is largely dominated by male players and females players are actually a portion of the overall player base. By hosting a female-only competition, we strive to promote female gaming on a global scale.
"2 – International standards. IeSF is very close to get e-Sports recognized as a true sports like it should be. Part of that efforts is to comply with the international sports regulations. For example, chess is also divided into male / female leagues."
Point one is somewhat invalidated by the simple fact that there is no female Hearthstone competition while segregating hasn't exactly been a historically successful policy for promoting equality.
In relation to point two, it's unclear which international standards the IeSF adheres to or how segregation will help e-Sports achieve recognition "as a true sport." In addition, while there are male only and female only chess tournaments, women are welcome to compete in and challenge men during the World Chess Championship.
A new Facebook update suggests that the IeSF is monitoring feedback and may revise its policy.
"In the last hours we have received lots of feedback from your regarding the IeSF 6th e-Sports World Championship, particularly regarding the male/female tournament division.
"Our top priority is to promote e-Sports in the best ways we can. We believe that listening is important, are we're now collecting your opinions from the social media, and we will update soon."
This new controversy follows a questionable remark by Far Cry 4's creative director Alex Hutchinson yesterday regarding the number of women in the game.
