Garena Philippines has reversed their decision regarding LGBT restrictions for the Iron Solari tournament for League of Legends.
This decision comes mere hours after they initially revealed rules for the tournament. Iron Solari was intended to be held for woman players, but they placed restrictions on the number of LGBT players who could participate in a team.
Garena stated that they were aware of the online reaction, discussed the ruling with their partners (presumably Riot Games themselves), and reexamined their approach. Now, the only requirement is that a player self-identifies as female to be allowed to compete.
Garena also explained that their original intent was always to promote diversity in the competitive gaming community. In the end, Garena stated that they were grateful for the feedback, and that they promise to stay open to dialogue in the future.
League of Legends remains a hugely popular game after six years. Aside from Riot Games’ own championships, several leagues exist in different parts of the world, including OGN in Korea, League of Legends Nova in Taiwan, League of Legends Pro League in China, and Garena Premier League in South East Asia.
While the game is certainly popular enough to support competitive gaming worldwide, in emerging markets for gaming, the community still has a lot of growing up to do. This is not only true in terms of diversity, but also professionalization, state recognition, etc. At this time, smaller leagues like Garena need to receive support so their communities can grow.
You can read the text of Garena's statement below.
Our initial ruling on LGBT player restrictions within the Iron Solari League has created a lot of good discussion and debate over the past 24 hours. After discussing the ruling with our partners and re-examining our approach, we have decided to remove these restrictions completely. This means that any player who self-identifies as female will be allowed to participate. We sincerely apologize for any offense we caused to the LGBT and gaming communities.Our original intent when we put together this tournament was to promote diversity in the competitive gaming community. Hence, we are grateful to our players who have consistently provided their feedback to help us learn and improve as we strive to develop an inclusive gaming environment for all. We’ll also be keeping our promise of having an open dialogue with all parties as we plan this and future events.We hope you will tune in to support these awesome teams and players in this upcoming tournament.
