One upcoming competitive gaming tournament is barring women from participating in competition for Blizzard's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, drawing no small amount of controversy over the announcement. The drama originates from a Reddit user, who yesterday posted an email from a Finnish gaming organization called Assembly that puts together qualifiers for the South Korea-based International eSports Federation (IeSF). In this email, Assembly wrote that participation in an upcoming qualifier event i s "open only to Finnish male players." This is reiterated on the tournament's official website.
This triggered backlash, and Assembly organizer Markus Koskivirta said in a statement to PC Gamer: "In accordance with the International e-Sports Federation's (IeSF) tournament regulations, since 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."
IeSF has for more than a year now held its competitions by gender. This year, men can play Dota 2, StarCraft II, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Ultra Street Figh ter IV. Meanwhile, the women's roster includes games like StarCraft II and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The group says, "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."
"Our top priority is to promote eSports in the best ways we can. We believe that listening is important, and we're now collecting your opinions from the social media, and we will update soon" -- IeSF representative
Since Assembly's tournament is only a qualifier for the larger IeSF championship, it makes sense that Assembly would need to abide by the rules set forth by the IeSF. However, Koskivirta went on to say that the Finnish eSports Federation, which organizes the Assembly qualifier, isn't taking the news sitting down.
"We would als o 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," he said. "This is an ongoing process and we of course welcome any support in this matter.".
On IeSF's Facebook page, the group provided a statement of its own, which you can read in full below.
"To all our fans and eSport enthusiasts, in the last hours we have received lots of feedback from you regarding the IeSF 6th e-Sports World Championship, particularly regarding the male/female tournament division. We want to thank you for your interest in eSports and for sharing your opinions. The eSports community opinion is always important to the IeSF. Our top priority is to promote eSports in the best ways we can. We believe that listening is important, and we're now collecting your opinions from the social media, and we will update soon."
Responding directly to a fan on Facebook, the IeSF went on to say that it is "absorbing" feedback about the matter.
"The IeSF believes in a world where there is no discrimination against anyone," the representative said. "We believe that every one from everywhere can participate in eSports, doesn't matter where they're from, what their gender is or what they believe in. Based on this, we will keep absorbing your feedback and other's. We do strive to create the best e-Sports event we can, and we'll work hard to make sure everyone can enjoy it."
We have reached out to a Blizzard Entertainment representative for comment, but have not heard back.
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