Het International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) kreeg een lading klachten op zijn dak toen bekend werd dat vrouwen uitgesloten waren van een Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft competitie.
- Male Competition
- DotA 2 – Valve Corporation
- StarCraft 2 – Blizzard Entertainment
- Hearthstone – Blizzard Entertainment
- Ultra Street Fighter IV – CapcomFemale Competition
- StarCraft 2 – Blizzard Entertainment
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2 – Namco Limited
Volgens het evenement (Assembly in Finland) ligt de schuld bij het IeSF:
“since the IeSF World Championship Hearthstone tournament in Baku is male only, we can only accept male participants in the Finnish qualifier.”
Het besluit om mannen en vrouwen gescheiden van elkaar te laten spelen werd als volgt uitgelegd op de Facebookpagina van het IeSF:
“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.”
En:
“We know that e-sports is largely dominated by male players and females players [sic] 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.”
De sh*tstorm die hierop volgde was uiteraard logisch en dankzij de reacties van de community moesten zowel het evenement (Assembly in Finland) als het IeSF terugkrabbelen. Na twee dagen heeft het IeSF de regels omgegooid en kunnen vrouwen ook gewoon meedoen aan de Hearthstone competitie.
On 2nd of July, 2014, the IeSF’s policy about gender division, which separates the female division and the male division, has been brought into question. 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.
StarCraft II en Tekken Tag Tournament 2 houden wel hun female-only categorie. Hiermee zijn de regels nu gelijk aan schaken, waar iedereen mee kan doen maar waarbij er ook aparte vrouwentoernooien zijn om grote participatie te stimuleren.
Zeriyah, Community Manager Heartstone heeft ook nog gereageerd op het hele incident:
One of our goals with eSports is to ensure that there’s a vibrant and also inclusive community around our games. We do not allow the use of our games in tournaments that do not support this, and are working with our partners to ensure they share the same goal. To that end, we’ve separately been in contact with IeSF and understand that they’ve updated their rules to make it clear that their Hearthstone tournament will be open to all players.
