Berlin Allianz DoA Female slay popular opinion on girl gaming

The CGS female players rally to support Vanessa. Photo: Readmore

Name:
Livia Teernstra

Position:
DoA Player

About the author
Livia «Liefje» Teernstra is the Dead or Alive female player for Berlin Allianz. The New Zealand native has also enjoyed working as a gaming journalist in the past.

Guys whine and complain that it makes them sick to see girls in shirts covered with sponsor logos when there are players that they consider more talented without even one sponsor. But after putting some thought into it when I was at the Electronic Sports World Cup last year (and with the upcoming ESWC really soon), it is actually extremely unfair that they receive such criticism.

Girl gamers get shit from everyone in the gaming community. They get shit from other girl players. They get shit from male players. It’s no wonder that so many of them leave the scene or are even scared to participate. Girl gamers do not deserve this.

First of all, I want to be clear on one thing. I’m not talking about the female participation in CGS because that’s a totally different story. The females in CGS tend to be taken more seriously because they must bring points to the table for their team in order for the entire team to win. This somehow adds credibility to them as professional gamers over other girls who attend tournaments.

There is only one big tournament exclusively for girls with large cash prizes for girls each year and that would be the Counter Strike female competition at the Electronic Sports World Cup. QuakeCon used to have a girls tournament but the last one was in 2005. That was also the only year that they had large cash prizes. In previous years the prizes were much less cash and some hardware. How can one complain when there is currently only one tournament that these female players can even attend with a real shot at winning a substantial cash prize?

Only on rare occasions will a team like Les Seules or SK Ladies travel afar to attend a mixed tournament for Counter Strike; and some PMS members and girlz 0f destruction members make it to mixed tournaments in other games.

That’s what… just a handful of girls that actually gets to attend many different tournaments like a professional gamer.

So at ESWC you can see the largest gathering of girl gamers each year. They want to come and compete and have fun. I am so sick of guys whining because they think they can beat these sponsored girl gamers. They are complaining so much that the girls have sponsorship and get «all these things» when better players «get nothing☼. That is not true. Girl gamers are doing a good thing for gaming in the mainstream. They are proving that gamers aren't all just sweaty, dirty, fat nerds who piss in coke bottles during World of Warcraft raids.

They appeal to the public in general (especially the good looking ones) as well as other girls who view gaming as more of a boisterous thing.

I have overheard so many people making comments about how unfair it is that these girls have sponsors. You know what I think is unfair? That almost every single person at the event is judging these girls by the way they look. It isn’t a beauty pageant; it’s a gaming event. Gamer guys there seem to think that they have the right to say derogatory things about the girl teams or players just because they have sponsors and market themselves as “professional gamers”. Most of them don’t. The majority of the girls are there to play and have a good time. It is not right that whenever they are spotted they are judged by the way they look.

It’s as though the guys forget that it isn’t the internet and they aren’t faceless at a tournament. If they do say things peoples’ feelings can get hurt.

It is the general opinion amongst many guy gamers that if you're a girl and you play games you will automatically get sponsored. I can tell you now that that definitely is not the case. I have been in an all-girls team since 2003. The team had been around since 2001 and we did not land our first sponsor until 2004. Many players that complain about this don't actually go out and try to look for a sponsor themselves - probably because they are too busy sitting on their asses whining about why girls get sponsors and they don't. It takes hard work to find a sponsor and lots of it. You need to invest a bit of money into getting yourself to the right places in order to meet these people in person. You need to make a good presentation of why it would be profitable for these people to sponsor you. You need to be marketable and interesting. Sponsorship is not a charity, it needs to work both ways for the team and for the participating company / companies.

The judgment from the gamers doesn’t just stop at the tournaments. When the tournament galleries are put somewhere online the comments are guaranteed to contain judgments about the way the girls look. For example if a picture of a girls team is posted there will be replies saying things like “yes, yes, no, yes, no” referring to which girls in the pictures that the guys find desirable or not. Believe it or not guys, the girls are probably reading your comments. You never see girls say the reverse about guys though. Girl gamers just don’t care. They don’t go to LANs or tournaments to pick up guys (or be picked up), they go there to play. Many guys can’t seem to get that. They think that the girls are there for their entertainment and eye candy.

If this wasn’t enough, a lot of girl gamers give shit to each other.

Think of the female Counter Strike community a little like school. Each team is like a clique. Some cliques get along, others don’t. When they don’t get along there will be rumors spread and trash talked about other teams or players. This is something rarely seen in the male community. Sure there might be trash-talking before some matches but never to the extent of bitchiness seen from the female community. It’s no wonder that so many girls are switching teams so often. There are only a few girl teams that have managed to stay together for a long time. I don’t know why the scene is like this. I for one love to meet other girls that share the same hobby as me especially in FPS games since girls are kind of rare to see on the servers.

Some of the female players feel that girls act so catty because they feel threatened by new girls on the scene. I don’t understand why they would see that unless they’re using gaming simply to get attention or pick up guys. Don’t get me wrong, there are girls that do that! Just look at websites like “girls of CS” and «the gamer girls». Male gamers are probably so critical of female gamers because of the handful of girls who play for attention.

I don’t know about you but one tournament a year along with some free hardware is not worth the disrespect that so many of these girls get from other gamers. Girl gamers are just girls who like to play games. Sure some are beautiful, some are not. Just like any regular hobby that girls might have. Please stop treating them like they’re paid booth babes because they’re not. Girls should not have to feel so judged at events for their looks; it’s not what they’re there for. If the girls wanted to be judged in that way they would enter a beauty pageant. Treating them this way is only chasing them away from wanting to play video games for fun. There is already enough trouble within the female community without having all the negative opinions of the male gamers expressed. The ones that turn up to the tournaments aren’t the ones that you see online begging for attention.


If you enjoy gaming events not being «sausage fests» then don’t treat the girls this way.