Because two Pokémon players organized a tournament exclusively for women, they received a lot of criticism and hatred from offended men.
What kind of tournaments are these? Two passionate Pokémon players thought it was time for a series of tournaments open to all women, so they created an initiative called the Gardevoir Cup.
The aim of this should be to create a safe environment for female gamers. It should also increase their visibility in the community. Women in particular still have to deal with bullying and sexism. Problems that continue to occur in gaming as a whole.
The first tournaments went well and were well received, but when they caught the attention of some male streamers, the situation changed.
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The men feel excluded
What happened? Two Twitch streamers named Riopaser and Bl3sSur, who are very involved with Pokémon, talked about these tournaments in a stream. While they admitted that the competitive scene still has a problem with “macho men,” they still opposed tournaments that separate the sexes.
According to Bl3sSur, someone who organizes such an event “doesn’t really want to be on equal footing.” As a man, he would be insulted because he is excluded from the tournaments.
The two streamers’ comments were initially met with little enthusiasm by their own community. They were accused of having this discussion without a woman. Unfortunately, the issue was not resolved.
What happened next? In the days that followed, a wave of hatred arose against the organizers of the women’s tournaments. This ultimately led them to cancel future competitions and avoid the scene altogether:
We will stay away from the community. This includes all kinds of live tournaments and streaming. We know that you are a lot of people who support us, but we believe that this community needs a complete change and that the problems will not be solved in the short or medium term.
Statement from the tournament organizer, via 3D Juegos
They also did not ask for the topic to be discussed in this way. They are feeling very uncomfortable at the moment and would prefer to keep their distance.
The offended streamer Bl3sSur apologized two days later. But the damage had already been done. It remains to be seen whether there will be similar tournaments for women only in the future.
Experienced players like the Spaniard Whytenyss consider the tournaments to be a good way to spare women from unpleasant situations at classic tournaments. At least in some parts of the scene, there seems to be an increased sensitivity to certain issues – which was the reason for a player being kicked out of a Pokémon tournament.