Unfair Treatment Towards Females In The ESports Scene Video Proposal

My proposal is I edit a video together to show people who do not play video games what females have to deal with, when they are playing competitive video games.  Females are stereotyped in popular competitive games such as Overwatch, League of Legends and Hearthstone.  Women are labeled to be on the "support" role and are expected to be a support character.  Even when women try to stream on the website Twitch, they get harassed by the their viewers.  I was going to interview a couple of women who play competitive games and ask about what it is like to be a female gamer.  An example for a woman who plays in the professional scene and who streams on Twitch is a famous player named Hafu.

In an interview Hafu was asked "What is it like to be a female streamer." She stated in an interview with Kevin Roose on https://fusion.tv/ that she gets harassed by her own viewers by calling her a "Stupid whore chink." She also mentioned that when she was 17, she competed at a World of Warcraft tournament and a team named themselves "Gonna Rape Hafu at Regionals."  Which made her not to participate in the tournament.  Finally, in the interview she says that when she finishes her streams, she still feels miserable from dealing with things online and with real life.

Not only are pro female players are being harassed but regular female players are too.  I hope by making this video I can show people who do not play video games and people who do play video games but are not aware that this is an issue to be aware that this is a problem.  I have picked this topic because I notice a lot of female players that have a lot of stereotypes that happen a lot in the competitive gaming.  Every time I hear a female talk in game they automatically get harassed by a male player.  Eventually it started to bother me after listening to some guy on the internet trying to assert dominance over the internet.  I usually hear "Great we got an e-girl on our team, I bet you she is a mercy main." (Mercy is a support character in Overwatch that heals, buffs, and revives players.)
I plan on posting the video on YouTube when I am done editing it. 

Men dominate the eSports scene and very rarely will any women will appear in the pro scene in eSports.  Even when a rising female player who started to gain some fame for being at a professional level was accused of cheating.  That player was known as Geguri, she is a female Overwatch player who gained fame for her amazing winrate and aim on Zarya.  According to Andy Chalk from pcgamer.com he states that there were two Overwatch pros that went against Greguri and accused her of cheating during a tournament that they played.  The two pros said that they would end their pro careers if she can prove that she was not cheating.  She did prove that she was not cheating and made the two pros keep their word.  She also decided to wear a mask during the stream where she was proving that she was not cheating.  Which according to Andy Chalk "A tremendously sad comment on the state of videogaming."



I plan on becoming a researching psychologist and I plan on researching a lot of information on how video games can benefit our lives.  I absolutely hate politicians who blame video games for a lot of problems with the world.  Another thing I hate is how people do not realize how big the eSports is growing.  With the rising scene of eSports I hope that this video can show that I hope that everyone gets a chance at entering the pro scene and that it should not just be a male dominated area.

I remember back in 2016 my friend told me that a trans-female player was going to receive an award in League of Legends and how that bothered him.  I told him that I did not care about her gender I wanted to see how she played the game.  It was Remelia who played for Renegades in the North American League Championship.  Eventually she quit the NALCS due to motivation which were caused by the comments people made on her play.  I did not think she played bad as the comments made her out to be.


I am very passionate when it comes competitive games.  I hope that the eSports scene gains more recognition  from the world and I wish that people accepted it more as something serious.  According to bbc.com women who manage to make it in the pro scene make far less money than men do.  Steph Harvey mentions in the interview that the eSports world is dominated by men.  She also mentions how she gets harassed for playing in the professional scene and she gets harassed when she streams on Twitch.


An idea that was given by me from the Professor is that I try and become a female gamer.  I like this idea because I can mess with my voice and play "female" characters.  So during my video I will show you the audience what its like for a regular competitive female gamer goes through.  I can also get female voices and play them over the mic.

In conclusion, I hope by making this video I can show people how women are being treated in the competitive gaming scene.  This video is going to be like a documentary and I will also add examples on how women are harassed online.  I will publish the video when it is done on YouTube.

Female Streamer Argument:

 Bibliography:

• Kevin Roose. "Real Future: A Female eSports Champion Speaks Out About Harassment (Episode 7)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0WIE-ySC7c
• Andy Chalk "Teenage Overwatch player accused of cheating proves she's just that good with Zarya" https://www.pcgamer.com/teenage-overwatch-player-accused-of-cheating-proves-shes-just-that-good-with-zarya/
• Georgina Pearce and Vladimir Hernandez "100 Women 2016: The women challenging sexism in e-sports" http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37992322