to qualify for the finals, that’s when I really got interested in it.”
Power in numbers A staggering 47% of gamers
are women, yet only 5% achieve professional status. While the narrative is undoubtedly shifting, the gender gap remains significant. However, achieving pro status in esports is no easy task for women gamers, though there has been improvement over the course of the last year. Jones points to three key ingredients in shifting the narrative. “Firstly, desire,” he explains. “Deciding ‘I want to do this’. We must continue to remove the toxicity directed at female gamers, which was the core principle behind the No Room for Abuse campaign created with Sky. Secondly, opportunity: ‘I can do this’. The professional scene is developing; ESL has done a great job in CS2 with Impact and likewise Riot with Valorant Game Changers. We’ve also seen EWC add MLBB as a female-only competition. “At Guild, we want to take this one step further and develop female players that can participate in open leagues against male competitors. The Women’s Esports Finals, developed in partnership with Sky, is the first rung on that ladder. With Grete, Clara and Mariam, we’ve found the talent, and now the hard work starts on their journey to compete.” The third issue Jones points to is the lack of role models in the women’s game: ‘I am able to do this’. “Like in any job, people need to see that it’s possible. The Women’s Esports Finals hopefully showed many young women that this is for them. We are seeing and will continue to see exponential growth.” Similarly, Bucciacchio notes that in her case, from a young age, there were few – if any – role models to look up to. As a result, she didn’t realise esports was a viable career, which is an issue she has found very discouraging. “I’ve also found that when you try to play competitively in online games, as soon as you turn on your mic to chat with your teammates and they hear you’re a woman, they often start trolling you and no longer want to play
» Like in any job, people need to see that it’s possible.
The Women’s Esports Finals
hopefully showed young women that this is for them «
half ago, I started following a team and started watching other games that I wasn’t before. That’s where my passion for esports initially took off. I’ve been playing games ever since I was around six years old, but was never hyper focused on esports because it never really felt achievable. So it was more from a viewer standpoint, which makes where I am today even crazier.” For Lajal, growing up in a family with an existing interest in motor and competitive sports had an inevitable influence on her. “Also, my partner has a background in real-life racing, as well as sim racing. Even though he does that, I never really got involved myself much before the actual qualifying. So doing sim racing myself at the finals was my first experience with esports. I’ve been interested in racing games before, but never to the extent of trying to be competitive. So, once I found out that I was actually competitive enough
REPRESENT These competitions create more role models for girls
are all men. The highest of those earns well over £6 million. Bucciacchio first got involved with esports as a viewer while playing the first-person shooter game Overwatch . “ Overwatch was pushing the esports scene for players of the game,” adds Bucciacchio. “About a year and a
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