At a Finnish Hearthstone tournament, women are not allowed, and there is a good reason for this: If women and men play together, Hearthstone cannot become an eSport.
If Hearthstone wants to be an eSport and if eSport wants to be a real sport, then girls must stay out of Hearthstone tournaments in the future; this is the result of a correspondence that took place between a journalist from a gaming magazine and several eSport associations from different countries.
It is an absurd situation that the English magazine PCGamer has uncovered. A Finnish Hearthstone tournament has excluded all non-Finns and all women and girls from participating in their tournament. This caused confusion, scratching of heads, and general horror on Reddit: “How backward.”
But the Finns are looking to Korea. Anyone who wants to succeed at a national Hearthstone tournament, rise through the ranks, and ultimately compete in South Korea, the mecca of eSports, must be a man. Otherwise, they will not be allowed. Sounds crazy, right? But there is logic behind it.
Because eSport is striving to be recognized as a “real” sport. That’s why it clearly separates between men and women – even in Hearthstone. In response to inquiries from PCGamer, they said: “In chess, men and women also play separately.”
The bitter part about it is: Although Hearthstone is on the rise concerning eSports, it is not so popular yet that it would be worth organizing a separate women’s tournament. There is only one for Starcraft 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament – classic girl games, while Hearthstone, as a hardcore men’s and macho sport, simply isn’t the right activity for a decent lady.
Update 10:00 AM: After Blizzard has now also commented disapprovingly and almost every gaming magazine from Seoul to Anchorage reports on it, the Finnish organizers are backing down and allowing women to participate as well. Whew, that was close – a victory for emancipation where it really counts.
