A special tournament in Overwatch focuses on underrepresented genders. Classic men are not allowed.
Even though the Overwatch League has fallen out of favor in recent years, there are still a number of tournaments where the best players in the world compete. However, Overwatch has committed to becoming significantly more diverse. To give underrepresented genders an opportunity to step into the spotlight themselves, Overwatch 2 is organizing a tournament. The twist: the entire team must consist entirely of “members of underrepresented genders”.
Who can participate? The “Calling All Heroes Challengers Cup” targets a very clear audience as participants. Every team must consist “entirely of members of underrepresented genders”. This may include, among others, transgender individuals, non-binary individuals, and women.
Interested individuals can also register individually and be assigned as a “Free Agent” to a team that is still looking for reinforcements, or they will be assigned to a team that consists entirely of such “Free Agents”.
What is the goal of the initiative? Especially in the Overwatch environment, there are relatively few well-known streamers or individuals belonging to “underrepresented groups”, such as women or people from the LGBTQ+ community. Since Overwatch relies on diversity and inclusion with its characters and their portrayal, this is a considerable discrepancy compared to the more typically male-dominated representation in the Overwatch scene.
Overwatch is heavily male-dominated: Like most eSports scenes, Overwatch is also significantly male-dominated. In recent years, there has been only a single woman in the Overwatch League, Geguri, about whom we have reported several times. She temporarily ended her career in 2020.
Geguri made headlines particularly because another team accused her of using an aim bot. She proved her innocence and filmed her hands during the next matches, after which part of the accusing team’s members left the league.
Accusations that a person is not really playing or cheating frequently arise when a woman wants to participate in the male-dominated eSports scene. Blizzard seems to want to create a space with the tournament that offers a bit more security.
In the announcement on the official website, it was stated:
This tournament is not a substitute for the “Path to Pro”; instead, we hope that it serves as an entry point for underrepresented genders to then enter the larger eSports ecosystem of Overwatch and we encourage everyone who meets the requirements to participate in both the Challengers Cup and the “Path to Pro”.
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What is your opinion on such a tournament? A good way to promote more inclusivity and bring underrepresented genders more into focus? Or complete nonsense that the world doesn’t need?
