On March 30 and 31, the “Apex Legends” edition of the MFAM Gauntlet hosted by Twitch streamer and co-owner of FaZe Clan, Nicholas “Nickmercs” Kolcheff, took place. Among the 60 participants, there were only 2 women, which displeased some.
What kind of tournament is this? The MFAM Gauntlet is part of a series of tournaments organized by Nickmercs. On March 30 and 31, 2023, the “Apex Legends” edition of the tournament took place, featuring 20 teams of pro players and streamers competing in the new TDM mode for a prize pool of $200,000.
A team consists of a captain determined by the organizers, plus two additional players. The captains can choose these players themselves. This caused some trouble, as when all teams were confirmed, only two women had made the cut: Laurice “GuhRL” Habibi and Clara “ClaraAtWork” Gomez.
GuhRL is a player and caster with the American organization TSM. ClaraAtWork primarily works as a Twitch streamer; 90% of her streaming time is spent on Apex Legends (via TwitchTracker).
Too few women participating in the tournament
What are the opinions? The discussion was sparked by the streamer and competitive player lightlyrs. She pointed out the absence of women in the tournament on Twitter. This led to a larger conversation where several players expressed their positions.
Patrick “hundredz” Kwon, coach of the Orga SPIRE, explained that there are indeed women with enough talent to become professionals. However, they do not play at the same level as male professionals: “You can’t constantly post clips of yourself at the diamond rank, only play in the Celes Cup, mainly stream for content, and then expect to be picked in front of Sweet.”
For context: While diamond is not to be underestimated in Apex Legends, there are ranks above it: Master and Apex Predator. The Celestial Cup is a smaller tournament in Apex Legends. “Sweet” could refer to the Apex player Christopher “sweetdreams” Sexton, who, however, was not present at the tournament.
hundredz added that he would like to see more opportunities for women, but the marketing of some female players could lead to them not being taken seriously.
The Twitch streamer Diegosaurs holds a different view: women simply do not get the same opportunities to showcase their skills: “If you would just play with a girl and treat her like a guy, you would see that it’s not different” (via Twitter).
Organizers invite whom they know
What do the women themselves think? GuhRL, team captain of one of the winning teams, explained that organizers of such tournaments mostly invite those they know and respect. The captains then either choose the most suitable teammates or their friends.
Ultimately, however, it seems more important to her to draw more attention to Apex as such: She has seen growing admiration for the game from some of Nickmercs’s friends, and that is nice. We have included their tweets here:
ClaraAtWork, who finished in 12th place with her team, wrote on April 1 on Twitter that no one is entitled to anything just like that and one must work hard. However, she did not mention whether her post was related to the discussion, although it seems likely.
The organizer Nickmercs did not engage in the discussion on Twitter.
In Apex Legends, men and women compete together in tournaments. Some events, such as the 2022 TSM Invitationals, require that each team includes a female player. In the tournament organized by TSM, five of the ten best players at the end of the 60-player event were women, including GuhRL.
In Valorant, it’s different; there are the VCT Game Changers for women and marginalized genders. However, sensitivity is also required when forming teams:
Twitch streamer introduces women’s team for Valorant, gets backlash for signing the wrong women
