So, Last night, I was watching the pre-game for the finals, at that time, they were showing outplays in the semis and the quarters. But, There were also face cams. None of them, however, were women. It got me wondering, hence the question, Why are there no pro female players in league? Anyone know?
That's a loaded topic you're presenting. I hope you're prepared for the consequences.
I was just thinking of this a few days ago, because Youtube keeps suggesting a video with that same question. There are many directions to go about finding the answer, but to really summarize various reasons:
I'm sure there's more, but this is what I've noticed up till this point.
I'm a girl, and I'll weigh in on the discussion. Even just saying that feels like a charged statement; in general, my experiences with saying that, or seeing others say that (whether true or not), in any "serious" game have been negative. At best, people ignore it. Most of the time, they don't believe it. It's actually pretty rare to get hit on. I don't draw attention to the fact that I'm a woman, and I'm guessing most female players are the same way. The players who make a big deal about being a woman are probably faking it. Similarly, there are more female players than you think, you just don't know it.
I can't exactly speak for most women, as I've long since accepted that I'm out of the norm. But from my observations, most women my age (early-to-mid 20s) are more socially-driven and emotionally-driven. Obviously, not all women are the same, but demographics do have tendencies.
It's not that they lack the skill or potential to reach a pro level, it's more that they lack a reason to devote so much time to it. Let's take a game like Undertale for example. An excellent game, it's attracted a community of both male and female players, because of its story. Despite the fact that overall, there are less female gamers than male gamers, the "community" does seem to be mostly female. If I had to guess, I'd guess that overall, more male players have played it than female. The difference here is that female players (and females in general) are attracted to the idea of sharing experiences. It SEEMS like there are more female players because they're the ones talking about their experience. They take what is a solo experience, and make it a community thing. They want to share with others.
Also supporting this is the fact that a game like Second Life, for example, is mainly female. It's no gameplay and all socializing.
In a game like League, that doesn't work out quite as well. First off, it's certainly not an emotional experience (until you get very emotional at your 5th loss in a row in SoloQ). Typing all the time is actively hurtful to your ability to play effectively. And most social interaction becomes negative very quickly. Characters tend to not be very deep, which is also a large draw for women in games; many of us like to imagine the interpersonal relationships (see: shipping) and generally fangirling over the characters we like. There's a lot less of that in League. Even with more expanded lore, it's not an environment well suited to such things.
I'm an outlier for women, but I do express some of these same tendencies and preferences. And honestly, I have little interest in ranking. I enjoy playing the game, but I mostly play normals (except recently; rushing to Gold for Victorious Orianna). I spend plenty of time playing the game, but I have little interest in trying to get as far as I can, to measure myself against others. I do strive to improve because I want to, despite playing fairly casually, but I imagine most women wouldn't feel like they had much reason to keep pushing themselves to improve at League over other things.
As for the discussion that female players prefer female champs: I'm an Anivia main, but I also love Kayn, Rengar, Gnar, Hecarim, Aurelion Sol, and plenty others. I think I mostly play male characters, actually. But most of that comes from the fact that I'm a furry. I generally prefer animal or anthropomorphic characters in terms of design. When I look through the list of characters, the more non-human ones draw my attention. Among the more human characters, I feel like I don't have much preference. So I can't really speak much on gender bias.
I read an article once that stated there are very few to no female pro gamers in any game because of the abuse they take. If I remember correctly, the few that did make it pro were harassed by the crowd and sometimes teammates. Watch an LCS game on Twitch and watch the chat, you'll see what I mean. It could also be because there are fewer female players, thus a smaller talent pool to choose from.
Well, can you name any female players in challenger? I think the reason there are no female pros is just because, there simply aren't any. If there are any with the skill to be a pro they must just not want to.
Most women are smart enough not to waste thier time with league
Remi in Renegades was a female player
Wait nvm
Because there aren't any that are good enough. Pretty simple.
There's not as many female players compared to male. Pro male gamers take the game way more seriously and will no life it. Women dont really get motivated off video games or money, theyre motivated if theyre enjoying what they do. Most female gamers only enjoy playing female champions, so they dont want to adapt to the meta or counter pick the enemy.
Another girl coming to weigh in.
One of the reasons I have to mention is the society. We live in a society where it is acceptable for a guy to spend an entire day gaming simply because video games are stereotypically more associated with guys. During my teenage years, I had to press the window button and hide my game every time my mom entered my room, because she would literally (not exaggerating) scream at me to stop playing just because I'm a girl. Also, if mentioned in a conversation, "she plays video games" sounds degrading when referring to a girl. So, the society itself discourages women from even attempting to play video games, let alone actually pursue any serious gaming plans.
Next, of course, there is an undeniable sexism. Before playing League of Legends, I played World of Warcraft, which is a much more sociable game due to actually being able to sit around and chat. It also had PvP ranks, and no matter how high I got on the PvP ladder, I was never taken seriously, and I would always be put aside for some other guy when making PvP teams. I don't know if it's some kind of a "bro code", or something, but I was more likely to be mocked than, god forbid, admired for my skills. The same goes for this game. If I were to actually climb to the challenger, I have no doubt in my mind that any team would more likely choose another guy player who is perhaps slightly worse than me. Plus, if by some chance I were to be chosen, everybody would automatically assume that it was because of my gender and not because I deserved it. So, either way you look at it, my effort would never be appreciated.
Another sexism is the more direct one. Personally, I didn't get many "go to the kitchen" insults here, perhaps because people are less likely to assume that I'm a girl (who even pays attention to names in a 30-60 min games) but in WoW, I got plenty of those. The beauty of the Internet lies in its anonymity, and with it comes the comfort of not having to show anybody respect. So, if a guy gets offended by anything at all, and he knows that I'm a girl, I know that I'll be sent to the kitchen, metaphorically raped, or worse. It's simply not a healthy environment for any girl, especially not a young one. So, again, discouraged from an early age to even try.
Taking all of that into consideration, knowing how much time it takes to actually master this game, and knowing how low the chances are of actually being chosen to become a part of a professional team, it's really not hard to see why a girl would not be bothered to play this game professionally, or any other game for that matter. It's too high of a risk, not high enough reward, no respect from the society but more likely to be shamed, and it requires seriously thick skin to handle the male-dominated gaming world on the Internet.
P.S. I main Rakan, and I also like Thresh, Nocturne, Brand, Jhin, Skarner, Zilean, etc, so the argument that girls only play female champs does not hold water. I mean, people tend to look for a way to connect with what they play, so yes, my favorites are Vayne, Lux, and Leona, but I would not go out of my way to pick a female champ.
Because there are no girls in challenger. Last time riot tried to force an all-female pro team onto the scene, they became a fuckin meme because they were all low diamond and plat lmao
Simply because there isn't a girl that is capable of playing at pro level. The highest I saw a girl playing was in High Diamonf. Quite good, better than millions of players, but still not good enough for pro player. Maybe in the future, who knows.
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I have done the research into why, but I think there is more to it than meets the eyes.
I want to bring up a different point though. In regular sports, you have males vs males, then you have females vs females. I personally would like to see tournaments/divisions with those options as well. And honestly if that came to be, I would definitely be more interested in pursuing esports, but for others reasons. I'm not saying men and women should be segregated. I just like the idea of playing with and against other females.
But looking into this from a more scientific point of view, studies have shown that men have faster reaction times than females. This is fact, not sexism. So, in that regard, just like in regular sports, women have a harder time competing against men. LoL matches can boil down to reaction time, and its sad to say but when it comes to who hits their skill first, it'll likely be the guy. =/
I was told sorta what you said about females vs females. One time I asked a girl I know about it and they said simply if there was a female LCS player to look up too it would make them wanna try and achieve it.
Personally I would love to see a all female team in LCS or just a female in general in the LCS. I have met a lot of great female players who if they put in the time they could be LCS ready. However they don't want to, if there was one LCS female I know they would. Overall I just wanna see good players and if you kick ass and wanna be the best be the first and others will follow.
For the science part I have read that as well but I find it to be not true. I think anyone can be trained to have a better reaction speed (I could totally be wrong btw). There was a Disney movie based on a true NHS drag race sisters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_on_Track i remember in the movie they went over the reaction times you need to be faster then a male. Now I know its a movie however there where interviews with the real sisters who went on to win finals over males in reaction times.
Yes there are majority of males with stupid fast reaction times. However I think females can contend with them and should strive for it. I for one would not mind at all wearing a 100t or C9 Jersey reping a female player .
Sorry for grammar errors
A reason I'm not seeing come up: pro gaming culture. It's become expected for pro teams to live, eat, and sleep together, and for a known team to stamp their brand on them. Having a team living in those conditions that's part female and part male (and all teens/early 20s) and just hoping they stay professional... that's just not something these businesses are willing to bet their reputation on. That's what has driven the all or none policy with females on teams.
It'll take one professional team to take the risk and prove it can work before other teams will be willing to.
Team Renegade from NA had a female player for 1 year. Then the team disbanded and we haven't seen her since.
China has had a few teams, but they were all promotional teams built by companies trying to sell to women gamers.
Team Siren should never be brought up again, that was a fucking joke. They took mid tier diamond players and because they were female and they wanted to empower female players, they threw them against high challenger and professional players and then tried to say because they were female they failed. (not my words, more of a community based feeling).
I think the biggest hurdle is to get a honest to goodness female that is a high challenger mid carry that is a fantastic mid like Bjergsen or Rookie or Faker. That will happen eventually, but women have to push and work for it.
As another female who plays league, I'll share my own experiences as well as a few interesting experiences a couple of my female playing league players have expressed over the years. I'm 21 years old but I started league when I was 17. This marks my 4th season. When i started I got to G5, then to P5, then to P1 and this season I hit D4 so in my humble opinion I'm pretty decent at this game. I got a few female friends over the years who have played league and there is 1 who is higher then me. (Shes was actually in challenger but she quit) BUT most of the female players I knew were casual players in silver-gold.
In general, I'm a fairly competitive player but I do follow the stereotype of females, I mostly play bot or mid. My champion pool is fairly big but it consists of mostly female, squishy champions. I guess I tend to sympathise with them better? But mostly I prefer the stay behind the team and hit away type of gal. I specially like game changer type of characters like Zilean, Soraka, Morgana for supports and more basic attack centered ADCs like Cait, Jinx, Vayne. For mid champs its the usual Lux, Ahri and Annie. Interesting fact that I noticed is that a lot of female players who play got invited by their friends. But its mostly a casual game for them. League is a casual enough game that if you don't log in for a few months, you're not gonna miss much gameplay wise. Females tend to focus on games with lots of lore, quests, chatting that require you to log in daily. A routine of some sort. League is my routine as I take it seriously enough to focus on it but even I sometimes wish they had more to this game. I do understand the demographic and who they mostly cater to so it's totally understandable.
There's a lot of points in this thread that I wholeheartedly agree with and are valid points but I'd like to add a few to the grapewine
I know there were a few more but I sadly can't recall them all and I'm not gonna play parrot and copy what other people have said. I guess the only solution would be a full female team to ease LCS into female players but it needs to be a team that performs well enough that it's at the mid if not upper ranks of LCS. Here's to hoping I will see females in LCS one day.
