I can see having a women’s league being valuable to foster a safe space outside of the misogynistic dude bro culture that’s so prevalent in gaming, but that’s a space trans women need access too just as much if not more than cis women.

The goal is to eliminate trans people by isolating them and excluding them from society.

Being male is a huge advantage when gaming - I don't know how I'd even game without both hands on the keyboard and controlling the mouse with my dick.

It's similar to women's only chess championships. Think of it sort of like an affirmative action type of thing, where the misogyny that's prevalent in a particular pursuit causes women to be disproportionately underrepresented.

That makes this decision even more galling to me.

Yeah, this is infuriating.

I did Karate for a decade, went to a number of tournaments, and I'm a giant gamer dork.

Yes, in combat sports, there are legitimate arguments one can make that defining some kind of category delineation based on bone/muscle density from your biology makes roughly as much sense as weight classes... though I can say that only time I have ever been actually, fully KO'd was from a woman, roughly the same age/weight as myself, landing a roundhouse kick directly on my temple (side of my head).

But... keyboard combat? No. Makes no fucking sense at all.

Basically its because our gender is shit and ruins everything.

Well you see, trans women something something g shoulder orientation something something angle of neck relative to the monitor so obviously there's just too much of an advantage.

They're an average of 1.6 seconds faster at their 4pools than cis women.

In theory there aren’t, but at the top of basically all esports and even games like chess, there are no women. Why is that? Are men more competitive?

Probably a similar reason to why there are tournaments and ranking systems exclusive to women in chess. From my understanding, there are far fewer women in chess than men, more hurdles for women in chess and less opportunity for them to thrive and reach their full potential. Many may have started later and were generally less encouraged to pursue chess, likely resulting in less time spent playing chess from a younger age. Therefore there are events exclusive to women in an effort to create a more balanced competitive environment that isn't dominated by men who were placed in front of a chess board and cheered on since they were in diapers.

Is there even a male / female division is esports?

I also exists for chess for example and makes a lot of sense. If one gender is vastly underrepresented, giving them a separate competition helps them succeed at all.

In most sports the male competition is an actually open competition for all genders.

You may be right, but that's not the situation here. The categories already exist, and the question is how to manage them.

both men and women?

Woman's world cup

Yes

chess has a separate women’s division… but they consistently rank lower than men and if it was mixed there would be no women playing at top level matches….
there’s also a separate Grand Master and Women’s Grand Master titles… women can become GM’s but they typically don’t….
i imagine the difference is cultural and comes down to how they’re raised….

Don't forget that also.... There are cis women with y chromosomes. There are cis men without. There are intersex people.

I think they're trying to promote women in sports, and some idiot decided that a male player might enter the comp looking for easy wins against a smaller pool of players.

Its a compete failure to read the room, but that's my guess as to how they ended up here.

i'v always found dr.pepper and flaming hot cheetos to be a better performance enhancer

my guess (regarding split divisions) is it’s just money, there are many more times hardcore male gamers than female… but people want to watch female gamers as much or more than men…
so if you had coed competitions, they’d end up being 95% male, and they’d make less money…

Sorry, but true gamers use black switches which can only be actuated by the finger-biceps of men

That thread just made me sad. This is so fucked

Do the tournament organizers have anything to do with the game devs?

in the same way that engineering disciplines often provide priority to women because it’s hard af for them in the discipline not for any good reason but just because the industry is misogynistic af

being a women and a gamer is far more toxic than being a man and a gamer, and that drives away a lot of women who may have been the best, and men don’t have that same hindrance just by virtue of their gender

id argue too that anyone claiming to be trans probably has similar levels of toxicity, and therefor it shouldn’t be an issue: if the division is about encouraging diversity to combat toxicity, who cares if that toxicity comes from transphobia or misogyny

You’re not thinking like a bigot, that’s why you’re confused. In their minds, most trans women are actually just pervy men trying to gain unfair access to sexy gamer girls so that they can assault them. The organizers feel an obligation to protect women from a threat they imagined in their heads.

Women are generally underrepresented in esports, so it makes sense to have a women's division to foster interest and give them a community of their own in a male-dominated field. Of course, the arguments for barring trans women are even more specious than in contact sports

Misogyny didn't change "male" and "female" into nouns, they've always functioned as nouns since their first usage in the 1300s, according to some quick research. Also, there's no such thing as linguistic morality, either you can communicate your thoughts with others or you can't.

That is apparently gendered.

really doesn't make any sense, does it?

If shown bluered images if women or mens football people show no difference in excitement and enjoyment.

Your "fair" approach only works in a world where the starting lines are equal.

I also firmly believe that sports are worth funding irregardless of viewer numbers. It is a net positive for humanity if we compete in sports and celebrate our achievements.

We live in a world where misogyny is systemic, just like racism. Girls are told by their parents and peers that they should stay away from certain professions, and then if they do try getting into those fields, like gaming, they are harassed and abused just for being female. For all the same reasons, they also don't get as many opportunities to make money. As such, their ability to play games, train for esports and travel becomes limited. Having a women's league removes some of the pressure and paves the way for mixed competitions.