There is a new hot topic on twitter in the League community: Should we make a female-only League/Tournaments?
The first and only female pro Player
To give you some context: The League of Legends pro scene is officially open to all genders, but in our 11 years of existence we only had one female pro Player, Remilia. She was transgender, got bullied a lot by fans and "died peacefully in her sleep" after talking about suicide on her last stream.
Picture of Remilia, source
Some people like to point to Remilia when they say it is after all possible for a female to compete with male players. I think the story of Remilia rather showcases how hateful the League Fanbase can be towards different people. It might be quite disrespectful to suggest she committed suicide because of her public perception, but investigating deeper into the reasons of her death feels even more morbid, so take it with a grain of salt. I hope she rests in peace, despite my claims.
Why I thought we don't need a female League
Like I said, we are open to all genders and why would you separate boys and girls? There is no physical advantage for men like in traditional sports. Why do we have to create jobs again where only females are hired and men with equal qualification get dismissed? Women should just "git gud" and then they can compete with the men. There is no barrier.
These would pretty much be my arguments if you would have asked me 5 years ago. I think a lot of it has to do with the political stuff I am involved with. Listening to people like Jordan Peterson, it is kind of a reflex to just take the anti-feminist position without much thought.
Looking at twitter it feels even harder to start a good discussion on the topic. Most official voices, a lot of female League officials like casters and team managers have been outspoken about this, support the formation of a women only League, however they argumentation is: " It is just good, get over it", "Everybody who disagrees is a misogynist". Not exactly their words, but pretty much their line of argumentation, and while it is not very far from the truth, it is certainly not a good way to start a conversation.
Why I think we need a women-only league
From a free market perspective I think it is good to give an incentive for an outcome you want to see. I would love to see more female League players, some of the League channels I watch on Youtube have up to an 98% male audience and I am quite sick of the sausage party. I like girls that show interest in my hobbies and it is quite annoying to never meet a woman IRL that has even heard of the game.
In game I actually play relatively often with women, I play support and a lot of women feel drawn to the ADC role because of the iconic female champs you can play there like Jinx from Arcane. Support and ADC play in tandem for most of the game and while I won't argue that women are the better players, I can say that they tend to be more jolly in a winning game. Maybe it is just more fun to exchange "<3" and "Uwu, senpai" messages in the botlane when your ADC is actually of the opposite sex.
It is also not like we need to cancel anything to make room for an all female league. Riot has a lot of money to throw around having one the most successful games in 11 consecutive years. As far as I know the LEC and LCS are even sustaining themselves by now with all the sponsorship deals they have. We have a major League on every continent and many countries even have an additional national League. Making one or two leagues that are women-only wouldn't cut too deep into Riots budget. It would have the ability to attract new viewers and I would rather watch western female players compete instead of Asians where I don't even understand the language.
As always I would love to hear your opinion in the comments. I focused exclusively on League of Legends in my post, but experience from other games and eSports are welcome as well as the perspective of a complete outsider.