Nottingham Female and non-binary players praise esports for being an equal space

Part of the event included the finals of the Women and Non-Binary Valorant tournament - the first of its kind in the UK. Gaming spaces are often made inaccessible to women, with hostility common in online voice chats and forums.

In March 2022, statistics from fandomspot.com found 76% of women have disguised their gender when playing video games. The study also found only one in five women feel comfortable talking to other players while gaming and 25% of female gamers have stopped playing certain games completely because of online abuse.

Esports observer, Sophie ‘Deutrino’, said: “As a player, sometimes you feel like you don’t have as strong of a voice. Even if you have a good idea, either you sound like a child or you’re a woman and therefore you have no authority.”

Fellow observer, Embrei, added: “I find that a lot of people are quicker to be aggressive towards you and towards your mistakes than they would be to your male counterparts.”

Competitions like the women’s and non-binary Valorant tournaments are the beginnings of a push toward a more equal space for gamers, regardless of gender.

Sophie said: “One thing I am grateful for is these communities for women and non-binary people, both players and production because I feel like that’s how I got most of my earlier opportunities from knowing other women and reaching out to them about how they got into the scene. It’s a really supportive network.”

The Confetti Institute is a Women in Games Education Ambassador and, in November 2022, hosted the women’s League of Legends tournament “Rising Stars” in partnership with NUEL, Amazon and GGTech Entertainment. This tournament was the first women’s League of Legends tournament in Europe.

While women and non-binary tournaments are a way to help balance the industry, there is still a long way to go in making esports equal for all genders.

David Jackson, managing director at NUEL, said: “The original conversation was ‘let’s do a forced mixed tournament’, but if you create a tournament where there has to be a certain number of players, there’s a risk of people going round campus looking for a token woman to compete.

“I’d rather it be something that’s owned by women from the start. We added non-binary people later on at the request of the community.

“The women and non-binary Valorant tournaments are some of the most engaged tournaments that we do. It’s an outlet. It’s a rallying cry. That’s how we see it. The goal is to end up with far more women and non-binary people in mixed esports tournaments. It’s a means to an end rather than an end itself.”