Megalith
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There was a round of articles last week regarding North America’s first female Overwatch Contenders player, “Ellie,” who supposedly quit due to toxic harassment. Having been quickly courted by a professional esports team, Second Wind, many claimed she was a male player’s “smurf” (a high-level player posing as an inexperienced one) account. While the media initially framed this as an incident proving rampant sexism in esports and gaming, it turns out that “Ellie” was, in fact, a man: a male player called “Punisher” may have run the “social experiment” as a hasty means of going pro.
It looks like this "social experiment", if it was actually intended as such, was an attempt to make some kind of point about women in esports, but it was heavily criticised. Liz Richardson, boss of Overwatch website Overwatchscore, said it will have "lasting ramifications" for women who already face an uphill challenge in esports. "Now, more than ever, any girl that tries to go pro will get this gigantic amount of scrutiny and will be practically forced to reveal aspects of their personal lives just to prove they're a woman."
It looks like this "social experiment", if it was actually intended as such, was an attempt to make some kind of point about women in esports, but it was heavily criticised. Liz Richardson, boss of Overwatch website Overwatchscore, said it will have "lasting ramifications" for women who already face an uphill challenge in esports. "Now, more than ever, any girl that tries to go pro will get this gigantic amount of scrutiny and will be practically forced to reveal aspects of their personal lives just to prove they're a woman."