Why games like LoL and Hearthstone produce so few women pro players
Mindy Jun is, at first glance, a regular American high school student. Chat with her and she’ll discuss her aspirations for college and her mom’s concerns about how much time she spends playing games. Yet, underneath that student exterior beats the heart of a competitor, and along with four of her friends, Jun represents Troy High School in a youth League of Legends tournament operated by the North American Scholastic Esports Federation.
Troy isn’t your regular high school either. It’s already produced one esports pro in the form of Eugene ‘Pobelter’ Park. You might know him as Team Liquid’s mid laner at the 2018 LoL Worlds event. This is due in no small part to the institution’s adoption of competitive gaming as a serious part of its sports programme. Troy currently fields several Overwatch and LoL teams and one of the latter is the world’s only all-girl youth team.
Despite being a capable carrier in that very team, Jun faces a constant struggle to divert attention away from the fact that she’s a girl. “When I play games, I try not to reveal my gender,” she tells me. “If I do, it stops being about the game, it becomes all about me being a female. People either want to treat me like a princess and white knight me, or they automatically dislike me and treat me horribly, and that’s not what I’m playing for. I just want to have fun!”
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