Credit: Game News 24 If you’ve liked Queen’s Gambit, chances are you asked yourself why there aren’t many female chess players today.
Furthermore, why don’t more women compete against men in sports that don’t rely on body power but on mental prowess? Can women be as good at eSports as male players? Are there gender-specific games?
As we enter the minefield of contemporary gender issues and controversies, we want to showcase the Orangutan all-female team, one that challenges us to explore our current biases.
What Happens in SkyeSport 2022—Doesn’t Stay in SkyeSport 2022
As there are many discussions concerning gender studies, transphobia, non-binary philosophies, and more, we want to mention from the beginning of this article that we won’t talk about contemporary gender identities and politics.
As important as they are, this article’s goal is to look at the unique Orangutan all-female eSports Valorant team and what its existence means in the eSports community.
Namely, at the SkyeSport Pro Invitational 2022, Orangutan entered the group stage with two teams. The first was the Orangutan, and the other was the Orangutan Female. Sway, CaspeR, Kachow, Japips, Chloettw, and GuNNeR comprised the roster.
This was the first time in the history of the tournament that an all-female Indian Valorant team got the chance to play with the best of the best.
Although the team didn’t make it to the playoffs, the same way the male Orangutan team didn’t, it stirred quite a fuss in the Valorant community.
Gender Games or Politics?
The all-female Orangutan team got us thinking more about the need for female inclusion in eSports.
The first thing that catches our attention is how the two Orangutan teams were named. Namely (see what we did there?), the all-male Orangutan team was called simply “Orangutan,” while the all-female team went by the name “Orangutan Female.”
Although having an all-female Indian team is a rare sight, there’s no need to name the group “Orangutan Female” while having the male team called just “Orangutan.” In fact, we found that incorporating a gender category into your name feels more exclusive than inclusive (which is ultimately the point). On the other hand, you could argue that the name serves to start conversations just like this one.
No Monkey Business
Firstly, let us introduce the brave females that have the guts to step into the male-dominated eSports pro scene.
The most prominent player on the team is an Indian Valorant player, Sway. She was making her name in the eSports pro scene back in 2021.
She played with and against male players and joined forces with Asteria, another Indian female Valorant team, where Sway scored some impressive victories. In 2022, she became a part of Orangutan, where she plays the entry fragger and duelist role.
Chloettw is a Valorant player with a lot of accolades to her name. She was a part of the Nigma Galaxy Female team before joining Orangutan in June 2022.
Her favorite role is sentinel. She is excellent when it comes to blocking sites or just casually strolling around maps with Viper.
CaspeR is more of a tactical Valorant player. She was a part of Asteria’s roster along with Sway and joined the Orangutan at a similar time as her.
She mainly plays support and is an excellent team smoker while excelling with Chamber on various maps when needed.
The main initiator for Orangutan is Japips. Her favorite picks are mostly Sova and Breach. She became a part of the Orangutan roster in April this year.
Lastly, we have Kachow. She is the all-rounder for the team. Kachow is one of the founding members of the all-female Orangutan. She can easily switch roles based on the map.
Gender Splits?
Although all-female eSports teams are not a novelty, it still is not a commodity. There is a vast discrepancy between male and female pro eSports players.
However, that’s not to say that women are not into eSports. On the contrary. Thanks to Twitch, Youtube, and many other streaming and social media platforms, we can see that there are hundreds of thousands of female gamers getting insane amounts of views.
Although their motivation behind streaming might differ from playing at pro tournaments, you can say that many of those female streamers raised awareness of women being more than capable of competing in eSports.
In fact, thanks to female streamers, many women and girls can get interested in competitive eSports. More female eSport streams equal more exposure to the public. In other words, that’s how you get larger numbers of all-female teams.
The necessity of female eSports can be seen after the world experienced a sudden increase in female chess players thanks to Netflix’s Queen’s Gambit. Thanks to the popular series, the world began thinking about why there weren’t more chess players, if there was ever a female grandmaster, or if top female players could beat top male players.
And the answer to these gnarly questions is simple: there are many female grandmasters, and many competitive female chess and eSports players are capable of defeating top male competitors.
Of course, if you look at the statistics, the number of female eSports achievements is not as large as men’s. However, the number is proportional to a smaller number of females interested in pursuing a professional career in eSports.
That’s why having a more significant number of female players in competitive eSports leagues is important and long overdue.
We aren’t suggesting that an all-female Orangutan team is there just for looks so other female players can get inspired. The team we’re talking about is made of top-tier competitors, thanks to their talents and hard work. Their dedication will ultimately inspire future generations of female players to pursue eSports careers.
We also aren’t saying that female players cannot feel inspired by male eSports talents and champions. Although we do claim that having female faces linked to eSports can sometimes communicate better to the future female pros.
We are definitely saying that we need more professional eSports females to see them become members of the best eSports teams out there.
Gendered Hobbies and Roles
Although Western culture talks more and more about the non-binary movement, the rest of the world isn’t tackling such philosophies yet. Most people worldwide grow up with hobbies that are gender-biased. Chances are boys play with more masculine hobbies, and girls play with more feminine toys.
That’s why games like Dota 2 and CS:GO, games heavily marketed toward boys, tend to attract more male players than females.
However, thanks to Valorant, Overwatch, LoL, and their diversified heroes, we have a chance to feature more female players than ever. Thanks to these games’ inclusivity, more women can connect with game design choices or critical premises behind the lore.
In fact, if you take a look at the League of Legends Arcane Netflix show, you can see that the cast is so diversified and features all kinds of personalities that everyone can connect with at least one character.
Thanks to these efforts (but also thanks to the great stories these games and shows feature), we can expect future eSports pros to come from all kinds of backgrounds.
Innate Skill Caps?
We are writing this article as the summer ends, and we can see that the all-female Orangutan team didn’t win any match in the SkyeSport Pro Invitational 2022.
Unfortunately, there are many sexist comments that swarm whenever a female eSports team tries to break through. These comments often emerge whenever female teams try competing against male players but get shredded in the process.
The funny thing is that many of those commentators that don’t play Valorant competitively don’t realize that they still might not have a chance against a pro female player.
Nevertheless, the current female success in eSports might be a hint that some competitions should be all-female leagues where women can practice enough until they get comfortable playing against males, given male competition is currently stronger.
At the same time, we can also argue that segregation might split public opinion further and even do more harm than good for female players.
Perhaps easing more females into the sport can be done by creating tournaments with a required male-female ratio.
However, female players still not being able to win major tournaments doesn’t matter much compared to the actual impact it has on future Indian or any country’s female players.
Performing the best you can in top-tier eSports tournaments always requires a lot of work, dedication, and, sadly, opportunities and sponsorships. Becoming s1mple is not that simple after all.
That’s why being one of the pioneers, even though not a champion, means a great deal to any female who dreams of becoming a pro competitor.
The formula is simple – the more female players we have, the more chances of finding the top talent that will have better conditions to shine.
And that’s how the Orangutan team does a good job helping the cause, especially in countries where a lot of women might feel oppressed or belittled.
