"My goal is to get rid of these female tournaments altogether," says Stephanie Harvey, a five-time world champion in Counter-Strike. "The goal is to compete against each other and be one of the first competitive environments that doesn’t care about gender."
During a talk at GDC, Harvey and Morgan Romine, an anthropologist specializing in diversifying esports, took to the stage to address the struggle for better representation in esports and dispel misconceptions surrounding female-only tournaments. While both women expressed that creating exclusive spaces for female competitors wasn’t a long-term solution, the message was clear: Women’s-only tournaments are a necessary first step to creating a more inclusive esports culture.