They are called “Viki”, “Lilith”, “Aly”, “Chubby Daddy” and “Kasane” – their real first names Velouria, Luna, Alina, Coline and Emeline -, and they form the French Bees team, a 100% female formation set up by Vitality on the game League of Legends (LOL). A very young collective, formed only three months ago, which however symbolizes this desire of the various players in French E-sport to open up the discipline to women, who represent nearly 50% of video game players. But more in the leisure side than competition. “When a girl today wants to get into online competitions, she will come face to face with people she does not know, who are quietly installed behind their computer, and that is where she will encounter toxicity. extremely violent”, explains Servane Fischer, instigator of the incubator created within the association Women In Games. “Being a girl is not the norm in this environment.”
An incubator that has seen the past in particular “Viki”, who has become the captain of the French Bees. She returns to the path that allowed her to “realize her dream. When I joined the Women In Games incubator two years ago, I contacted Vitality to ask the club to accompany me with the team I had formed at the time, the French Fries. I had gone to the nerve and they had agreed to follow us on a women’s tournament but it only lasted two months. Afterwards, I joined their V-Hive structure to work in their cyber cafe, where I spent a year. And last December, there was a women’s tournament and I asked them to accompany my team again and that’s from there that the project was born. A project supported in particular by Fabien Devide, the creator and president of Vitality. “Viki was employed by us but not as a gamer, until the day she shared her passion and history with video games. She told us in particular about her difficulties and we were all touched by her testimony which did not surprise us, but which concretely allowed us to become aware of a certain number of problems, such as online sexism. Her dream has always been to be a professional player and become a top player on LOL. This made us want to help her, especially since she shares the same values as us and she has an absolutely exemplary state of mind. She is truly a great ambassador for women’s esports.”
Today, “Viki” has therefore taken off, leaving its place in the incubator to Serena, a professional player on the game Valorant. “It motivates me to see that people believe in me, that they help me to move forward in the industry,” she confides, in a mixture of shyness and already well-established character. “It’s a real plus, it allows me to have real contacts, more experience. The world of E-sport is not very feminine, and even less feminist. Most of the time, women don’t dare to get into it, while many like to play video games. But some preferred to hide the fact that they were gamers, as if it were shameful. I have known many who told me that they were afraid that people would find out, of what people would think of them. An opinion confirmed by Servane Fischer: “The girls were afraid of confronting toxic masculinity. We, our role was to provide them with a secure framework to encourage them to go there, to get started. We had to show them that not only was there no reason to be afraid, but that it was not up to them to adapt but to others to accept them.
A toxicity on social networks which still remains by far the number 1 problem for players. “I’ve already taken it to the head on the networks, on my physique, on my level of play, on everything in fact”, loose Serena. “As soon as you miss something, you are immediately brought back to the fact that you are a woman. You always have to prove more than a boy. We can’t just play for fun, as a woman, we always have to show that we are strong so as not to be insulted or mocked. A year ago, I took it very badly, I suffered from insults, from this lack of recognition because I am a woman. But after a while, you fight and you gain confidence. The incubator is also there for that. And I also know that I have a role to play in making things change, in trying to be role models for other little girls.” “I’m used to it unfortunately, and the incubator also gave me the keys to better manage it,” adds Viki. “Now I take a lot on myself. It doesn’t really affect me anymore. I don’t even blame those people. It is society and their upbringing that makes some people toxic and misogynistic towards us. And it’s people like us, more open, who will change certain mentalities. Now, for my teammates, it is more difficult because it is the first year that they find themselves exposed to this toxicity. So I try to convey my way of thinking to them, but it’s not easy.
Hence the establishment, therefore, of this incubator in 2019. “When I saw the Women In Games association being created in 2017, I said to myself that I could perhaps help legal first,” recalls Servane Fischer. “And it was by joining this association and confronting my ideas with many people who were in my situation that I said to myself that there was something to be done. Naively, I believed that women would take their place naturally, over time, that there would be nothing to do. While no, things had to be changed, mentalities. I created the incubator starting from this question: what did I miss when I was a player (on Counter Strike)? I had friends but I had missed a more serious, more professional framework, with moral support when I suffered from toxicity. With this program, we also sought to offer them visibility because until now, in terms of marketing for example, everything was exclusively geared towards men. It was necessary to convince the editors in particular so that they invest time and values for a better representation of women in E-sport. It is thanks to them that we have had sufficient means”.
And this one to conclude: “Women have fallen behind, it is undeniable. Today, to say that they do not have the level of the best men is a truth. By dint of parking them together for years, it is difficult to be able to progress and grow. At some point, they have to confront better than themselves to be able to progress, and they must also be supervised by professionals to learn. All players in E-sport are aware that we have to get started, in the wake of many associations. We see that clubs like Vitality, brands like Aldi and publishers are pushing for diversity. The community no longer challenges this evolution.”
