The women Have Entered the Arena

“ You’ll want to buy two health potions and the Sorcerer’s Shoes from the shop, then make your way up to the top lane to start bringing down the turret.”

“OK. Wait, what? Where? I keep losing myself. Why is my camera not focused on my character?”

And then I died. Clearly, my first-ever eSports experience was a disaster, and I was not the extraordinary success I was hoping to be…

As you might have guessed, eSports is short for electronic sports, and it refers to video game competitions between professional players. It’s also the world’s fastestgrowing sport, with a global audience that will reach 385 million this year.

The games require lightning reflexes and splitsecond decision-making, and range from first-person shooters like Overwatch and Counterstrike: Global Offensive, to real-time strategy games like Starcraft and Warcraft 3.  But the most popular type  of eSport is the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA, where two teams battle it out to destroy the enemy’s base.

Thousands of MOBA competitions are held every year. Teams spend the intensive pre-season months living in a house together, gaming every day in preparation for tournaments that draw tens of thousands of spectators into massive arenas for multi-million dollar prizes. ESports stars such as the South Korean player Faker are paid up to $3 million a year, and that’s not including lucrative bonuses and sponsorships.

For women, eSports looks a bit different. While video games are often perceived as a “men’s realm”, studies have shown that females make up about half of gamers. That number has been increasing every year too, but tournament organizers have been slow to catch up.

For women, though, the difference in prize pools and sponsorship support isn’t just a small percentage – it’s huge. The Asterisk* girls had just returned from an all-women’s eSports tournament in China when I met them, and each member of the team received a paltry $600 – not even enough to cover their airfare and accomodation – for winning the competition. Add misogyny and sexism in gaming on top of the meagre prizes, and competitive video gaming doesn’t seem like a great way to make a living if you’re not a dude.

Asterisk*, however, aims to change that. Founded in 2005 by Tammy Tang as one of the first all-female MOBA teams in the world, Asterisk* has evolved into a talent management company that oversees competitive all-female teams. The team also works with the Singapore Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) to create opportunities for all gamers in Singapore, as well as advancing the role of women in gaming culture.

The teams compete in various games, including the most popular eSport in the world, League of Legends (LoL). The game attracts around 100 million unique players per month, and in 2016 alone, there were over 1,000 LoL tournaments involving millions in prizes. It also has one of the strongest female gaming communities of any big-name title.

So what does a typical LoL game look like? Each match pits two teams of five players against each other. At the beginning of each match, players select one of 138 Champions as their in-game character. Every Champion has different skills, strengths, and weaknesses. All players start a match at Level 1 and increase their level by killing enemies, unlocking more powerful abilities. The primary objective is to destroy the other team’s Nexus, located inside their base. When the Nexus is destroyed, the match is over.

Asterisk* is now made up of Valerie, Jeslyn, Shuwen and team captain Jolene, and they have about two years of LoL experience each. The 20-somethings spend several hours a week practicing together, and scheduling time for that is their greatest challenge as a team.

During our interview, fifth member Shasha was sick at home that day so the team’s coach, Leonard, showed up to sub for her. He’s a seasoned LoL vet with about four years’ experience, and also plays on Singapore’s top men’s team, Sovereign. As a coach, he watches replays of Asterisk*’s matches and advises the team on areas for improvement, from Champion abilities to team communication and field strategy.

Watching Asterisk* play a ranked match is something else – they trounced the two teams they played against with what seemed like no effort and casual banter throughout. “They’re like intermediate bots (computer-controlled opponents),” Shuwen said when asked if their opponents presented a challenge. Valerie, the smallest member of the team, pined for frog porridge mid-game, and Jolene quipped that at least Valerie had her priorities in order during a match. Valerie would later devour the most frog porridge in the team.

Fortunately, the girls didn’t get any sexist comments during or after their games, which is something that happens from time to time. Comments range from the relatively innocuous (“Go back to the kitchen!”) to those that question their merit (“You bought your account with that rank” or “Who levelled up your account for you?”), but Asterisk* tends to play it cool on the comebacks, letting their gaming skills do the talking.

The Asterisk* LoL team has big ambitions. They didn’t place in the China tournament, but it was the first time they’d ever travelled for a competition, and they did hold their own against the far more well-funded Chinese teams. Just last June, Asterisk* placed first in Singapore’s allfemale tournament – no small feat, and certainly a step towards more opportunities  in tournaments abroad.

At this rate, the men’s teams better watch their backs. The Ladies of Legends have arrived.