And I never fully understood the hate that women received until I her and I started grouping up on a regular basis for competitive. I have strange gaming hours (because of my line of work)… I game from 10:30am - 2:00pm M-F, PST, and she is the only person I have found willing to group up with me consistently in that time window.

Long story short, she is AN AMAZING dps player. She pops off every game. We have an 75% winrate playing together this competitive season. But here is the thing, she doesn’t speak in coms at all for the first round. And I understand why:

There are people playing this game that see a girl pick dps and they assume the game is over before it’s begins. AND GAWD FORBID if we actually lose the first round, they will start being toxic to her telling to get off dps and play support.

Just so you all know, if we do lose the first round, she continues to remain silent and play dps, because she continues to try her best and we often turn the game around to our favor.

People are more tolerable to a person that doesn’t speak, then hearing a girl in coms. This is what I’ve learned. So to avoid tilting people, she makes the choice to remain silent.

If we win the first round with flying colors, she will start to feel more confident and start communicating with the team.

This got me thinking how terrible this situation is… here you have a girl gamer, who is exceptional at the game, but doesn’t communicate because she has experienced others tilting just to the sound of her voice.

I don’t know why I’m making this thread other than to say I feel bad for her, and I hope someday it doesn’t have to be that way for her, or other female gamers. feelsbadman, she is a funny/fun girl to game with, and she walks on egg shells at the start of every game buying her time when until she feels that a first round win grants her a safety net to actually speak as a dps player.

Here’s to hoping the gaming culture improves someday.