What is mentioned in this article is incorrect information. Read The transsexual team that was declined to compete in an all-female tournament was, apparently, a hoax for more information.

"No males allowed. Please take care, faking your gender can be penalized", was the automatic response from ESL.

According to Rigilio, her team doesn’t look female enough to participate in the Female Open. Photo: BuzzFeed News

"It's extremely upsetting and I wish we could be treated like normal people, because we are just that. Just when I thought gaming could be our outlet, we were wrong. Gender isn't just as simple as what was written on your old passport, there's more to it," Rigilio told BuzzFeed News.

Team Secrets Ksenia "vilga" Klyuenkova directed criticism against AnyKey.

"One of the reasons why there's no female players in top male scene is the way how women and men think, react and take decisions in game. Calling yourself a woman, however you were born different gender, is not bad and shouldn't be judged. But I can call it as cheating to let trans participate in female only tournaments, cause men still have different hormones and the way of thinking, which will give them physical advantage (!) towards natural born women", Klyuenkova stated via Twitter.

There’s been hard criticism against ESL because of their choice to rule out a team of transgender players, who was born as men but identify themselves as women, from Female Open Summer 2017. The captain of the team, Sly Buehl Rigilio, told BuzzFeed News that the team got denied after registering for the female league.Rigilio explains that she was extremely sad by the answer since ESL, according to her, did not think that the team looked "female" enough to participate in the league. ESL later explained that the response was sent automatically to prevent men from registering.She wrote a message to the co-organizers, Munich Finest Gaming, who explained that they could manually register the team. However, this could only be done if the players sent copies of their passports stating that they’re females.This proved to be problematic since everyone in the team had not changed their gender in their passports and thought it was a big step to take. Also they wouldn’t get the new passports in time before the league went off.Anna Rozwandowicz, spokesperson for ESL, explained that Rigilios team was not excluded because they were transsexual, but because they could not display a valid ID that proved that they are females. The Italian player is nevertheless confident that her team was excluded because of appearance and believes that the organizers should have written in the rules that no transsexuals may participate in their leagues.The rules state that only women may play in the league and that the organizers have the right to request official evidence that a player is a women if necessary. Rigilio said that it is offensive to her and her team that they was forced to prove that they are women to attend.Rozwandowicz states that the female league is in order to help women in the scene and therefore they are extra careful about who’s participating since many men tried to register in the past. She also points out that ESL and Munich Finest Gaming do not think that the team tries to troll them, but as organizers they must make sure that those who participate are females.Criticism was also aimed at AnyKey, an organization created in collaboration between ESL and Intel to promote minorities within the scene, as their motto states that everyone should be able to participate. The organization explains in a statement that the female tournaments are in place to preserve the talented women in the scene and should be open to both cis and transsexual women.According to AnyKey all women should have the chance to play in the female leagues, regardless of what the players ID states as their gender. People who identify themselves as women should have the chance to attend.Ksenia "Vilga" Klyuenkova from Team Secret supported the decision ESL did, and turned her criticism towards AnyKey. According to the Russian player, transsexual players have a significant advantage to other players in the league. She also belives that AnyKey wants to let more trolls participate in the female leagues by opening up for those who can’t prove their female sex.Other female players agreed with Klyuenkova, among these the former MASY-player Angela "ANGELKAA" Nikolovska, with the argument that her male friend now can say that he identifies himself as a women and may participate in female leagues and tournaments.There was those who did not agree with the player and commented on it as unpleasant. One user said that Klyuenkova used the argument about physical advantage to conceal her transphobia, something she denied and that her argument was substantiated by the fact that no women play with the male pros.