A Philippines eSport organisation has reconsidered its decision to limit LGBT players entering an upcoming League of Legends tournament after considerable backlash.

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Initially, Garena Philippines eSports decided to set up an "all-feminine tournament" called The Iron Solari in the hope of increasing diversity in the gaming community. When it came to deciding who should be allowed in these teams, however, some rather hypocritical guidelines were put forth."We always want to make sure we are able to have an inclusive environment where no one feels left out, and of course for everybody to enjoy," the league explained . "On this angle, we believed that allowing more to be eligible to join is obviously the answer and as many of our female teams have expressed -- Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered Women members are their friends too."On the other hand, for any competitions, we seriously look at ensuring there's a fair level playing field for all participants. And there are arguments and concerns from other participants who disputes that Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered Women members may probably have some unfair advantage."While it doesn't go into detail on what this "unfair advantage" could be, Garena appeared to think such a move was totally sensible. As a result, each team was to be allowed a maximum of one Gay/Transgendered woman for the tournament or else be hit with a one year ban.Following this, a number of outlets and LoL fans began calling out Garena for the double standard of creating a female-only tournament in the name of diversity, before discriminating about a subset of those who may want to participate.League of Legends developer Riot Games wasn't happy, tweeting : "LGBT players are welcome at official LoL tourneys. We're working with partners to ensure consistency with our values across all regions."Now, Garena appears to have backed down and released the following statement on its website "Our initial ruling on LGBT player restrictions within the Iron Solari League has created a lot of good discussion and debate over the past 24 hours. After discussing the ruling with our partners and re-examining our approach, we have decided to remove these restrictions completely. This means that any player who self-identifies as female will be allowed to participate. We sincerely apologize for any offense we caused to the LGBT and gaming communities."Our original intent when we put together this tournament was to promote diversity in the competitive gaming community. Hence, we are grateful to our players who have consistently provided their feedback to help us learn and improve as we strive to develop an inclusive gaming environment for all. We'll also be keeping our promise of having an open dialogue with all parties as we plan this and future events."2014 saw Riot Games rolling out some major changes to the way it handles abusive players, including more severe penalties for those exhibiting toxic speech or behavior. Last July, one European League of Legends team was fined $300 USD after demonstrating "unsportsmanlike behavior" during a competitive game.For more on why inclusion is important in the gaming community, check out our opinion piece on why we need more gay characters in games

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter