After yesterday’s furor over the gender segregated World Championship events, the IeSF has issued a statement making some events open to anyone.


This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK.

That means the previously International e-Sports Federation ‘male only’ competitions can now be entered by men or women, although curiously there’s still a “Female Competition” category—the logic behind still maintaining a woman’s category is, “the importance of providing female gamers with ample opportunities to compete in e-Sports”. Something an open to all competition apparently can’t change on its own.


Here’s the full press release sent to me by the IeSF:

Press Release – IeSF Board has made decision to make their event “Open for All” – Date: 03 July 2014 On 2nd of July, 2014, the IeSF’s policy about gender division, which separates the female division and the male division, has been brought into question. The IeSF has listened to the gaming community and has carefully considered their opinions. Upon hearing these concerns, the IeSF convoked an emergency session of the IeSF Board to respond. As a result, IeSF shall have two event categories: “Open for All” events and events that are reserved for women. The events which were initially set aside as the male division will now be open to all genders, and the events which were initially set as the female division will remain as they were. The IeSF Board addressed its reason for maintaining events for women, citing the importance of providing female gamers with ample opportunities to compete in e-Sports—currently a male-dominated industry. Female gamers make up half of the world’s gaming population, but only a small percentage of e-Sports competitors are women. The IeSF’s female-only competitions aim to bring more diversity to competitive play by improving the representation of women at these events. Without efforts to improve representation, e-Sports can’t achieve true gender equality. In order to apply the new policy with consistency, IeSF has added an “Open for All” Tekken Tag Tournament 2 tournament, which was initially set aside for female-only competition. Therefore, the amended plan for the 6th. ■ Open for All DOTA 2 - Participating teams may consist of 5 male players, 5 female players, or a mixed team. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - Players of all genders can participate in the event. Ultra Street Fighter 4 - Players of all genders can participate in the event. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft e-Sports World Championship BAKU 2014: - Players of all genders can participate in the event. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Players of all genders can participate in the event. ■ Female Competition StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - Female event is conducted separately, in parallel with “Open for All” event. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Female event is conducted separately, in parallel with “Open for All” event.