Guest Column: Meet the Smash Sisters

Oh hey Milktea!

I thank Patrick Miller for his FGC contributions on GB!

This is pretty cool.

It's awesome to see this kind of stuff here (which kind of selfishly means things I wouldn't hear of otherwise). Thanks to the people in the interview and to Austin as well for curating this stuff.

I don't follow the FGC very much, are women not allowed to enter normal competitions?

@notorious_pog: Thay are but it is super male dominated so can be kind of daunting to get into if you aren't male.

@imallinson: It just seems like a weird thing to split tournaments up by sex. Video games are the one thing that put men and women on an equal level of play, yet I keep seeing women only leagues for games like CSGO, Halo, Starcraft and now Smash.

A woman winning a womens only league isn't going to be big news, but imagine a woman taking first in Smash at EVO, she would be a role model that shows it's "normal" for women to compete with men in games.

Despite following the goings on in the FGC as many of us on this website do, this is my first time hearing reading of Smash Sisters. I highly approve of this idea and wish it the best of luck going forward.

Great interview, wish it was longer, looking at you, person who "edited it for length."

Thanks, Patrick! This is really good stuff.

I think that would be the ultimate goal of an organisation like Smash Sisters, but obviously we're not there yet. From the article:

LC: Absolutely not. No, no, no. In my opinion, I believe women’s events only developed as a concept due to preexisting social constructs. They don’t exist because we believe there is some mythical, inherent difference between each genders’ ability to play games! The ideal for Smash Sisters events is to feed back into the co-ed events in the long run, where competitive women ranging anywhere from low to high levels becomes a normalized phenomenon.

@notorious_pog: These are generally side events, with the participants of this also entering the main tournament which is happening at the same time. This is just a stepping stone in representation for female players in Smash (and FGC), and one day (hopefully) things like this won't be needed and everyone will just be equally comfortable.

In the UK Smash scene, I have seen people be accommodating to players from all walks of life, regardless of gender, race etc. But not all scenes are like this, and plus any excuse for people to play more Smash is good enough for me

This is addressed directly in the article, several times. :)

I hope that seeing women participate in a tournament environment will acclimate the viewers to seeing women and perhaps make the overall environment more welcoming. Mainly, it would be nice to see a big tournament chat not devolve into "OH MY GOD A GRRRRRRL" or other nonsense, when a women shows up on the stream. Seeing women, even in an all women side tournament, could help with this and make it less of a novelty and more of a regular and perfectly normal occurrence, at least to the people watching. I know that I love fighting games and playing specific ones, and seeing more women involved is really great.

I also agree with building confidence. I know that I definitely feel like I have more eyes on me in an environment where mostly men seem to congregate (comic and video game shops, conventions) and that can lead to being self conscious and varying levels of discomfort or just general raised awareness of how I'm looking, speaking, what I am saying, how I am carrying myself, etc. Even here, online, I can be more guarded with my writing and discussions, since I feel like I need to almost be a representative instead of just a normal participant. Being able to be part of a tournament atmosphere while not having that added dimension of feeling like you're the only woman in the room and what that can mean for other people watching and playing would be very beneficial. Maybe not for everyone, but definitely for some people.

They bring up some of the reasons some women feel uncomfortable in regular tournaments in the article. It's gross to have single-sex tournaments, but if some people can use it as a means towards getting more comfortable in a tournament environment, I guess that's cool. Because like Lilian said--and this speaks to what you're getting at--the end goal shouldn't be to have tournaments divided by sex. To that end, at some point the discomfort and its causes would themselves need to be digested by the community at large.

As to the actual tournament here, I wouldn't expect it to be overly different on the basis of excluding one sex alone, since that means diddly-squat as to whether or not you're fun to be around. But there are certain preconceptions that some people hold and bring towards video gaming that can easily summon an additional level of social muck. Nevermind that merely being around the opposite sex can make some boys and girls particularly dumb. If until everyone can grow up, tournaments like this one could instil the joy and camaraderie that one should, that could be a decent stopgap. But a stopgap it is, and should be regarded as. A negative consequence to an unaddressed problem. One that if unequivocally embraced would likely lead to greater division.

In addition to all that, I'm interested in the "for whatever reason" that attendance in Smash tournaments is mostly male, and whatever moral judgements would be made about that.

Kind of upset by the fact that they're talking to Super Smash Bros. Melee players about Super Smash Bros. Melee and they use pictures of Smash 4.

Oh interesting.

I wonder what would be the reaction to a dude only tournament?

I'm sure there would be no problems promoting something like that.

It's competitive (e) sport. The mental side of performing is as if not more important than your skills. If you get freaked out by sexist behaviour and show that you do by competing in a environment that is free from it, the first thing people will do when you step up is be sexist towards you to gain a competitive advantage. Watch any sport where one person knows their opponent can be wound up!

Also by segregating yourself you'll probably attract all the attention you don't want because scumbags will be scumbags.

I don't like segregation. I don't feel this will help the competitors in the long term as it highlights a mental "weakness" in their game.

I think that the "whatever reason" that's being referred to is simply a byproduct of decades of perception of videogames, and especially "hardcore" videogames as a male pastime and the subsequent marketing of it as such over the years. Of course I can't speak its intention (if any), but I definitely didn't read it as judgmental.

This is awesome. I'd love to see more interviews like this on giant bomb!

@exk4: That's on me! You're dead on, but I was rushing to add photos to the piece after we'd edited it but before we were going to do a live stream!

While trash talking is fine being a sexist (or homophobic, etc.) asshole is something that the community is trying to stamp down. Trolling and trash talking still exist but especially in recent years people have been trying to be less tolerant of stuff that involves anything that is particularly hateful towards orientation, gender, etc. especially during events. If someone wants to trash talk that's fine but people aren't gonna tolerate hateful, denigrating shit that crosses the line and that's not a problem on the competitors who are being subjected to that, that's a problem on the person showing that kind of behavior and its up to the community to not let that kind of shit slide.

Most FGC tournaments are de facto dude only tournaments. If the environment is off-putting enough, you don't need to legislate gender based exclusion.

Then perhaps the answer is an affirmative action-esq scenario where you only invite as many men as you have women. It is impossible to see this as anything other than exacerbating the segregation because that is exactly what it is.

My main argument is if women can have tournament why not men too? Why can they "segregate" freely. (I don't like the term segregation but it was used in some responses.) All I see that some group have the rights to chose but not others. Why promote that kind of inequality. For me it would be simple to accept that some women prefer to play together and maybe some men too and others would surely prefer mixed tournament.

About affirmative action-esq scenario, when did it ever work? It's a nice sentiment but when something is forced it's usually more easily rejected.

Solid read. Thanks Patrick!

@viqor: I didn't read into it and take any offense or anything. I just think that's actually a worthwhile topic to re-explore from a wide and narrow lens, especially in a time when some folks are so smitten by superficial and simplistic expectations and attitudes towards diversity and representation.

But I understand that's not the main thrust of this article, even if it is a large part of the issue.

There are standards to behaviour in pretty much any sport. Being in competition doesn't grant someone carte blanche to do whatever it takes to get an advantage.

Obviously not everything can be policed against, and there's certainly a degree to which an individual bears the responsibility to steel themselves. Everyone you meet is a roll of the dice whether they're an asshole or not. You can't control them, only yourself. That's living.

That also isn't always simple to figure out how to, or immediately viable. If some place can exist apart from that environment that might help someone build themselves up to handle it, then why not? But if that space becomes an end of its own, it stands to do more harm than good.

@todomachi: They aren't promoting that kind of inequality, that inequality already exists and this is a response. Having equal promotion across the board clearly hasn't solved the problem so why double down on the wrong answer?

In conclusion I wanted to say that initiatives like that are great I'm all for bringing more people in our dumb/great hobby.

Mhm... the ideia of a gender exclusive tournemant definitly has its downsides and sometimes reading about this sort of event rubs me in the wrong way, but after putting some thought into it I guess it's probably the best we can get right now.

I really wish that gaming as a whole felt more inclusive for everybody, but that is just not a reality right now. I hope for a day when something like a Smash Sisters becomes a anachronism and we can say "wait? What is the point in making a smash tournament for girls? just enter in any regular one".

Until then, good job making gaming world a little bigger.

All that said, I will never, ever get why people like to play smash on a competitive level. Its the best game to play drunk after Mario Kart!!! =P

"I also dealt with the accusation that I was only playing Smash for the attention, as opposed to my love for the game."

AKA: "one of the times when it is ok to knee a stranger in the balls"

whoa. competitive smash content on giant bomb. yeah it's a guest-column, but hey it's somethin'.

I was at G3 but sadly didn't see the crew battle there. I think i'll stop by at EVO tho.

The women are forming their own tournament because they aren't accepted or welcome in normal, male oriented tournaments. This isn't a place where they prefer to play, it's out of necessity.

Your frustration is correctly place, there should be no need for a separate, segregated, tournament. But the frustration should be pointed toward the toxic, sexist, communities and tournaments that allow and sometimes approve that behavior.

Great article, really interesting stuff.

I understand why they feel the need to do this, but it's a bummer that e-sports are being gender-segregated too. There's a valid reason why men and women don't compete against each other in physical sports like football, MMA, etc. But e-sports seems like it should be a gender neutral competition, since there doesn't seem to be an appreciable difference between the genders when it comes to coordination and finger movements in video games. There could be a real level playing field there.

But I think the problem these days is that people never try to change things from within, only by breaking off and starting a new thing. What if as a guy I was a pro fighting game player who was uncomfortable with the atmosphere of EVO or something like that? I wouldn't still support EVO, but I'd be barred from a female exclusive tournament...but I couldn't start my own co-ed tournament since that would quickly become male dominated, and I couldn't start my own male only tournament separate from EVO because that would be labeled as sexist...it just doesn't seem like there is a lot of positive benefit to splitting off. What if a female-only tournament becomes like the WNBA where it exists but not many people care about it and it never leads to more female acceptance at a main tournament like EVO?

Glad to see Patrick back on the site, always nice to see positive aspects of the fgc promoted, especially when its in an effort to grow the scene.

@president_barackbar: But why would you want an all male tournament?

And you totally could create your own tournament and organize it in a way to ensure the safety of the entrants and participants.

Strange to see so many people against a women only tournament but not against the basic, disgusting, behavior that forces so many women out.

@finaldasa: I don't think he's against anything, it's a legit question. You should be able to create your own tourney with whatever participants you want. The shit show something like that would create in social media is fucking crazy.

You talk about the toxic behaviour and make it seem like "Oh yeah this is a video game issue and a men vs women issues" Do you have any idea (I'm a white male) how many times I've had something derogatory thrown at me on the soccer field? On the rink? We aren't even playing real competition, they're house leagues. I'm not saying it's not abhorrent and shows a lack of class on the offending parties end, but if I complained? No ones coming to my defense, no ones going to rub my back and say "There there, it's okay the bad men are gone"

Scarlett played pro Starcraft 2, she was trans and it didn't become an element in how she played, how she carried herself or how she won. It was simply her orientation/gender nothing more. Maybe I'm an asshole, but I respected her for it and her excellent play far more knowing she had likely dealt with some nasty shit and let her Zerglings do the talking. Again, maybe I'm an asshole. But it's a nasty world out there, it's got sharp edges, you're going to get cut.

I'm simultaneously disappointed that competitive video game culture creates a need for this event and excited that it seems to be going well and is getting coverage here on Giant Bomb. Keep up the good work, Sisters!

I think that's a stretch, the FGC is one of if not the most diverse community that gathers together for game tournaments. Women aren't outright rejected, they're just in a male dominated competitive environment which can get hostile at times. It's an intimidation factor.

Certain women are prominent names in the FGC and there are several trans people that are well known and respected as well. I'm sure they've all had struggles integrating into the community just like most people all at varying degrees but the people who give them these issues are the ones that are rejected.

When the figureheads of these communities (the big names, the organizers etc) are encouraging inclusion saying that women aren't accepted and are unwelcome is kind of untrue.

Rad.

I remember Milktea from my brief stint on this crazy, weird social media site for SSB players. I, uhhh, I think she had the most followers.

Anyway, yeah, all esports struggle is power esports struggle and all that. This is a Cool Thing to be doing.

Thanks Emily, Lil, and Pat.

@themaniacsgnome: I'm not trying to diminish the hate you got playing soccer, or other competitive sports for that matter, but how much of that abuse was due to you being a white male? Maybe you're a minority where you live and play, so maybe you really understand, I don't know. I just know my experience, as the only brown kid in a sea of white faces, being called "Paki" and "sand-n****r" on the pitch and none of my other peers experiencing nearly the same amount of abuse.

I can't speak for a female's experience in the FGC, but I can imagine the level of abuse would be somewhat comparable to what I experienced back in my soccer days. Add to that the real possibility of sexual assault (maybe not rape, but I've absolutely seen idiots grab women's asses at Magic tournaments), and I can see the need for a safe space.

Look, I'm not trying to lessen your experience. It was probably a shitty time for you. But just because competitive sports and gaming can be toxic doesn't mean shrugging our collective shoulders is an acceptable response. We can and should do better, and the Smash Sisters is just one of the ways people are trying to improve things. Let's not tear stuff like this down, but instead consider what all of us can do to make things better for everyone.

They're not saying that though. They're saying there are very real, very true issues that only female players have to deal with, and even if they come from a small pocket of the community, they are big enough issues that it's more than reasonable for any female player feel uncomfortable about entering the FGC gen pop.

@starvinggamer:I'm not saying those issues don't exist, I think this female only tournament thing is totally cool if people want to do it. I was merely stating that saying women are unwelcome and aren't accepted isn't true.

A portion of a community being douche bags doesn't mean that an entire gender is not accepted or actively rejected.

I was just proposing a hypothetical situation to point out that if a male felt like the mainstream FGC events were too hostile an environment and tried to create a male version of the Smash Sisters, it would be decried as sexism. To your second point, I think stuff like this hinges on the assumption that tournament organizers either don't care about not creating a toxic environment or actively encourage it, neither of which seems to be the case to me. To your last point, the point a lot of us who disagree are making is that rather than splitting off and making a separate female only tournament, it would be better for the people involved with Smash Sisters to advocate for a less toxic FGC environment rather than "giving up" on it and going it alone.

But... if the predominantly male FGC is too hostile for a player... how would creating a men-only tournament in any way fix that? How does excluding female players suddenly negate that hostility? "I'm in a room with 1000 bees and 5 butterflies and the bees keep stinging me so my solution is to get rid of the butterflies."

The reason they made Smash Sisters was to guarantee (or get closer to guaranteeing) a safe space for female players to enjoy the game without having to worry about sexist behavior from the bad seeds in the FGC.

Of course no TO wants a toxic environment, but there is literally zero ways for them to monitor every attendee of their events, let alone police them. Even if a female player was able to summon up the courage to report a player for behaving inappropriately (and there are about a billions sad truths about society that pressure a woman not to report harassment), what TO has the time/bandwidth to actually investigate the situation and take action? There is no easy solution.

Which is kinda the whole point of this article that you seem to be missing. No one is "giving up" on anything. Smash Sisters is not the end-game. All it is is an experiment to try and get more women, who might not have had the courage to enter a regular tournament, into trying competitive Smash, and to increase awareness of the issues that are tied to being a female competitor in the FGC. It has been 100% successful in both regards.

If the message they are sending out with this is "females are not welcome or in a safe space at mainstream FGC tournaments" how does that further the goal of getting more women into the mainstream FGC? Wouldn't you think that the shitty elements of the FGC who make it an uncomfortable place for women to be around would be happier that they decided to segregate themselves to their own thing and be less open to more integration?

@president_barackbar: You're right that it's not a situation where women weren't accepted or welcome. The stated inception of Smash Sisters wasn't due to some horribly toxic and oppressive circumstance.

Though part of its inception was the different sort of attention some people would give female attendees--attention and judgements that detracted from the whole point of the event--their reasons read like they lean more towards wanting a place for women to get together in a tournament environment and be comfortable being themselves, while also meeting other women who play video games.

It sounds relatively benign, and it can be, depending on the mindset surrounding the event. As a means towards reintegration with non-single-sex tournaments and essentially the larger scene, it could be useful. A gross thing from which good can arise. Because make no mistake, it's a shitty thing to have a single-sex video game tournament, explicitly or implicitly. It's also a shitty thing that there are discomforting elements within normal tournaments; both that they exist, and that they're affective.

But yeah, if the take-away from this ends up being "we should all stay in our separate little worlds," everbody fails.

@president_barackbar: Except that's not the message at all. Smash Sisters isn't about how bad the FGC is, it's about how amazing it can be when you separate out the bad seeds. They're not trying to remove the women already active in the FGC, they're trying to bridge the gap so that newer female players dont have to jump right into the shark tank before they can even figure out if competitive Smash is a thing for them.

So what if I, as a male, also didn't want to jump right into the shark tank? Am I just out of luck?

@president_barackbar: I'm not sure what you're asking here. Are you worried about intentional and unintentional sexist behavior being directed at you?

Emily Sun, beautiful name and woman.