Preface

During the history of the Chinese League of Legends esports scene, we have often heard the names of popular female shoutcasters such as Cany and Miss. However, nowadays it has become increasingly difficult to find female shoutcasters on the stages of large national and especially international competitions. In the esports industry, it is hard for women not to be valued only for their appearances whether they are working as a player or a shoutcaster. More and more female shoutcasters have transitioned from the shoutcasting desk, where the crowd demands utmost enthusiasm and energy, to the backstage analyst desk to conduct post-game analysis and interviews. In a way, they became the accessories of the shoutcasting team.

As for the women's LoL teams, after the sudden and unexpected collapse of the top team, LOLadies, everyone started to doubt the integrity of women's teams. Even though many famous clubs recently pushed out their own all-female rosters, it didn't take long for the fans to realize that very few of them are decent.

Do women actually have a place on the shoutcasting desk or the competitive stage? Why do women face such difficulties finding a place for themselves in a thriving industry? In this week's episode of Beyond the Match, we take a closer look at the controversial topic of women in esports. Regardless of what you previously thought, we hope to show you a side of them that you have never seen before.

Xiaoxin: I hope more and more people will recognize me

Among the three ladies that we interviewed, Xiaoxin appears to have the least amount of experience but the most amount of controversy. Most people knew Xiaoxin from her appearance during the post-game analysis of Season 4 World Championship. Xiaoxin admits that her Weibo followers increased drastically after the event, but it also came with thousands of negative comments on her page. "There is no such thing as bad publicity." It was surprising to hear that from Xiaoxin. In the face of baseless criticisms and accusations, we saw a resilient yet helpless 20-year-old woman who wants to show her determination to the world.   

In an environment where female shoutcasters are generally frowned upon, Xiaoxin came from a modelling background where she was selected as a showgirl for Tencent. After spending a period of her life as a COSER [cosplayer], Xiaoxin officially announced her role as a shoutcaster to the public. Before Xiaoxin received her recognition as a shoutcaster, her predecessor, Bella, has already been widely accepted by the audience. They referred to Bella as the "Soccer king" [Translator's note: the term implies that her breasts have the size of soccer balls, while her name is similar to Pele who was considered to be the soccer king by Chinese fans]. Bella won the love of the audience with her enthusiastic shoutcasting session with the famous Xiaoxiao/Sicca duo from the streaming agency, KeaHoarl. With such a successful predecessor as an example, Xiaoxin thought that she could do the same and also find a place for herself as an esports shoutcaster. But it wasn't as simple as she thought it would be.

Last year at the 2015 Demacia Cup in Beijing, Xiaoxin was scheduled to shoutcast the day 2 of the tournament with Sicca despite originally assigned to work as a cosplayer. Due to insufficient preparation and a lack of experience working together, the shoutcasting was poorly done. Afterwards, Xiaoxin reproached herself for how the performance turned out, and she also received a lot of pressure from her critics.

Xiaomi: who says female casters are not as good as male casters?

Compared to Xiaoxin, Xiaomi has already been widely accepted by the audience as one of the official female shoutcasters. But looking back, the journey as a "widely accepted" shoutcaster isn't a stroll in the park either.

As a broadcasting program graduate, becoming an esports shoutcaster wasn't an easy process for Xiaomi. Her parents believed that a broadcasting program student should pursue a career in television broadcasting. During the interview, Xiaomi told us that she disheartened her parents because she loved playing video games too much. When she started her career in esports, her parents strongly opposed her decision. They continued to worry about her to the point of preparing a backup job for her at home even as she steadily began to achieve success in the industry a few years later.

Throughout Xiaomi’s career, she was given many nicknames by the fans. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry when the fans mocked her on the internet. Although the nicknames don’t have any malicious intent, they were bothersome to Xiaomi during the beginning stages of her career. As a professional shoutcaster, the correct way for Xiaomi to earn the respect from the audience is through her knowledge and skills. However, her professionalism has always been in doubt by the majority of the audience. This was especially true during the OMG vs. FNC match at Season 4 Worlds when she cried [as OMG defended their exposed Nexus and came back to win]. Most people understood that her emotions were justified, but there was a large group of people that believed her emotional “outburst” signified a lack of professionalism. Everyone has the right to express their opinion, but what is important for Xiaomi is to leave those negative criticisms behind and focus on the future.

During the spring split, Xiaomi took on the job to shoutcast LCK. She admits that although she does not have the same level of game knowledge compared to her male colleagues on the desk, she has begun to find her own place as a shoutcaster. Utilizing her broadcasting fundamentals and the soft-yet-powerful voice unique to women, she often acts as the mediator that controls the pace of the discussion. When asked about the current environment for female shoutcasters, Xiaomi believes that everyone has unique strengths, and the most important thing is to find their own place on the casting desk.

Sherry: I want to become the first person to lead the Chinese women’s esports team

When it comes to power rankings for women’s teams, OMGirl is undoubtedly number one. Sherry proudly yet embarrassingly told us that she will continue to manage her team and become the first person to lead the Chinese women’s esports team. Although other people might scoff at the idea, she is determined to set that as her ultimate goal.

On the day before the interview, OMGirl threw a match that was perfectly winnable. As we were collecting data for the interview, we noticed this group of 17-18 year-old-girls troubled by their inability to close out the game despite given many opportunities. But as we started our interview the next day, all the girls put on beautiful makeup and cheerfully greeted us, as if nothing happened the day before. At that moment I thought, these were the same girls that cried on stage after their defeat yesterday. They are simply a group of regular girls that love to win just as much as they love to look beautiful. “She regretted the fact that she did not Flash+Root her opponent when it was a guaranteed kill.” Sherry told us, unable to resist talking about yesterday’s game. “They were afraid of not playing well because they knew people were filming them.” We can see that as the manager of her team, Sherry is still thinking about the match result from yesterday. Nonetheless, after the interview, we saw her joking around with the girls on her team just like an older sister.

Final words

From the three ladies we have spoken to, we as the audience cannot deny that regardless of a woman’s role in esports, they bring us a lot of joy and energy on the stage. And for women’s teams like OMGirl, none of the girls during the interview admitted that there are any differences between the genders. All they need is a fair chance to show their passion for esports on the competitive stage. This passion, of course, does not discriminate. From what we can see, they aren’t afraid of losing and taking criticisms.  What they may be afraid of, however, are people that toss away the fairness and cold-heartedly judge them with preconceived notions. Just like how Xiaomi said during our interview, you can dislike her and hate her guts, and even flame her on Weibo or in the stream chat, but you cannot discount her effort.

As the audience, we should try to put away our preconceptions whenever we are watching women shoutcasting games or competing on the stage. Maybe one day the ladies of LoL can use their strengths and prove to everyone that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with.

This is a translation of an interview with the ladies of esports for Chinese League of Legends site 15W that was translated by Steven Yu. The original interview can be found at 15W .