Melanie ‘meL’ Capone, one of the most talented players on the international Valorant scene, has been rejected by at least one team for the mere fact of being a woman.
Video games have made enormous progress towards the inclusion and representation of a large number of groups, but the esports They still need to get their act together in this matter. Proof of this is a new report related to Valorant’s competitive elite.
Riot Games’ free to play shooter has already sparked a few controversies due to to the sexist harassment that exists in the games by some players towards women, but this discrimination also seems to prevail within electronic sports themselves.
Recently, one of the most veteran journalists in the world, Rod “Slasher” Breslau, spoke on Sean Gares’ podcast about the case of Melanie ‘meL’ Caponea player who has been denied the opportunity to participate in high-level team trials in the Valorant VCT because she is a woman.
Valorant, esports and discrimination against women
The male players on those teams did not want to “play with women,” the journalist points out in his revelation to go on to comment on the case of this rising player who has been held back by these practices.
“Every Tier 1 team he has tried to play with has refused to give him a tryout because there was at least one player on the team who didn’t want to play with a woman,” Slasher noted. “There is no doubt that it is repeated again in the history of esports.”
After the controversy that has shaken social networks, the player herself has released a statement explaining everything from his experience and qualifying some aspects.
“Over the years I have been denied opportunities to get tryouts on mixed VALORANT teams for a variety of reasons. These include teams that do not want to pay my buyout because they were viewing me (and I quote) as “too valuable an asset to release me so close to partner selection when I am so central to my organization’s request.”
“There was at least one situation in which I was taken into account, but I was soon told by a T1 team that a player did not feel comfortable playing with a woman”pointed out meL.
“I let it be and I haven’t talked about it so as not to risk other teams considering me a liability. “I don’t know why this has resurfaced, but I feel like I have no choice but to share it because I see people saying this could never happen and it’s impossible.”
There is still a way to go in Valuing and in many other games. Not too long ago we offered another very illuminating revelation. Biofrost, a professional League of Legends player, came out as gay while offering an illuminating testimony about homophobia in eSports.
Fuente
