JARED REA

I have an assignment for you readers out there: a simple two-step questionaire for you to spring upon your friends. 

First, ask any video game fan who they think the strongest woman in the world is. Chances are they'll respond with Chun-Li, and why not? While Samus Aran may be considered the original "strong female lead" of video games, Chun-Li proved once and for all that women could kick just as much ass as the boys, still be sexy while doing it and at the end of the game she didn't even have to strip down to her underpants to prove it. With her unique fashion sense and ferocious fighting style, Chun-Li has become a timeless icon for women in gaming. 

Now for the second question: would you still respect Chun-Li had she entered a girls-only Street Fighter tournament? Suddenly, the persona of Chun-Li doesn't sound all that fierce or, for lack of a better term, badass. This is what the organizers of the annual EVO Championship Series fighting game tournament (whom I love dearly) are asking the community to do with their ladies-only "Femme Fatale" tournament and I can't tolerate this idea one bit. 

First and foremost I'd like to make one thing clear: I wish for as many women as possible to play fighting games. What makes the fighting game community so great is the diversity of the player base. No matter where I'm at, whether it's a tournament or a small, private gathering, I see white people, black people, asians, hispanics and everything in between, but I hardly ever see any women and that's a shame. So the last thing I want to do is discourage any female gamers out there from picking up an arcade stick and slugging it out on a competitive level. There are tons of competitive female gamers in plenty of other genres of games, so their lack of representation in fighting games is something of an oddity.

But discouraging these women is exactly what the girls-only tournaments tend to do. While I can sort of understand the idea of nobility behind wanting to open the door to female Street Fighter players by giving them an accessible taste of what competitive play is all about, at the same time you're essentially regulating them to a sideshow in the worse sense of the word. You're saying that because they were born with a vagina, they're clearly inferior and not competent enough to compete with the boys and this type of thinking -- whether its intended or not -- is bullshit and a slap to the face to all the women currently playing the game to even suggest this.

Unlike professional sports where physical differences create unfair advantages, the world of competitive gaming is an equal playing field for the sexes. Video games and fighting games especially are a challenge of mental strength and there is nothing preventing a woman from playing at an equal or greater skill level than any man. As UltraDavid from SoCal put it, "This isn't basketball; in our games, women can dunk. Now it's rare that women want to and do get good at fighting games, but the problem is just an issue of lack of interest, not of lack of ability. And I don't think parading them around in a freak show is gonna drum up any extra interest."

Having spoken to one of Arcade Infinity's tournament organizers (the original spot for girl-only Street Fighter tournaments) I can confirm that after holding two separate "Ladies of Street Fighter" tournaments there has been no noticeable difference in the player base. Arcade Infinity tournaments still consist of 100% dudes while the "Ladies of Street Fighter" returned to sitting on the sidelines. If the EVO organizers are hoping this experiment will usher forth a new era in competitive female gamers, they can stop right now: the sideshow experiment is already a failure.

Beyond the sexism and technical aspects behind running a female-only video game tournament is the community itself and what kind of effect these events have already had on it. The previous events were rife with high school-esque in-fighting amongst some of the competitors and brought out the worst amongst others, even those who weren't even involved. Can anyone even remember who won the first "Ladies Night" tournament? Despite her being a very legit player, the internal trash talk ensured that it didn't matter. 

This type of hostile environment is not one that should be repeated. On the other side of the coin are the men. EVO is held every year in Las Vegas and while drinking at the event is discouraged, that doesn't mean people don't get liquored up before every major event. All it's going to take is for a single drunken spectator to shout an overtly sexist remark and its over, guaranteed. Not only would this become a moment of shame for EVO for years to come, but the competitors themselves would be deeply humiliated and for what? For wanting to play Street Fighter in a competition seemingly built for them.

I can go forever as to why I think this is terrible idea, but I think I've provided enough reasons. I know that the organizers behind EVO had nothing but the best intentions when they crafted this idea as they'd never do anything malicious or harmful towards the community, but this is simply a boneheaded idea and it should not be taken any further. 

I understand that the organizers are in a pinch when it comes to figuring out what games to place in the line-up for EVO 2010 and that running Super Street Fighter IV is a must, so I have a suggestion: scrap the Femme Fatale tournament and replace it with a 2v2 tournament. Team tournaments have exploded in this past year as it gives the community a reason to become closer knit and -- let's face it -- everyone loves coming up with whacky names for their teams. You'd also be dipping into the same pool of 1,000+ guaranteed entries for the single tournaments twice who would gladly pay to play even more. It's essentially money on top of money and for the cash strapped EVO organization, I can't possibly think of a downside to this. 

Even if EVO decides to go ahead with the girls-only tournament, I still plan to attend the event and support it with all my heart. Still, you have to ask yourself would you still respect Chun-Li had she bailed out of the second World Warrior tournament and opted for a girls-only tournament? For the matter, would any self respecting woman do the same?