About some troubles (SlayerS_Jessica) - Page 41

On July 22 2011 13:22 HiveONE wrote:
I've read the OP several times. I've walked away from it and held off what I wanted to say in hopes I would change my mind or see a different view. Nothing has changed so here it goes.

I do not live in Korea so I can't respond to Jessica's legal action that she has taken. I do realize that Eve is the first female progamer for SC2 and I will give Jessica the benefit of the doubt. I assume that she is trying her hardest to protect this young girl from public scrutiny and I commend her in doing so. My issue doesn't involve whether or not Jessica overreacted or reacted appropriately.

The problem I have with this article is Jessica's choice of Eve. She is quoted saying she chose Eve based on her skills and looks. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=243800

When Eve first was announced on the team she was a gold level player. Let me repeat this. She is a gold level Korean player (currently in diamond now). There are two things wrong with this sentence. gold league and Korea do NOT roll off the tongue. It doesn't roll off easily, not even at all. Korea is still the powerhouse of Starcraft. Not just SC1 BW but SC2 as well. The "foreign scene" is really shrinking that gap but they just quite aren't there yet in my opinion. How can you possibly choose a gold level Korean player and then say the decision was based on her skills, looks and potential? Potential is hard to measure but when you are looking in the gold leagues for a budding SC2 female programer I come to the conclusion she was chosen in large part due to her looks.

I must apologize but I laughed when Jessica says that a female gamer must use toddler steps and claw her way up to the high and almighty masters league. First she says this, "...it is no mean feat for a female to reach Master level while laddering against males. It is difficult for the average male player, too." Okay, you kind of said it's hard for both genders to get into masters. Let's read more. " If you condemn her to be unworthy for not becoming a Master in under a month, how would female players anywhere ever even attempt to make it in Starcraft?" Okay this is actually a decent point. Female SC2 players are in the minority. If we scrutinize them and nip them in the bud too early it will stunt the female growth in the SC2 scene even further. Then this gem comes from Jessica's mouth, " She is here to make the game more entertaining and to show that unlike in Starcraft 1, female players can easily do well in Starcraft 2." Wait a minute. You just proved my point. There is no advantage due to gender and, "female players can easily do well in Starcraft2." So why did she even start ranting about female players playing in the mostly male league system?

Get real. There are female masters players out there. Yes the scene is HUGELY dominated by male players and they have a good head start. But let's get back to reality. An RTS takes strategy, planning, cunning, and skill to play at a high level. This is not a physically based game we are talking about. We are talking about intuition, ability to get cold hard facts from scouting and knowing what it means, reaction timing and skill that comes from repetitive motion practice. How is her being a female ANY different from say a male who has never played an RTS game and decided to play SC2 as his first RTS game? Would that "newbie" male player have an advantage over the female player? I'm genuinely curious to hear Jessica's response to that question.

Lastly, I want to make it very clear this is not an attack on Eve. I wish Eve the best of luck in her progaming career and would love to watch her play at a very high level. I am only criticizing the manager of the team and how she went about this. If her whole goal was to simply get a pretty face in front of the camera and show the whole world they took an average female player and trained her to compete in a high skill environment to be an idle for other SC2 female gamers...why not just come out and say that? I think it's silly to throw in this "gender gap" debate and on top of that try and tell everyone to consider her a progamer when she hasn't proven herself yet. In my opinion this is just a slap in the face to skilled female gamers that are actually wanting or trying to find a way to crack into the pro scene.

TL DR: Eve is awesome got no beef. I'm willing to give Jessica the benefit of the doubt about her legal action in Korea and reaction to the public. I think Jessica is using silly excuses to explain why she chose Eve to be on the team. I'm rooting for Eve to become a successful female gamer, but can't help but wonder if there were more deserving and skilled female gamers out there to choose from (This is a reflection on Jessica's decision not Eve as a person).