Recently, controversy broke on the League of Legends scene over a new ruling made by Garena, the popular arena game’s exclusive distributor in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Planning a monthly all-women League tournament named The Iron Solari, with the next leg set to take place on February 22, the company seemed to be taking steps towards embracing diversity in the League community. However, this apparent attempt at inclusion was mired by a February 3rd ruling limiting the extent to which LGBT women could participate in the tournament.
According to the ruling, each team could only have one gay or transgender woman among their ranks for the entirety of the tournament, threatening a one year ban on all team members for any that would break the rule. The ban also prevented swapping out one LGBT team member for another in between matches, and promised punishment if it were later discovered that more than one person per team happened to be LGBT, potentially threatening anyone who might come out in the future, as well as their teammates, with a ban. As the ruling stated, “Each team will be allowed to have a maximum of one (1) Gay/Transgendered woman for the entirety of the tournament day...Any team who has violated the above provision, regardless if intentional or otherwise, whether discovered during the day of the event or some time after, will have all their team members sanctioned with a 1-year ban on all Garena-organized events, including subsequent Iron Solari Tournament.”
In addition to the restrictions above, the language of the ruling implied that gay or transgender women are not female, including lines such as “the female members as well as the Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered women member,” though this could be a translation error.
The logic behind the restriction seems to be based on the shaky premise that, concerning professional gaming, gay and trans women are somehow naturally advantaged over straight and cisgender women. Garena explains in the ruling, "for any competitions, we seriously look at ensuring there's a fair level playing field for all participants. And there are arguments and concerns from other participants who disputes that Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered Women members may probably have some unfair advantage."
In response to the discriminatory ruling, League’s American based developers, Riot Studios, assured the community of their intent to rectify the situation, announcing over Twitter that “LGBT players are welcome at official LoL tourneys. We're working with partners to ensure consistency with our values across all regions.”
It seems as if Riot has come through on their promise, as Garena released an updated statement February 4th abolishing the controversial ruling. It reads “Our initial ruling on LGBT player restrictions within the Iron Solari League has created a lot of good discussion and debate over the past 24 hours. After discussing the ruling with our partners and re-examining our approach, we have decided to remove these restrictions completely. This means that any player who self-identifies as female will be allowed to participate. We sincerely apologize for any offense we caused to the LGBT and gaming communities.”
Garena continues to claim that the tournament was an attempt to “promote diversity in the competitive gaming community” and that they are striving to “develop an inclusive gaming environment for all.”
