Overwatch League Plans to Increase the Number of Women and Minorities in 2019
The Overwatch League plans to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in 2019 for both the company and the esports league itself. Commissioner of the league Nate Nanzer recently looked back on the inaugural year of competition and reflected on what happened, what’s coming next, and more in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz.
During the overall interview about what happened this year in the Overwatch League and what’s coming next, Nate Nanzer spoke on the toxicity that occurred in the league’s first year which led to discussing where are all of the women in the league. In its first season, there was only one woman that participated; Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, member of the Shanghai Dragons.
In addition, the Overwatch League just recently announced the first female coach Kyoung Ey Molly Kim “Avalla” who will be coaching the brand new team that is being formed in Washington, D.C. Nanzer noted that this is an issue and had a lot to say about it. The biggest takeaway is that there is a larger overlying problem that is cultural and related to the toxicity.
Currently, a little over 40 percent of the Overwatch League’s core team is female, which Nanzer thinks is “significantly above average” in the industry. However, there are plans in place that the team has that will, hopefully, open the doors to include and diversify the league next year in its second year with more women. The plans aren’t just for women, though, but also “underrepresented minorities”, according to Nanzer. You can find an excerpt from his interview below in which he goes into details:
“This is a super-complex problem that I don’t think Overwatch League is going to solve on its own, but it’s something we can take leadership on. So we’ve been thinking what we can do to create more opportunities, more touch-points, more engagement with not just women but also underrepresented minorities in esports. It’s something that you’ll start to see us take action on hopefully next year, and it will continue to evolve from there. But it’s a focus for us, and it’s a huge focus at Blizzard right now. We have a Women’s Council that’s meeting, we have a bunch of other diversity and inclusion measures that we’re doing as a company as part of a larger effort to increase the percentage of women at the company and increase the experience for everybody and make it better, and in places where they’re playing online. It’s definitely something not just Overwatch, but everyone can do better.”