An Esports league in the Philippines, Garena, released a “ruling update” Feb. 3. The opening line announces that The Iron Solari, an all-female League of Legends tournament, will be hosted monthly.
Sounds great. Except for the “experiment” that will be underway for the upcoming second leg of the tournament at the end of this month. That experiment revolves around the discussion of whether members of the LGBTQ+ community should be allowed to participate.
Even though “Lesbian, Gay Transgendered women are (our teams’) friends, too … there are arguments and concerns from other participants who (say) that Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered Women may probably have some unfair advantage,” reads the update.
Using this as the basis of their experiment, the following changes will be practiced.
- Each team will be allowed one gay/transgendered woman for the whole tournament day. Each team must keep the same gay/transgendered woman on their team all day – no switches, ladies.
- This one should be quoted directly. “Any team who has violated the above provision, regardless if intentional or otherwise, whether discovered during the day of the event or sometime after, will have all of their team members (the female members as well as the lesbian, gay, transgendered woman member) sanctioned with a one year ban on all Garena-organized events, including subsequent Iron Solari Tournaments.”
On the other hand, “We always want to make sure we are able to have an inclusive environment where no one feels left out,” Garena says in the update.
Yes. This is real.
Update:
It seems the internet reaction to this restrictive policy has had an effect. In a statement made the Iron Solari League have removed all restrictions regarding LGBT. This is good to see such a policy removed, although it would have been better to never see such odd restrictions imposed in the first place.
You can read the full statement here
