The FIFA eWorld Cup was recently held at London's O2 Arena, with the world's best players battling it out for a $250,000 prize. But does the tournament remain a male-dominated event?
Image: T. Woerndl
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For many fans, the world of eSports may seem like a curiosity, dominated by tech-savvy teenagers. Yet there is undeniable hype and real growth in the industry, with the news of 16-year-old Kyle Giersdorf's triumph at the recent Fortnite World Cup gaining widespread global media attention.
Last weekend, the esports spotlight moved to the FIFA eWorld Cup, with 32 players from 15 countries competing for a first prize of $250,000 (€223 million) at the O2 Arena in London. Like much of the professional gaming industry, there is a stark gender bias at the event in the British capital, with all of the competitors being men. This is despite some estimates suggesting that women make up about half of participants in the gaming world, as well as a significant proportion of online esports viewers.
Koop Brandsma, manager of eSports at Dutch football club Ajax, which has a group of players at the FIFA tournament, confirmed that the game is heavily male-dominated, although his team remain on the lookout for talent, both men and women.
"At the moment, esports reflects the traditional game of football," he told DW. "There's an interest from a fan's perspective, and in terms of our online followers about 20 percent are women, but we haven't found an exceptional female player yet."
The Ajax story highlights the emergence of eSports in recent years, with Brandsma's team working directly alongside the Dutch club.
"The game is definitely going to grow," he added. "We've seen some resistance from parts of the football world, but eSports are here to stay and that's also reflected by the interest of professional footballers in FIFA."
Screens dominate the grand surroundings of London's O2 ArenaImage: T. Woerndl
'Girls aren't good enough at FIFA'
Former Ajax and current Barcelona wunderkind Frenkie de Jong is said to be an accomplished FIFA 19 player, having previously battled it out with Ajax eSports star Dani, who made it to the knockout stages of last weekend's tournament before falling to a 6-3 defeat against France's Rafsou in the round of 16.
One factor that may be deterring women from participating in online FIFA tournaments is the potentially toxic online environment created by a predominantly male audience.
"Girls aren't good enough at FIFA — they don't like soccer," said one onlooker at the O2 event, who is part of a top player's entourage. "Women won't spend the 60 hours a week you need to play the game to get to the top," he added.
However, Tim Katnawatos aka TheStrxngeR, who plays for Swiss eSports team FC Basel, is more positive about the chances of women breaking through into the top echelons of the sport.
"I hope that there will be more female players in a few years," he told DW. "I know that eSports clubs are encouraging more women to play the game."
The German, who was knocked out at the group stages of this year's tournament, said a number of skills are required to become a leading esports FIFA player.
"Concentration is so important, and you have to stay focused," he noted. "You also have to like football and have a knowledge of its tactics, as well as good reaction speeds."
Katnawatos now plays FIFA exclusively — with the exception of a few games of Fortnite with friends — and his training regimen consists of up to 30 matches a day.
Male competitors and fans heavily outweigh women at the O2 ArenaImage: T. Woerndl
Online audience in the millions
While men dominate the playing side of the eWorld Cup, inside the arena there were a few more female fans, although they are still heavily outnumbered on the densely populated concourse. The majority of the crowd on Saturday were friends and family of the playersls and final. The online audience will have been much bigger; FIFA estimated that the 2018 competition generated more than 29 million views.
Digital games are changing popular culture both on and offline. The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is exploring video games as digital design objects, as the gaming industry continues to grow.
Image: DW/Sertan Sanderson
More than just 'games'
Video games have come to embody much more than just an outlet for fun. Their intricate designs have created entire universes that can bring users from around the globe together both online and offline. As this fan base keeps growing, the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London is exploring these games as digital design objects in a new exhibition "Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt."
Image: Peter Kelleher
Power of games
The exhibition has dedicated an entire room to the social and political dimensions of computer games, exploring the sensitivities the gaming industry can address in unique ways — and how it succeeds or fails at doing so. From gender and sexual identity to race to language, games have the power to allow people to walk in someone else's proverbial shoes.
Image: Peter Kelleher
Screen time with the KKK
Some games push frontiers in current public debates, such as Mafia 3 (seen here), a game which pits a black protagonist against all sorts of social challenges including rampant racism, embodied by the Ku Klux Klan in the US. While some of the images in the game might be disturbing, they also provide an opportunity for gamers to interact with issues that continue to plague the real world.
Image: DW/Sertan Sanderson
Power of patriarchy
There are also a number of social issues that the gaming industry has to address offline. One of the most criticized aspects of video games is the fact that more than two-thirds of gaming executives around the world are straight, white men. Successful female designers from other ethnicities, like Jenny Jiao Hsia (seen here), are still in the minority.
Image: Victoria & Albert Museum
Homage to bygone aesthetics
Some games take the design aspect of their narrative more seriously than others. The 2013 game Kentucky Route Zero (seen here) highlights mid-century architecture and brutalist design as part of its overall look and feels, somewhat like a film noir set in shades of blue. However, the popular game also features optical illusions and deals creatively with 3D graphics.
Image: Victoria & Albert Museum
To each his or her own planet
Some video games go to imaginative extremes to fashion galaxies and planets for users to explore. No Man's Sky, released in 2016, is one of the games that allows enthusiasts to explore a science fiction narrative. Each planet has its own ecosystems with unique forms of flora and fauna, as well as different alien lifeforms on different planets. The possibilities in this game are truly endless.
Image: Victoria & Albert Museum
A universe of universes
Video games are scrutinized from all angles to achieve the look and feel that their creators hope to create. At the V&A exhibition, an entire video wall focuses solely on the color testing of the game No Man's Sky. There are more than 18 quintillion planets for gamers to visit in this game.
Image: DW/Sertan Sanderson
Permeating popular culture
The massive gaming industry provides livelihoods to a fast-growing group of people around the world. Whether it's in the design process, coding, marketing or merchandising, video games have become an outlet of popular culture similar to Hollywood movies or the music charts. With easier access to video games, both audiences and developers are expected to keep growing in numbers.
Image: Peter Kelleher
Curatorial language for games
The exhibition's curator Marie Foulston (center) acknowledges that "Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt" is not the first exhibition on computer games but the "first of its kind." "Design is the lens through which we are looking at video games," she says. "This is our curatorial language. We hope to challenge peoples' perceptions about why video games are this way."
Image: DW/Sertan Sanderson
Spectator sport event is born
Video games have always had competitive elements, but these days esports attract enough fans to fill an entire Olympic Stadium. This image shows the final stage of the 2017 World Championships held at the Beijing National Stadium. Those competing at the highest level are celebrated like superstars in gaming circles.
Image: Riot Games, Inc.
New way of archiving contemporary history
The new exhibition stands in stark contrast to the ornate Victorian buildings of the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, but is considered to be an extension of ongoing efforts of its Design, Architecture and Digital Department in archiving digital objects. "Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt" at the Victoria & Albert Museum runs through February 24, 2019.
