The organizers of a "League of Legends" eSports tournament in Manila, Philippines, have reversed themselves and will no longer limit the number of lesbian or transgender players at a women's-only tournament this month. The quota system was roundly condemned, including by the company that developed "League of Legends."
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Garena eSports issued this statement:
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.
Our original intent when we put together this tournament was to promote diversity in the competitive gaming community. Hence, we are grateful to our players who have consistently provided their feedback to help us learn and improve as we strive to develop an inclusive gaming environment for all. We'll also be keeping our promise of having an open dialogue with all parties as we plan this and future events.
We hope you will tune in to support these awesome teams and players in this upcoming tournament.
Riot Games, based in Santa Monica, Calif., had pressured Garena to remove the restrictions since the game company has a policy of welcoming LGBT players at tournaments. Whatever caused Garena to reverse its dumb policy, it happened very quickly once the news were viral. The apology is lame since the only discussion this produced was how incredibly stupid the quotas were in the first place.
Garena never explained how a lesbian or transgender player gave a team an unfair advantage, though I was kind of curious to see these hidden superpowers in play.
