Competitive gaming doesn't need Title IX.

The great thing about video games is that there has never been social or racial barriers from competition.  The same is for gender – women just didn’t play video games as often as men until recently. That’s what makes the Evolution Championship Series’s decision to have a female-only Super Street Fighter 4 tournament disappointing.  While the directors of the event synonymous with the American fighting game scene may have good intentions, it’s a slap in the face to equality and will cause more problems than it’s worth. 

There is no physical reason why men would be better at video games than women, and women players have proved it.  From the Japanese women who place at the top of their country’s Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter events to the First Person Shooter squads that compete in gaming leagues, women gamers don’t need a special tournament to prove they can win. 

It could be argued that women need the tournament because of the exposure they would get.  The people who are winning Street Fighter 4 tournaments are the same people who competed in Street Fighter 2 tournaments, creating an experience gap that makes it unlikely for a new player to make it to the finals.  However, the same could be said for the male players who didn’t play during the arcade years.  Every competitor has to pay dues, and singling women out insults their abilities.

A tournament is also not the best way to attract more women players.  Evolution may be the biggest stage in American fighting games, but it’s also a plane or car ride to Las Vegas plus hundreds of dollars in travel, hotel and tournament fees.  The same problem goes for the women who may watch a EVO live stream on a service like Ustream or Justin.tv.

It isn't so much that women are different from men than it is that EVO is a big commitment and a lot of people don't enjoy watching other people play video games.  The success of the women's tournament also won't be based on the turnout: It'll be based on the number of women who show up at later tournaments.  The energy put into a one-shot event like the invitational would be better spent creating initiatives to encourage more females to go competitive.         

The invitational will create publicity for EVO 2010, but it also creates a very public place for the community to stop bad habits.  When an EVO organizer announced the invitational at the Shoryuken forum’s live podcast (starting at 28:00), it didn't take long for the other podcast hosts to joke about cross-dressers and finally having a reason to film the players.

The tournament's original title of "Femme Fatals" was also not the best term to use for something the organizers want people to take seriously.  They can't stop every Internet troll that will parade around the stream's comments box, but the community leaders should set an example to members even in entertainment shows.

A women's tournament is a great opportunity to reach a new audience, but it's also controversial.  The fact that the women's tournament participants will have to participate in the regular Super SF4 tournament shows the directors want to set a high standard for the invitational.  However, it's going to take more than one set of brackets to bring women into fighters.