Just as quickly as the Overwatch League is raking in viewers, it is also stirring up controversy.

Now don’t get me wrong; I am quite the fan of the Overwatch League and have been cheering on the Houston Outlaws since their first match against Philadelphia Fusion, but I can not and will not stand idly by and turn a blind eye to the issues that lie within the league. One of my main concerns is the lack of gender diversity in the league.

The immediate argument people tend to challenge that idea is that “girls usually aren’t gamers.” This, quite literally, is factually and statistically false. According to the Indiana University Media School, about 44 percent of gamers overall are female. Despite this, girls still get an odd mixture of reactions in the gaming community, but one thing that is common is harassment.

Harassment towards females in the gaming community is so common, it’s the exact reason why Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, one of the world’s best Zarya players, was not signed on to join the Overwatch League, despite the fact that she’s already part of a professional competitive team, the ROX Orcas. Se-yeon was so good at playing that one player threatened to visit her home with a knife and two professional players retired after promising they would if she proved she was not cheating by using aimbot, which she successfully did.

Why was Se-yeon not signed on? While she clearly has the skills and qualifications to play, which was confirmed by the league, she was denied a spot to play for Korea because of the possibility that she might get harassed and would not have any chemistry with the all-male team.

While the league denies Se-yeon, they’re perfectly okay with hiring someone like Felix “xQc” Lengyel for Dallas Fuel who has a long history of dissing and yelling at teammates, harassing players, reporting players who have not done wrong to get them punished and throwing competitive matches. Lengyel’s behavior is so bad, he has already been suspended from a professional OWL match due to homophobic remarks towards Austin “Muma” Wilmot, an openly gay player for the Houston Outlaws. All this, in the first two weeks since the league has started.

The fact that OWL is alright with hiring players like this, but not players with true skill and clear records like Se-Yeon is unjustified.

Another argument that is brought up is the idea that it isn’t about women being good enough at the game, but rather the idea that women who do want to go pro would not be able to handle the criticisms and backlash they would face. Many say women who want to go pro more than likely do not truly understand what they would face. I challenge this argument.

This argument is nothing but a well-articulated excuse to discourage female players from doing what they want. How can someone say women do not understand what they are getting themselves into if they won’t even allow us in the first place? Technically speaking, because of this argument, women have yet to reach the peak that many men have, so how could there even be a level of understanding to compare to?

Overall, while I do still love the Overwatch league and will continue on to keep up with their stats and games, I can only hope to see some change in the future when it comes to the rosters. This treatment towards women in the gaming community is unacceptable.