For anyone who is unfamiliar, League of Legends uses a league system similar to European soccer (albeit much simpler), with levels of leagues and promotion/relegation across the leagues. In Europe/North America, there are two leagues, LCS (League Championship Series), the professional league, and CS (Challenger Series), an amateur league for teams attempting to enter into LCS. The first place team from the CS each split is automatically promoted into LCS, taking the spot of the last place LCS team. The NACS playoff finals were played today, with Remilia's Renegades upsetting Coast Gaming 3-2 to claim the LCS spot.

The next split of LCS doesn't begin until January, after the World Championships and a brief off-season, so it will be a while before she plays on the main stage. There is also some chance she doesn't play in LCS at all, as she is very reserved and has turned down offers to play for LCS teams in the past due to fear of the amount of hate that will be directed towards a trans woman by the League/Twitch communities. However, she has expressed that she is much more comfortable with Renegades than she has been in any other team environment, so hopefully she'll stick around.

There have been a few big-time female players in other games (such as Starcraft II's Scarlett and the FGC's Ricki Ortiz), but, as League has a significantly larger reach than any other eSport (for reference, Dota 2's TI5 peaked at around 4 million concurrent viewers, League's Season 4 World Championship peaked at 11.2 million), having a female player in League is a huge step toward increased diversity in eSports.

Oh, she's also a really goddamn good support, especially on Thresh. Here is a montage of her being really goddamn good on Thresh, if you're into that sort of thing.

Given just how huge LoL is I'm just incredibly surprised this is the first time a female player has made it into a pro team.

I don't think that diversity in esports should be any kind of goal. The goal should be to have the best players compete. Whether they are male or female, white or asian, it shouldn't matter. I certainly don't think that there is a conscious or deliberate approach to squelch female players.

I do however think that LoL's community (among other games) is incredibly toxic and full of absolutely shitty human beings, and being a female LoL gamer certainly can't be easy (I say this based on personal experience of my playtime in LoL).

Hey, if you're good at games, then you're good at games. I'm glad more female players are stepping up.

@imsh_pl: Eventually that kind of attitude just begins to wash right over you. I don't know, maybe I just haven't experienced the worst of it (though I have played a fair amount of league) but at a certain point I just find it difficult to care, and I don't know why others are goaded by it or let it get to them, especially with the presence of a mute button.

Or just play TF2. Everyone on Australian TF2 is a top mate.

@imsh_pl said:

They need not be mutually exclusive. That is, wanting the best players to compete and having diversity as a goal. The organizations and the culture can, exterior to the core of competition, encourage and maintain a welcome space for players that might not otherwise feel welcome for one reason or another. Why waste the talent and interest out there and the opportunity to send a positive message.

Positive message? Its a cold-hard cash machine. Unless its proven that female representation equates to female consumers, don't push for it.

I believe she said she was going to leave once they qualified.

@adequatelyprepared:You can ignore it, but it nonetheless is a detriment to your game experience. The chat messages are still there. Also, I play games to have fun, and it was just too tiring for me to have to endure the negative attitude of all the players involved. Plus, this is a team game, and one person's shitty comment can spread like cancer through your team, making what at first glance is trivial trash talk into something that legitimately alters your performance for the worse.

Additionally, when you want to make a name for yourself as a pro player, you have to interact with the community and expose yourself as a person, be it in tweets or while streaming. And things like Twitch chat are filled with people who will take any opportunity to spew shit on someone they don't like.

@bacongames: I certainly think that establishing a friendly environment by both the players and, say, casters and organizers is a fantastic thing. I'm overall very impressed with how professional most Hearsthstone casters partaking in major tournaments are, it really shows that you can have a friendly and informal attitude without things like swearing-filled trash talk (I use HS as an example since that's the esport I follow the most). The community still has a long way to go but it's certainly headed in the right direction. Then again, I don't see this as commitment to diversity, but rather to being respectful and having a good time.

However, I don't think that things like gender quotas would be a good idea for esports (or in general) at all, since then it definitely is in conflict with promoting excellence and being the best at what you do. Not to say that you or anyone here has proposed such an idea, but it wouldn't surprise me if, with the growing popularity of esports, such campaigning will become a thing in the future. If it were so, it would only work to the detriment of the players who would be seen as having cheated their way into success by the already often unwelcoming community.

@imsh_pl said:

I wouldn't necessarily assume that the atmosphere of respect isn't partially informed by a consideration for diversity. It may not reflect an outright commitment but it's certainly an important part. Gender quotas are a curious beast because I think that idea largely comes from taking something to a logical extreme that need not be the case. Keep in mind that campaigning for diversity and putting in programs to moderate the community in question should newcomers from underrepresented groups arrive is the next big step.

Otherwise in a competitive context just bringing up lesser players because it seems progressive is obviously unsustainable. This is just an idea but the way athletics might address this issue is to better encourage diversity at the feeder system level (lower and youth leagues) and then be better about not introducing bias into the system when they port over players from those places. I don't know how the professional end of LoL is structured but I would assume this decision is largely left to individual teams and to some degree sponsors to bring in certain players. If those individuals aren't looking too hard or are inconsiderate of the issue altogether, then they will likely maintain what is easier or comfortable rather than doing that extra work.

This is why I think it's at the broadcaster and top level that the message would have to start.

@tn04 said:

This is all I've been hearing too, I believe she attested it to not wanting to be a pro due to the exhausting hours.

@lackluster said:

To be the best you gotta eat lanes and shit creeps. Float like x term for MOBAs and sting like y term for MOBAs.

Very cool! I know some of the popular DOTA 2 teams like Na'Vi have female versions, but this is the first time I've seen a woman make a tourney.

She has said she doesn't plan on playing in LCS in the past, but never in an official/definitive capacity. It's been more stuff along the lines of "I'm not sure I want to play in LCS" rather than "If Renegades qualifies for the LCS I will not be joining them." There was also a lot of misinformation from at least one fake twitter account impersonating her, which has made it hard to figure out what stuff she actually said and what was just attributed to her. The only official statement from the team I know of is this quote from part-owner MonteCristo's AMA, which doesn't say anything either way. Maplestreet did tweet last night that he's not 100% sure he'll play in LCS, which could make it less likely for Remilia to play as she would have to adapt to playing with a new AD Carry. I would guess that, if she does choose to leave, there will probably be an announcement from the team within the next month or so, as she would probably want to make the decision early enough for Renegades to find and practice with a new support player.

Cool. Too bad she doesn't play a real MOBA, like Dota2, or Guardians of Middle-Earth.

I don't give a single shit about who you are, If you get into the LCS you're infinitely better than I will ever be and to me, that is cool. If you're a Pro, you're a Pro, nothing should affect that.

I hope she plays if she gets the opportunity, only for the sake of the game, not for any gender stuff.

@iamadwagon:

yeah assuming by the way she doesnt have a twitter account maybe she doesnt want the attention or fame. As for the adc, I though maplestreet is temporary since they signed jebus. Even if they change adcs, adc is probably the most plug and play role unless they are shot caller (which i doubt maplestreet is) since they focus on dealing damage and not making plays.

I hate it when they make a big deal out of stuff like this, I dont care if shes a she I care if shes any good or not.

Last time a lady or group of ladies, got pimped like this was the sirens and they became a massive joke.