E-sports cannot fight segregation with segregation

A sub-reddit dedicated to the video game Hearthstone exploded with discussion. A Finnish e-sports tournament had just been announced, and the Helsinki event, scheduled for July 31, would include a competition based on the Blizzard-produced card-battle game, complete with a grand prize of €1,000 and free travel to the tournament's world finals in November.

User Karuta posted the tourney's rules and highlighted a strange stipulation: only men need apply. As people dug in to the tournament's details, they found that the whole affair was divided into male- and female-only categories, and worse, women were invited to fewer competitions.

Public outcry came swiftly, and within less than a day, IeSF posted an update that hinted at a reversal of course. "Our top priority is to promote e-sports in the best ways we can," the company posted to its Facebook page. "We believe that listening is important, and we're now collecting your opinions from the social media, and we will update soon." That course has since been fully reversed.