League player Maria “Remi” Creveling made headlines last August when her team, Renegades, qualified for the League Of Legends Championship Series (LCS), making her the first woman to ever play at that level. Even then she wasn’t sure whether she would continue on to play in the LCS, and last week she confirmed that she would be stepping down from the Renegades.
“The past few weeks have been really tough for me as I’ve continued to struggle with a lot of personal issues, most notably anxiety and self-esteem issues. These were amplified by playing on stage and the rigorous day-to-day of being a pro player, compounded with a lot of the stress. Because of this, I felt it was best for me to step down as the support for Renegades,” says an official statement made by Remi on the Renegades’ website.
“I’ve been with these guys for a long time, ever since we created the initial Misfits squad. I care a lot about them, they’ve been my family for the past year. This is why it hurts me to have to say goodbye. When we qualified for LCS, the organization was very supportive of me regardless of if I chose to continue playing after we qualified. While I felt confident coming into the split after NACS finals, it became evident to me that every day took its toll on my happiness and I didn’t anticipate how much it would affect me.”
While she has mainly spoken about being uncomfortable on stage as the reason she couldn’t follow through with LCS (even asking Riot not to focus the cameras on her during a game), Remi has also been the target of sexism and transmisogyny from League Of Legends’ notoriously toxic community.
All you needed to do was read the Twitch chat in a game Remi was playing in to see why being the first female LCS player might not be as fun as it sounds. “Look at it this way, the longer I play the more people will get banned from chat!” she pointed out in one Reddit thread prior to her split from Renegades.
Not sure if I’ll ever be able to play comfortably on stage, sorry to those that supported me.
— Maria (@RenegadeMaria) January 31, 2016
end it all with a hug from @aphromoo thank you guys for the support, it was fun.
— Maria (@RenegadeMaria) February 1, 2016
Renegades announced Nick “Hakuho” Surgent as a last-minute replacement for Remi for the past weekend’s games, although lost games to both Cloud9 and TSM.
While Remi has expressed that she has other plans for the future outside of playing League, it seems that she plans to avoid the spotlight going forward. Back in August Remi stated that she only wanted to prove that a girl could make it into the LCS, and she has already achieved that goal.
“When I set out initially, I wanted to be the first girl in LCS. That was what motivated me. That dream I had I accomplished and yet it is being challenged in such a heartless way.” We can only hope that one day the professional Esports stage will be a friendlier for place female players.
Comments
37 responses to “League Of Legends Championship Series’ First Female Player Has Already Quit”
understandable, theres plenty of men who can great players but have trouble with nerves and anixity when they have to play in front of a live audience or even have people watching them online.
and twitch chat is being typical chat, i remember seeing Scarlette get called a Faggot and trany both before the change and after. It doesnt matter what viewing system or game is being play, if it has a live chat ability there will be racism, sexism, antisemitism, the list goes on.
When i watch the GSL on twitch the first thing i do is go straight to fullscreen because the chat is just terrible and the mods just ant able to ban the offenders fast enough. Hell you cant even have a proper conversation because the text is gone in a blink of the eye due to the amount of copy pasta
The internet is tough to female gamers, it’s sad but I hope it changes soon. Remi made a big accomplishment already, I hope that her achievement breaks barriers for many more female players to enter the eSports scene and without harassment.
Somehow i dont think it will change, there was study just released that pointed out that there are now more female gamers than male, but the sad fact is that as long as there is a woman on screen there will be people who will shout “TITS OR GTFO” especially when it comes to live chat and it only take a small amount of bad apples to ruin it.
Like working in retail or customer service, you can serve 100 people 95 of them will be pleasant people with no issue, but 5 them are just complete arseholes that ruin your entire day even though you may never see them again
The stats for women actually playing in eSports are far more different than just gaming in general (I would assume so anyways, I’ve only seen a handful of female eSport players, only a few are at the top level). The harassment many female players face in online games is terrible. Twitch chat is generally horrendous (and extremely prone to mob mentality) and social media can be vicious, but being as I am with what I have, I can only hope it gets better for those who are affected by that sort of delinquent behaviour.
Indeed! She deserves congratulations for being the first ever female gamer to make it as far as LCS, the pessimist within me was worried that she’d only get as far as the Challenger series and only on a mediocre level (Which is one level below LCS for those that don’t know), I am glad I was proven wrong.
the point is she is a male but yet she/he calls her/himself the first woman in the LCS which i find is wrong what if a real woman played in the LCS but is not credited to be officially the first women to play it such a deceiving title .
Truly your homophobic , transphobian male go-go dancer.
Since time immemorial, it’s up to the platforms to fix this kind of issue.
Twitch is just plain arrogant, but then the lot of them are. The video game fan’s bucks are lucrative, gotta get in on that.
“We think offering a service that is safe and secure for all of our users is just too difficult. Now that being said, look at all this other cool stuff.”
so umm does that mean she transexual? Male to female? Legit q but does that truly make her the first female? How long has she been on hormone replacement therapy? Prolly upset some people but im not sure i really see it as genuine first female if it hasnt been atleast a couple of years of hormone replacement.
Yep.
Doesn’t answer any of my questions – there is a reason most sports don’t allow transgender unless they’ve been taking hormone therapy for at least two years after surgery and/or that their testosterone levels are under 10nmol/l for atleast 12 months.
In other sports that would make a huge difference but not in this case, think about it this way, would hormone treatments get anyone banned from playing League the same way they would potentially get someone banned in a phyiscal sport?
I can see where you’re coming from as it’s been a huge question elsewhere, but here it just doesn’t matter 🙂
My issue is the “first female” claim – i still think that her physicality should actually match a females to truly claim first female. See my post below. Competitively it doesn’t matter.
No. Identifying as something doesn’t actually make you that thing.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t be recognised as they wish when its sensible to do so, but just saying “no” because your wall of PC bullshit doesn’t allow for sensible conversation or consideration of reality is pathetic.
To be sensible, no it doesn’t make her “truly” the first female. She’s the first person to compete who wishes to identify as female, but she was born with male genetics.
…I said yes, not no. Also worth mentioning that you complained about not being able to have a sensible conversation and then insulted me. Not the best way to have a sensible conversation 😛
Whatever she has under her clothes is irrelevant in this situation (and is none of our business), and as far as I’m aware she has publicly identified herself as a woman for a long time, so…she’s a woman.
Not trying to flame: what is your issue with her being labelled as the first female LoL player, specifically? Do you feel like she doesn’t deserve it because she’s transgender?
I don’t have any issue with her at all, but I don’t think she deserves any kind of accolade beyond her skill as a LoL player and that makes this entire article kinda redundant. People give up playing games professionally all the time.
Gender needs to either mean something or not. It’s either a defined thing that allows for separate male/ female achievement OR is a completely fluid thing that can be changed on the whim of personal preference.
It can’t be both though, this social-norm of telling someone that they can be whatever gender they choose and then expecting others not only to acknowledge that gender, but to recognised and applaud that person for gender-specific achievements is completely ridiculous.
It’s an offence against reality that’s made even worse when people do what you appeared to do and stifle intelligent conversation. It’s the whole “Of course she’s a woman, do you want me to tar you as transogynist? Intolerant? Bigoted?” thing that aims to bury reality under a thick layer of PC bullshit so nobody who’s perceived as a minority gets their feelings hurt, it’s crazy.
I feel like there’s room for a person’s gender to be defining and fluid, but it’s going to be years before a general consensus is reached as to what the defining factors are.
This is a good point and I do agree with it to an extent, but feel like when we’re talking about someone who has established their gender for a substantial amount of time then we can move forward with the understanding that that is who they are. How long specifically? I don’t know and am not in a position to make that assessment.
I wasn’t trying to stifle intelligent conversation, just keeping my earlier answer as simple as possible to avoid confusion. Obviously, that worked perfectly… 😛
There are many assumptions and implications that go along with this “yep”, few of them fair.
Since the competition is mixed gender anyway, I don’t see the relevance. In athletic sports there is a gender separation because of the typical/expected comparative performance of males vs. females in physical events – males (typically) have a higher upper limit of physical capability. If that was important here there would be separate male and female leagues. There isn’t. So, Maria is apparently MTF transgendered? What matters is that she presently identifies as a female, how far along she is in that transition is really no one’s business but her own. I appreciate there might be a degree of cynicism associated with the “first female” to play LoL at this level was actually born a male, but treating a trans person as if they’re not a “real” female is the kind of shit people are talking about when they refer to transmisogyny in the first place.
Ohh it doesn’t matter competitively but whats to stop any one from just claiming to be female to be the first at “x”. The reason sporting bodies make it two years or testosterone under a certain amount is that their physicality matches their gender. I think there should always be that distinction – a bloke with boobs is not female, no matter how much he/she wants to be.
EDIT: I mean physically! They might identify female (completely valid) but phyiscally they’re male.
You make such a valid and logical point. There’s nothing people like to do more than lie about their gender for attention, and it happens all the time in the real world. Calling someone claiming to be trans a “bloke with boobs” is valid and puts it all in perspective, completely discrediting all claims of transmisogyny.
You shouldn’t use sarcasm on the internet, it only leads to bad things.
IMO the others are all being a bit too tough on you, I get your point. I guess it all goes to what society recognizes people to be. If you go from being a male to identifying as a female to physically being a female then at what point should you be considered a female? I’d say just go with whatever the laws in her country say, if she’s legally a female there then yes she’s the first female to reach that point in LCS.
If she identifies as a woman then she’s a woman. Genuinely. And these are the kind of comments that have probably played no small part in her stepping down. Congratulations.
So where do you draw the line in the sand. If an athletic male who can run the 100m in under 10sec decides to change gender then 3 months after the procedure runs sub 10sec should they be able to claim to be the first female to do so (that destroys the current female world record)?
The moment there involves competition of some nature (eg claiming to be the first female to do something) then it only makes sense that they should have very comparable physiology to the gender they claim to be. Worlds gone PC mad.
Honestly I get what you are asking and I don’t think your out of line or being rude in the way you’ve asked. Esports wants to be recognised as a real sport and this question would be bought up in virtually every sport. People tend to over react when it comes to these topics…
Even the Olympic committee has been loosening their rules around transgender athletes:
“To require surgical anatomical changes as a pre-condition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights.”
The only restrictions in the Olympics (this is the top competitive sporting organisation in the world, in case you forgot) is that MTF athletes have to have under a certain level of testosterone. I feel like testosterone doesn’t make much difference in a game of League.
It shouldn’t have to be called “PC mad” to have a basic level of respect for another human being.
You’re oscillating between saying gender does matter (because it’s comparable to a test of physical prowess, where men have a natural advantage) and saying it doesn’t matter competitively because LoL is not in the same class as a physical contest like running.
Make up your mind if you want a cohesive answer. Since LoL is not a gender-divided competition, her physiology is irrelevant, so you should take no issue with her defining herself as a woman. Whether under such circumstances her being the “first woman” is worthy of distinction is another matter entirely. I personally think it worth noting, but not as amazing a distinction as say, being the first woman to climb everest, or run a hundred metres in less than ten seconds (which are more impressive and physically taxing feats in a general sense, though for the record feats I’m about as likely to complete as I am to compete in LoL at this level).
Yer i should be clearer but i have always been referring to her claiming to be the first female. My main quirk is that if being “female’ is purely a state of mind whats stopping anyone from claiming to be the first female to do “x”. Physiologically speaking it takes around two years of hormone replacement for the body to actually reflect their chosen gender. To me this is a pretty huge commitment and its not something that they could (easily) just do for attention (yep i’m a cynic) i just think when it comes to this that there should be some sort of standard – i have absolutely no qualms with average joe claiming that she is infact average joet – but if you’re making a claim that your the first of your gender to do a feat (regardless of what it is) but you were born another then imo you need to back that up. For me that would be as physiologically identical to the gender (ie hormone levels).
Obviously for some people (@hayleywilliams) they don’t feel that at all and think i’m disrespectful towards the person, but really its just what i interpret as a definition of gender – for them it seems to be more a state of mind – for me it’s largely hormones.
You’re absolutely spot on about this. Testosterone also gives men other advantages – not just strength or speed – like reflexes. Reflexes help in a fast twitch environment (like a team fight in LOL). I think denying reality (Remi is a biological male) actually devalues the huge achievement of a woman making it to the LCS level, which I believe will happen.
This ‘gender is a state of mind’ level of thinking is dangerous and is what led to a male mma fighter in the cage against a female. Needless to say, some irreparable damage was done to the female fighter.
If I identify as an attack helicopter, does that make me one? If so, i have a new goal. I want to be the first non-genetic in the LCS.
And we all accept your right as an attack helicopter to kill from above and kill needlessly.
Hey when you make it to LCS hit me up. I want to write that story.
I would feel really cheated if I met up with a girl from Tinder and it turned out she was born a guy, regardless of how she identified. And why is it socially acceptable to call Michael Jackson “crazy” for his surgery and makes jokes about it, but not to calmly and fairly ask if simply identifying as the opposite sex makes you so? Maybe I am more close-minded than I like to think and maybe I have a lot to learn, but I just can’t see this as anything other than delusional. Looking at someone else’s penis, thinking that looks cool and realising that you’re gay? I get it, nothing at all wrong there. Looking at your own penis, frowning and saying, “Nah, definitely a girl.” Not so much.
twitch chat is worse than _______
Bees?
Drama and vitriol surrounding the gender identity aside, Remi was under-performing. The Morgana play was ordinary and even when given thresh there was a distinct lack of wow factor about the plays made unlike the run through challenger.
Now granted it was probably due to stress brought on by exposure to the league community which fluctuates between supportive or cesspool erring mostly toward the latter but that is simply something that comes with being in the spotlight and it is something that you either shut out and deal with or you remove yourself from the environment. It is much healthier to step away from something that is keeping you down than to struggle onward and ultimately wind up in a depressed downward spiral where you have to take every small victory and glimmer of happiness just to make it through the day.
For the purpose of an online game, there is an even enough playing field across the gender gap that claims of first female or trans-gender or gay etc really shouldn’t factor into the equation, you are first and foremost a person playing a game
Wait, shouldn’t MyPetMonkey have already been here telling us “Fuck her, she’s only got herself to blame, she’s just attention seeking”..?
I decided I was black yesterday and started my permanent marker therapy.
Seems like it is the best time to me a minority.
I might decide to be a women also, but I’ll decide next week.