Last weekend’s Kiev Major crowned OG as a four-time Majors winner and celebrated the CIS region’s Dota 2 history. After the closing ceremony, however, the last thing viewers saw was an unexplained montage of women simply watching the matches, a segment fans believe is detrimental to inclusiveness in Dota.
Image: PGL/YouTube
The video wasn’t posted in error. The upload to YouTube and later Reddit comments from production studio PGL confirmed that “Girls of Kiev” was indeed intentional, and not just one creepy cameraman’s B-roll.
It appears the video has since been pulled from PGL’s YouTube channel.
Though the video has been removed from YouTube, you can still view the video in its entirety through the Twitch clips below:
While it was unclear what, if any, sentiment the video was intended to express, the criticism was almost immediate, with many questioning who approved it to run at all:
Did they for real just run a perv super cut of every girl in Kiev?
— Phillip Aram (@Phillip_Aram) April 30, 2017
On Reddit, PGL spokesperson “DarkPGL” seemed nonchalant in his response to critics.
In response Peachy, a manager of Dota 2 female advocacy group Desoladies, wrote about her criticisms of the video, and the stigma content like it creates:
The bottom line is that literally every single woman I’ve talked to in the Dota community deals with some kind of discrimination and just wants to be treated like a normal fan. We don’t expect trolls or simple-minded dota players to change, but at the very least we do expect and hope that major organisations (hello, PGL handles some of the biggest Valve events) to not encourage or condone this kind of treatment. It’s in your best interests for this community to grow and not chase off potential new fans, so next time please think this through more. I do not speak for women as a whole, but I can certainly tell you that this video made me feel very, very frustrated as I am working very hard to try to get more women into this game and be treated fairly. My heart is heavy to see women like myself put on display as a side-show or special feature, it really makes you feel like a second class citizen.
Several other pros and analysts voiced their disdain as well.
@Phillip_Aram I can’t believe someone thought this was a good idea…
— David Parker | Godz (@BTSGoDz) April 30, 2017
@Phillip_Aram ya… pic.twitter.com/Q0Y7Wadqht
— Helen Xu (@XiiTuzi) April 30, 2017
@LatrodectusDota @1437x @Phillip_Aram @BTSGoDz Just a joke, as in the justification for making this peice must have been PEOPLE LIKE WOMEN aka wtf is happening
— SirActionSlacks (@SirActionSlacks) May 1, 2017
In a conversation with Peachy, she told me that while there have been some predictably vitriolic comments, most of the response she’s seen has been in support of better inclusion and representation than what this video represents. For her, representation is about seeing women participating as fans, rather than singled out solely due to their gender.
“There are tons of women who are genuinely passionate about Dota and the Dota scene,” said Peachy. “You don’t capture that enthusiasm by filming a girl sitting in a chair, eating a French fry, unaware of the camera. If PGL or any company wanted to specifically focus on women, then let the women do the talking.”
We’ve reached out to PGL for comment, but at the time of writing they had not replied.
Comments
8 responses to “Kiev Major Concludes With Weird Montage Of Women, Production Company Later Deletes Video”
Jeez that was hard to watch. I felt like the editor was definitely a 14 year old boy. I mean have footage of fans being fans for the sake of inclusion, but don’t forget, that means everybody, not just women
*massages temples in frustration*
*facepalm* Doh
Gettin’ that creep on.
Top effort esport leagues, keep proving that everyone there are creepers.
Something I’d expect to see floating around 4chan or something. Not front and centre endorsed by the organiser.
seriously wow, creep vibes man.
pervy idiots
Must’ve been produced by the guys that did that Fyre Festival promo video.
Surely the intention here was to try and make women feel more included, right? Like, maybe some women don’t want to go to these events because they think there won’t be any other women there so it’ll be weird/awkward, and the video is showing that hey, ladies come to these things too! It’s a laudable goal.
It’s unfortunate that the way they executed this probably means it’ll have the opposite effect.