2010 SSF4 Women's Invitational: More Info and FAQ

Evo Championship Series
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With the re-invigoration of fighting games we have seen an influx of girl and women tournament players. At Evo we think this is fantastic and want to reach out to this new demographic. When we announced this tournament earlier this week there were a lot of questions about how and why we were doing this. So, without further ado…

Tournament Format

This is an invitational tournament for competitive women players.
[LIST]
[]The tournament will be made up of women and girls who have signed up for Evo’s open SSF4 tournament.
[]Women who sign up for the open tournament are automatically invited to the invitational free of charge.
[*]Prizes will be awarded for 1st - 3rd places. Exact prize amounts will be announced soon.
[/LIST]

FAQ

Q: Why is Evo holding a tournament just for women?
A: Evo strongly believes in open competition between any and all gamers. It doesn’t matter what country you are from, how old you are, or what gender you are, all competitors are equal. But the fighting game community has an unfortunate past of providing an inhospitable environment for women and girls. Because there are more women playing now than ever before, we feel it’s important to raise awareness that there are great women gamers out there and that bad behavior towards women is not acceptable at Evo, nor should it be acceptable in the FGC at large.

Q: Why do I have to join the open tournament to be invited?
A: Two reasons: first, we want to reinforce that the invitational is indeed a serious tournament. It is not just for fun and it is not a side show. The invitational will be made up 100% of women who have enough competitive juice to lay it on the line in the open tournament. Second, we want to reinforce that we are NOT trying to segregate women into their own tournament. The only way to play in the invitational is to participate in the fully open tournament against everyone else in the world.

Q: Why are you trying to get more women into fighting games?
A: The fact is that more women are already becoming interested in fighting games and tournaments. Yes, the number is small, but it is growing. We can either choose to ignore these new players, or work to remove the impediments that uniquely hinder this demographic from being fully embraced by the community.

Q: Isn’t this just a gimmick to get some pretty faces on stage?
A: No. This tournament is based in Evo’s fundamental belief that we can continue to reach out to a broader sphere of gamers. When we first started out, Evo catered strictly to Street Fighter players in the U.S. Over the years we have embraced players from other 2D fighters, then 3D fighters, and players worldwide. We think there is potential to have a permanent presence of women and girls in the competitive community, and that the community will be better for it. But in order for that to happen we as a community need to change the way we treat and look at women gamers. Evo believes that one of the ways to do that is to highlight some of the top women gamers out there in their own invitational.

Q: I’m transgender. Can I compete in the women’s invitational?
A: Anyone who self identifies as female can participate.

Q: I’m a woman entering the open tournament but I don’t like this idea. Can I opt out?
A: We’re not forcing anyone to join the invitational, but we hope all eligible women will compete.

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Firsted!!! PEDOBEAR APPROVED!!!

I really like the idea of requiring the women to participate in the UNISEX tournament in order to participate in the ladies only tournament. That was basically what they did last year so it should be no different this year. It will allow them to test their skills against each other and learn and share strats off each other while at the same time learning and competing in the same tournament that has crafted some of the finest fighting game players for years. They’re not going to get as sharp as Alex Valle or Sanford Kelly simply playing segregated with each other.

We are all fighting game machines and need to fight amongst each other to bring out the best in each other. Man or woman. Lets do this. We’re all fighters…screw this gender shit. The ladies tournament will just be there to show people that women are playing and not just Miyuki as she’s probably the only one who has a chance to break into semis AFAIK.

I like women.

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Ah, the politically correct route…good shit

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Good move. Solves exactly the right problems.

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1 step further into the right direction at least.

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Came in to make the obvious joke and then I saw this.

:sad:

imo.

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Better idea. Still pointless as shit, but better. Less offensive. It still feels like the whole point of this is so guys can watch girls play games. Correct me if I’m wrong but I really can’t understand any other reasons for doing this.

“But the fighting game community has an unfortunate past of providing an inhospitable environment for women and girls” Yeah like that time they decided to make a segregated womens-only SSFIV tournament at Evo. Oh wait.

“Because there are more women playing now than ever before, we feel it’s important to raise awareness that there are great women gamers out there…” First part is true, second part is bullshit. Name more than 3 girls in the U.S. who are legit at SFIV. You can’t. (If you’re a girl and you take offense to this, ask yourself when was the last time you placed top 4 or top 8 in a large tournament. … … Yeah. We’re just not quite up there yet, be honest.)

“…and that bad behavior towards women is not acceptable at Evo, nor should it be acceptable in the FGC at large” Thank you. But if you think holding this tournament is going to magically turn SRK-users and EVO-goers into women-respecting men, I’d say you’re wrong. Honestly… it’s obvious your intentions are good. But it’s pointless singling people out, assuming the attention they get will be positive. I can promise you the attention that tournament and the girls competing will get is -not- going to be all positive. Most of the guys who watch are either going to think “hey these girls are getting better” (thanks for looking down on us), try to hit on them, or make jokes. It’s just like a consolation prize for girls who aren’t very good who enter the regular tournament and lose both their matches. What about the guy who just picked up SFIV and is super-excited about going to Evo. He’s not sure how deep he wants to get into the scene but he wants to try out a big tournament. He gets scraped by both opponents and it ruins his weekend cuz he realized how much of an effin’ scrub he is. NO CONSOLATION TOURNAMENT FOR HIM. Cuz he doesn’t have boobs. :[

Holding the tournament this way is a lot less offensive but I say it’s still stupid/pointless because it’s not going to solve the problems that exist. You can’t change guys’ (or girls’) attitudes this way.

-_______________________________-

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So the question remains Super Yan…are you going to sign up for the Ladies event?

Oh and that part about the guy not getting consoled because he ain’t got boobs…that was deep. Like no joke real talk. I think Evo is just trying to get you guys out there to the media so people can see you first hand but like you…I thought the pictures and video footage of you guys at Evo already did a pretty good job doing that. I think they just want something where people can focus on your personal abilities in a full tournament set. Which each girl has their choice to take or leave I guess.

I think that is what makes Evo truly exciting though. Is that once you get there you’re supposed to either put up or shut up and that is truly what makes you a stronger SF player. Just being the better person and being able to read and adjust to different situations on the fly.

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I think this is a great idea as a one-time thing. I’d be up for it if I were competing.

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I think once the prize structure is announced, you may change your mind about it being a consolation tournament. There’s no way to know at this point how much you will be able to get for winning the tournament, but free money is free money–if you don’t want guys to be patronizing afterward, just win and flash cold hard cash in their faces, and if you want them to cool it on the thuggery, you can do the same thing. Just tell everyone it’s about the fight money.

If there were a rating system to create separate amateur and pro divisions, most of this controversy would be nonexistent. We’d just invite the top women from Japan and watch them clean up in exhibition matches and in the main tournament. In the current situation, however, given sufficient financial incentive, I think Japanese women players will even come to Vegas without our having to invite them, provided we put up the money to make the trip worthwhile.

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This answers a lot of question. I hope all the ladies who enter have fun

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My response:

http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=223786&p=8296282&viewfull=1#post8296282

Great job EVO staff.

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might as well make it a miyuki gauntlet or however you spell her name… if no girls from other countries are joining this is a lock for her to win fwiw. taking side bets btw.

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I think this whole idea is awesome.

And, the requirement to compete in the overall SSF4 tourney is a great way to demonstrate that the women’s tourney isn’t meant to be knock on female players’ skill, but rather a chance to encourage more female participation and recognition.

[media=youtube]GjrpvrAgJ3Q#t=0m9s[/media]

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I’m praying Starslayer is actually practicing again so I can vote for her. I mean she’s using that top tier yo.

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Lol wow I forgot about her Watts. She kind of disappeared …is she playing SF4? Lol if it was for 3s…thats for free…but this is SSF4…hope she is playing!

J-Cole

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DevilJin01 I dunno how sarcastic you were being but I wouldn’t enter if it was $1000 pot and I was guaranteed to win because

  1. SFIV is garbage.
  2. SSFIV is probably going to be garbage because (see above).
  3. I’m not a sellout.
  4. It wouldn’t prove anything. If I played and was good at SFIV and actually won, it wouldn’t mean shit. It’s like “oh boy I won a competition that was extremely limited! I must be the best!” Then the next tournament I enter I’ll get scraped and wonder why.

^----- These reasons are why I think the tournament is stupid.

When you run it this way (with the adjustment of girls only playing if and only if they’re serious about entering the actual SSFIV tournament) it makes a lot more sense and is less sexist, but I still think it’s incredibly pointless (also a waste of cash prizes) and is just going to draw more attention whores into the scene. That’s what you guys want though right?

Best of luck, I’ll leave this alone I guess since no matter how may girls tell you this is stupid you’re going to run it anyway.

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Haha, okay, the way I’m reading your post is that you wouldn’t play in the women’s tourney because you wouldn’t even play in the main tourney in the first place. “Bravo,” is what I’d say if you were a guy, but I wouldn’t want to be accused of being patronizing, so that’s not going to happen. 3s for life.

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I’m giving my own personal reasons since someone asked me personally if I was going to enter (although I’m pretty sure they were joking). I can list a bunch of other reasons why I wouldn’t want to enter this bullsh even if I WERE a die hard SFIV fan and a girl if you’d like. u__u Sheesh.

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Why only attention whores?