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From the Cradle to Battle: What Shapes the Careers of Female CS:GO Esports Players

Authors:

Daria Balakina,

Gareth SchottAuthors Info & Claims

Academic Mindtrek '22: Proceedings of the 25th International Academic Mindtrek Conference

Pages 41 - 52

https://doi.org/10.1145/3569219.3569393

Published: 16 November 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Following the trajectory of gaming as a leisure activity, the world of high-performance professional gaming commenced as a male dominated field [41, 48] attracting reports of discrimination and abuse against female athletes [8, 12]. In this paper, we discuss experiences of a range of female CS:GO gamers, from those who held ambition to pursue professional careers to those who have experience as a professional esports player at-present or in the past. The study tracks participation in gaming at different points of their careers in order to explore motivations and resilience, as well as exposure to barriers in relation to their professional experiences or ambitions. In doing so, we also evaluate the socialising roles that support or discourage a career in gaming. A range of biographical accounts of gaming were collected via semi-structured interviews conducted with female gamers (n = 12), focusing on their experiences of playing competitive Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). CS:GO was selected as an extreme case due to particularly low number of women in its professional scene. A thematic analysis revealed a range of barriers that hold back the establishment and development of a professional career, and reveals the complex nature of professional acquaintances and friendships within esports.

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Cited By

Nguyen DMelcer EAdams D(2024)Exploring Gender and Racial/Ethnic Bias Against Video Game Streamers: Comparing Perceived Gameplay Skill and Viewer EngagementProceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3649921.3650009(1-11)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649921.3650009
Fousek Krobová TŠvelch J(2023)“Never Good Enough”: Player Identities, Experiences, and Coping Strategies of Women in Czech Video Game JournalismGames and Culture10.1177/1555412023116679119:4(449-468)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231166791

Index Terms

From the Cradle to Battle: What Shapes the Careers of Female CS:GO Esports Players

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Academic Mindtrek '22: Proceedings of the 25th International Academic Mindtrek Conference

November 2022

407 pages

ISBN:9781450399555

DOI:10.1145/3569219

Copyright © 2022 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 16 November 2022

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Academic Mindtrek 2022: 25th International Academic Mindtrek conference

November 16 - 18, 2022

Tampere, Finland

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Cited By

Nguyen DMelcer EAdams D(2024)Exploring Gender and Racial/Ethnic Bias Against Video Game Streamers: Comparing Perceived Gameplay Skill and Viewer EngagementProceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3649921.3650009(1-11)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649921.3650009
Fousek Krobová TŠvelch J(2023)“Never Good Enough”: Player Identities, Experiences, and Coping Strategies of Women in Czech Video Game JournalismGames and Culture10.1177/1555412023116679119:4(449-468)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231166791

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