In September 2025, one of the biggest stars of western League of Legends was embroiled in controversy. Bwipo, top laner with the North American (NA) team FlyQuest and winner of numerous awards and domestic championships in both North America and Europe, said on his Twitch stream:

“Women’s anatomy and their monthly cycles are extremely different from males…. A lot of people, even men, that play this game just tilt out of their fucking minds when they play League of Legends, so when a woman is on the wrong part of the month to play competitively, you know what I mean? There is a time of the month where you should not fucking be playing competitive games as a woman, in my opinion.”

The blowback was swift - and, in the typical mode of the LoL community, driven by memes.

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Bwipo’s career subsequently took a nose dive. Riot Games postponed the release of the 2025 Worlds anthem in order to edit the accompanying music video and remove Bwipo’s likeness - and, since Bwipo was originally meant to be the player representing the LCS, North America was no longer represented in the videoMarchoude, Ilyas. 2025. “LoL: Riot Games Delays the Release of the Worlds Song to Cut Bwipo’s Appearance.” Sheep Esports. October 8.. Then, despite having just won the award for best top laner in North America in 2025, Bwipo was not able to secure a spot on any professional Tier 1 team for the beginning of the 2026 season - leaving him to switch positions to Jungler and play with a semi-professional, Tier 2 ERL team (EMEA [Europe, Middle East, Africa] Regional Leagues). As LCS commentator and former coach Josh “Jatt” Leesman noted:Leesman, Josh “Jatt.” 2025. “Bwipo not in LCS Or LEC to start 2026.” TikTok, November 30.

“This news, if you were to just look at the gameplay and what he brought to a team, would be completely shocking - because he was pretty much the best top laner in North America across the last two years. Based on titles, for sure; based on All-Pros, also for sure… Bwipo brings experience, shot calling…. So for him not to have a team is shocking, until you factor in the massive PR risk that he is. I mean, he got North America removed from the Worlds hype video because of his comments that he made on stream about women.”

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While the fact that Bwipo’s comments were controversial at all reveals some changing norms in professional esports, the industry has long been characterized by gender-based exclusions. A significant amount of research continues to show that women are underrepresented and marginalized within professional esports, both as players and in other roles such as commentators and coaches. Importantly, however, the gender dynamics of esports are not fully reflected through demographic statistics; as T. L. Taylor has argued, “it is crucial that a discussion of gender not simply be conflated with a discussion of women. The construction of masculinity is central to understanding the nature of gender and professional computer gaming.”Taylor, T. L. 2012. Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. MIT Press. 110.. Gender disparities in esports have their roots in (but are not reducible to) well-documented inequities in the world of video games more broadly, and the persistent framing of esports as a “boys club” colors everything from the “kinaesthetic masculinity”Taylor, Nicholas. 2021. “Kinaesthetic Masculinity and the Prehistory of Esports.” ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories 3 (1). of esports embodiment to the classification of particular modes of play as feminineGogogadgetkat. 2024. “‘Girls Only Play Healers!’” Team Liquid, March 28..

Despite barriers to access, women have always been present in esports. Some of the earliest esports pioneers were queer women, from arcade legends like Rebecca HeinemanRascoe, Ayesha, dir. 2025. “Remembering Rebecca Heineman, Video Game Pioneer and LGBTQ Rights Advocate.” Weekend Edition. NPR, November 23. to streamers with major esports organizations such as MiDNiTERodriguez, Hector “H3CZ,” Matt “NaDeSHoT” Haag, Seth “Scump” Abner, et al. 2016. Optic Gaming: The Making of eSports Champions. Dey St.. Recent years have seen several women become high-profile and extraordinarily successful coaches for professional esports teams, such as Apex Legends coach WinnieRichman, Olivia. 2026. “Winnie’s Journey to the Top of Apex Legends.” Team Liquid, January 9. and Valorant coach PotterBencomo, Brian. 2023. “Christine ‘Potter’ Chi Is Blazing a Trail for Women in the VALORANT Champions Tour.” Nerd Street, March 23.. Women like the commentator SjokzHares, Sophie. 2023. “Game Changer: Meet the Woman at the Center of Esports’ Biggest Live Events.” Mastercard, February 15. number among today’s biggest esports personalities. And yet, even when women are present in professional esports, their labor is often written off as not truly part of esports and instead dismissed as unnecessary and even comicalTaylor, Nicholas, Jen Jenson, and Suzanne de Castell. 2009. “Cheerleaders/Booth Babes/Halo Hoes: Pro-Gaming, Gender and Jobs for the Boys.” Digital Creativity 20 (4): 239–52.. Presence itself does not signal equity, either, as women in esports continue to face discrimination and sexism both within the industry and from fans. (As just one example: when I attended the 2022 League of Legends world championships at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Sjokz’s appearance on stage was greeted with yells from men in the audience of “Sjokz, have my babies!”)

Gender segregation has long been a part of many professional esports. While the major professional esports leagues are not restricted to men in theory, they are almost entirely populated by male players in practice. Alongside these marquee leagues are often leagues and events specifically for women - such as Riot Games’ Game Changers leagues for their League of Legends and Valorant esports and the ESL Impact League for competitive Counter-Strike. Recently, these leagues have broadened to encompass trans and gender nonconforming players as well (Valorant Game Changers, for example, is framed as being for “women and other marginalized genders”Rozelle, Whalen “Magus.” 2021. “VCT Game Changers.” Valorant, February 23.), though controversy occasionally surrounds the presence of trans people in ways paralleling political discourse in the United States around the participation of trans women in traditional sportsRyanFriend. 2022. “Semmler on ESL Impact: Allowing [Trans Women] to Compete Defeats the Purpose.” Dust2.Us, November 28.. Paralleling these leagues are infrastructures, often unaffiliated with any specific game or publisher, to support women and queer people in esports - such as Queer Women of Esports and AnyKey.

It is important as well to account for esports as a global phenomenon, both as a collection of community practices from around the world and as a product of large multinational corporations attempting to appeal to heterogeneous global audiences. Discourses around Lil Nas X’s League of Legends 2022 Worlds Anthem, for example, point to the complex social relations at play in global esports, where gender, nationality, race, and sexuality mutually constitute one another. To fully understand the gendered complexities of global esports, we must view gender as constructed through culturally-specific performative modes and attend to how performances of gender within and through esports are not reducible to the North American and northern European frames through they are typically interpreted

While women and queer people continue to face significant hurdles to full participation in professional esports, commentaries on the topic too often veer into hyperbolic declarations that only men take part in esports as players and as fans. Esports have never been limited to cisgender heterosexual men - and while gender parity is still a long ways off, women and queer folks are active participants in esports at all levels.