2018 / 12 / 14

The Rise of Girl Power in Esports!

Chorina Talks with Her Guns

​Reported by Newtalk Journalist Hsing-Hsiu Tsai
"ZOWIE DIVINA PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) International Women's Invitational Tournament sees advanced 48 athletes from Europe, America, and Asia-Pacific competing on the same grounds after the preliminaries. These players will participate in an offline finals at Shanghai, China from December 13th to 16th, showcasing the most professional women's eSport competition to the world."
 
There are many memorable athletes at this year's ZOWIE DIVINA PUBG International Women's Invitational, and one of them is the Romanian athlete, Chorina, a stunning redhead with a tough attitude and steady shooting in-game.
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Chorina's efforts toward promoting female eSports rival her strong game-play techniques. She has formed "Kills on Heels," her own female eSports team in Romania, and explains: "When we were starting out there were only the six of us, and I scouted all of them from social media. After three months of effort in which we played together every day, we even received sponsorships."

Her efforts to promote gender equality arises from the fact that Chorina sees no difference between the skill-sets of males and females in eSports teams. "In terms of game-play techniques, I don't think there's a difference between guys and girls, or any situation where girls are placed at a disadvantage. However, we are subjected to unfair treatment due to our gender. For example, there was one time when our entire team showed up for a local competition only to show support for eSports, and there was a team that couldn't play, and the organizer asked whether we wanted to step up. But our opponent refused to play us because we were girls."

But due to certain reasons, Kills on Heels has currently stopped all activities. "There are many skilled female players in Romania; however, they are reluctant to spend more time to truly dedicate themselves to eSports. Often times, they only want to be streamers. And the female players who wish to commit themselves to eSports often join male teams to prove their skills. They think they can't prove themselves if they join a team for women only." Currently, Chorina wishes her future team can become more globalized and attract more female players who wish to prove their worth.

In her daily life, Chorina is often subjected to rude treatment from male players due to her gender. "They never understand respect and will say some truly vulgar things. They will turn a blind eye to your good performance and say things like 'You don't know how to play,' 'You suck,' or 'Go away,' but actually, I believe female players pay more attention to details than male players. Girls are usually calmer, with more careful logic, and have much better emotional control."

Chorina's family has given her their full support for her commitment to eSports. Though she first began playing video games at the early age of seven, Chorina wasn't truly inspired until "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." She realized that she is fairly good at this game. And though her parents initially worried that she was spending too much time gaming, when they heard that she was about to enter the ZOWIE DIVINA PUBG International Women's Invitational Tournament, they even nagged her to practice more often, hoping that she will be able to achieve great results.

Chorina laughed, "My parents really want me to win the Championship at the ZOWIE DIVINA PUBG International Women's Invitational, and of course I wish to achieve a good ranking, but this experience alone will be more important than anything else. I still can't believe I am a part of this competition; I am so excited. This is a brand-new scene I have never seen before, especially the integrated eSports system, ZONE, which was provided by the organizer. I am so impressed that the monitor and table height can be so flexibly adjusted. The sound card setup is also brilliant--I won't have to find another application to make adjustments. This is all so cool and so very convenient."

The eSports industry is booming in Romania. Many sponsors are fighting over themselves to sponsor "CS: GO" and "PUBG" teams. Romanians are also venturing into other games and have shown rapid industry growth. There are also many female athletes. Though the big corporations haven't yet begun paying as much attention to Romanian players, but Chorina believes anything is possible in the future. "I will continue to stream when the competition is over. I want to be more famous and to do what I can for the female eSports athletes so that even more girls can get to know this exciting industry."

She also got to know many female players from other countries through this year's ZOWIE DIVINA. Chorina stated, "I really enjoyed playing with a bunch of girls. The entire environment was so cute and smelled so lovely. Everyone was also eager to make new friends. We talked, took pictures, and played, like we were all a part of a big family. This was a new experience that I haven't encountered during mixed-gender competitions before. I made many friends here and we would go eat with dozens or even over twenty people after practice sessions. We would even hang out in someone's room. It was so great and so much fun."

And Chorina greatly impressed the audience during the demonstration match. She teamed up with the Thai representative "Kaopadneam" to battle the lone wolf Croatian player "Sansen," and they successfully overturned their geographical weakness and won the game. They high-fived each other after the beautiful victory. With her steady shooting and having unwavering faith, Chorina will reinforce her efforts in promoting women's eSports, and we all look forward to seeing her success in competitions to come.