NS: “There’s no such thing as women’s esports—esports is one, and it’s the same for everyone.”
Community caster and former Dota 2 esports player Yaroslav “NS” Kuznetsov, commented during a Twitch stream on a statement by Zainab “zAAz” Turki, in which she discussed the women’s scene in CS2 and criticized Valve.
I think she missed the point a little bit. You know, about five years ago, riding the wave of the whole #MeToo movement and all the cancel culture going on—the legal battle between Amber Heard and Elon Musk, or whoever she was fighting with? Johnny Depp, yeah. Well, Elon Musk was involved a little bit there too—he was holding a candle, I guess. Riding that wave, statements like that probably would have even found some approval, but that moment has passed. That moment is history now, and thank God for that. People have sort of, well, come to their senses and realized, “Wait a minute. What was all that about, anyway?”
And I’d like to say that there’s no such thing as “women’s esports.” This is the news—practically a historic statement, though it’s something everyone already knows. The fact is, there’s no such thing as “women’s esports”; esports is one—one for everyone. There’s no division. Look: there are no men’s esports tournaments—they don’t exist. There are simply esports tournaments in any discipline. There’s no division.
Esports is a thoroughly modern sport where there’s no division based on women, men, or any other gender or characteristics. It’s open to everyone—if you want to, just sit down and play. …> Just sit down, shoot down some donks, and earn a salary, fame, and whatever else you want. In other words, there’s no such thing as “women’s esports”—there’s simply esports—so it’s not very clear what this young lady is even talking about.
Well, of course, statements like this will always get a huge number of dislikes and comments of this sort—which, by the way, aren’t coming from me here. Because you’re not banned from it, and no one else is either. And if you’re not capable of performing at a level that’s highly paid, that everyone watches, that’s hyped up, and where there are no problems whatsoever—neither with tournaments, nor with reach, nor with viewers, nor with salaries, nor with prize money, nor with coverage, or anything else, then what’s the big deal?
I mean, if you’re literally a Tier 2 player, so what? Well, Tier 2 players in men’s CS are just sitting there. Yeah, they don’t have a lot of salaries or viewers there, but they don’t really complain. They understand perfectly well that they’re not up to the high level, so why the *** should they be paid, or should someone be fretting over it? Work your way up there and stay there—it’s the same in any sport. Only the top athletes get all the cream of the crop; everyone else gets the short end of the stick.
I mean, let’s imagine—take any sport, biathlon for example. Being in the world’s top 100 biathletes is a pretty high achievement, right? But in reality, no one even knows who the world’s top 100 biathletes are, because they’re just the top 100—come on. People are only interested in the top 5, the top 10—and it’s the same everywhere. So what’s the big deal? I don’t get what she wants. Who should be ashamed? If you can’t play—well, you just can’t; that’s your problem, not anyone else’s.
I just don’t get it—every time I read something like this, I’m *** [shocked] that people think someone owes them something. No one owes anyone anything—you either deliver results or you don’t, so what are you complaining about? Who are you complaining to? Who even gives a damn that you’re complaining in the first place?
In addition to zAAz’s social media post, in which she criticized Valve’s actions, her teammate on Clutchain Female, Victoria “tory” Kazieva, also recently spoke out about the current state of the women’s competitive scene in Counter-Strike 2.
Photo by Helena Kristiansson, Turtle Entertainment.
