I've been reading the argument since it started, maybe I can venture an opinion.
My girlfriend likes video games. We play everything together
except Smash but her reason for not coming with me to my area's weekly tournaments are not
only because the people make it awkward for her to be there. We've talked about it and agreed that pretty much everyone that comes to the weekly in my area is a decent person and hasn't done anything specifically offensive, except for our resident Falco player
Falco mains are obnoxious maybe? Fact is, she thinks that the game looks fun. She plays at home with me and my siblings but she will not play at a weekly. I'll expound on the situation that me and my girlfriend face and then offer a solution that I think would help not only her situation but other female smashers of veteran, rookie and novice skill level as well as all rookie and novice smashers in general.
Here is the problem that we face, that prevents us from playing smash together: the attitude of reception to her presence as the only girl at the weekly and the fact that she is a very novice player in the game prevent her from feeling comfortable in the environment and making friend but I believe this could be overcome if there was more welcoming exposure at my weekly for a novice player.
So, the first point is that she is the only girl at the event. That makes her feel out of place, a few people ask her if she's a player and a few ask her who her boyfriend is while the majority of the people don't really say anything/ignore her presence. While nothing can be done to make these people act differently, aside from getting to know each of them and creating friendships that would bypass any awkwardness, each of these things makes her uncomfortable in a different way. Being asked if she is a player is probably the least offensive but she has to acknowledge that she is just watching, people that ask her this don't really make her feel uncomfortable and can be labeled as the 'friendly' people. Being asked who her boyfriend is comes off as a slightly offensive comment because it implies that she couldn't possibly be playing, further enforced by the fact that she isn't playing, this makes her feel like she shouldn't be there at all. She participates in a lot of sports that people usually deem to be 'male dominated sports,' for instance she is nationally ranked in sporting clay events, so to be faced with that comment is insulting and makes her want to participate less and not even watch. The people that ignore her and just stare or say nothing are probably the ones that make her feel the most awkward and make her acknowledge that she is the only female in the room in a way that makes her want to leave, not watch or participate in the future in any way. I'm giving you this for background information because it emphasizes how she feels and why it's hard for her to even just hang around and watch.
The second point that makes her feel awkward about participating in a weekly is that she is novice at the game and has no real way to pursue it or train meaningfully with other people to not be 'destroyed instantly.' As I said, she'll play for fun with me and with my siblings but the combination of how people react to her at my weekly and how much work she would have to do to catch up and compete meaningfully seems to be insurmountable. When I talk about competing meaningfully I mean not going 0-2 in both winner's and loser's brackets, or not being eliminated in the quickest way possible. She's at that level of new, we were all there once except for the Sasuke Uchihas of our smash scene
but she feels like to win a couple of matches at a weekly is a task that requires months of work to a newcomer. The skill barrier to enter smash is the biggest obstacle when we've talked about her playing and entering the weekly in my area. So obviously the thing to do is practice right? Just grind and play for hours and learn a lot of technical aspects of the game because she doesn't have the years of friendly matches behind her to give any kind of fundamentals or basic character knowledge that even a casual player of smash would have. This task is daunting to a new comer and of putting. Obviously this wouldn't be a barrier to a female player that has veteran experience or plays on a regular basis but I think that I have an idea that would help bridge the gap between female player participate in tournaments and novice player participation.
A better direction for tournaments, like my weekly for instance, on player improvement and novice player integration through the enlarged focus on player development and socialization. I think that tournaments should focus on development and welcoming of players, veteran and rookie and novice, into their scene so that it bolsters play that is both competitive and healthy for players. I recall that one of my biggest obstacles to 'get gud' was that I didn't know how to do it and playing alone seemed to get me no where. The thing that helped me was when a veteran coach took me under their wing, played with me a lot and forced me to learn and play with his friends. He was a complete jerk to me while a I was playing to! The classic salty guy that told me my melee ganon would never go anywhere :D but the influence helped me because it got me playing with an experienced person that forced me to develop if for no other reason than to train against his other protegees. Long story short, someone took me in and that's how I was introduced into the smash scene. I'll stop reminiscing and get to the point because I know we all got involved with smash, competitive or casual, through a different means. I believe that if my weekly had people that took the time to grab any 'wall flowers' or people that would otherwise not be playing and get friendlies going with them that it would be a beneficial process for everyone.
I'm not suggesting to add direct weight for TO's to pull rather than leaving more setups open to get wallflowers involved. If there was someone there to actually engage novice players or constant spectators so that they could play or learn smash I think that it would help with some of the stigma that goes into joining a smash scene. While women only leagues may or may not be a good idea, I mean I'd be willing to TRY it and see what happens at the very least in hopes of a good outcome, I think that the barrier we need to breech can be torn down if we create more involvement. People playing smash is an enjoyable process, at least I would hope so, and if there are some competent smashers dedicated to teaching, developing and getting people involved in smash then it would enrich an already enjoyable process. While it hasn't been implemented yet, I'm going to try and get this process going in my area so we can pull in women of varying skill level and smashers that would would otherwise not participate because of the reasons that I have mentioned as barriers for my girlfriend's participation. I know for a fact, that a women only smash tournament would make her feel awkward unless she was already grounded and had some confidence. Creating a more friendly environment or designating competent smashers to be mentors and involve people that would otherwise be wallflowers is crucial to reaching out to a demographic that we have excluded. If we crafted this system, environment or whatever you want to label it then people might have a REASON to bring their girlfriend, sister, brother or friend regardless of their skill level.
If and when this kind of environment came to exist, then any girl or spectator would be engaged and feel welcomed to the smash scene regardless of their skill level. Heck, we might even be INVITING people to smash tournaments to learn and make friends. I think this would be a significant step in tearing down the gender, skill and other demographic barriers that smash as a whole faces in tournament participation. Smash is grassroots, I think our solution is IN the fact that we are grassroots and can do better as a community to engage the demographics that see exclusion or smaller levels of participation.
TL;DR
Women only leagues might be a good idea, we should probably TRY them and see what happens. However, if we really want to reach demographics we need to create an environment with smashers that are dedicated to roping in wallflowers, engaging spectators and mentoring players so that we can enlarge our smash scenes and give people both the friendships, confidence and skills to WANT to participate and compete meaningfully in tournaments.
