I’m a huge fan of Spider Solitaire. It’s one of those lame (but fun!) games that come with Windows, along with FreeCell, regular Solitaire, and the undisputed king of quick, mindless games: Minesweeper.
Even though the game is based heavily on luck, I’ve got talent. I’ve figured out all the tricks. I place the appropriate values on turning over new cards, and emptying one column to get card flexibility. I even have an uncanny ability to realize when the game is winnable despite looking hopeless. It’s safe to say that if CAL had a spider solitaire division, I’d be in Invite. In fact, I think you could call me the Ksharp of Spider Solitaire. Or KoSS, for short.
Sadly for me, this talent doesn’t do me a lot of good. Nobody is pushing me to get better. Even if there was, there isn’t really any point. There’s still no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if I find a new trick, or make better moves. The system (or lack of one) is holding me back.
Now that I think about it, it’s kinda funny – my Spider Solitaire career has the same problems as Vanessa’s CGS career.
One of those is a much bigger problem than the other, though, and I think you know which.
It’d be one thing if she couldn’t compete at the highest level. We’d have to accept that and move on. But it’s clear that she’s better than everybody else in the CGS’s DoA Female division. The 60-8 Rounds For/Rounds Against split is a good indicator. So is the 12-0 record, and the fact that only one person managed to get three rounds on her. For the mathematically disinclined, outside of that match, she had a 55-5 round split, which means she basically alternated between winning 5-0 and 5-1 (on average). And, like a good salesman, I’ll even give you some free, extra information: she’s already proven she can hang with the boys by beating Master (8-4, #2 in the DoA Male division) in the 2007 WCG Pan-American Championship.
In short, she doesn’t have to prove whether she’s one of the best DoA 4 players, regardless of gender. The only problem is figuring out how high she can go.
That’s part of the beauty of sports, too – have talent, will travel. In real life, talent and skill aren’t enough to get you most places. There has to be opportunity, too. Just ask anybody with a college degree that can’t get a job in their field. Talent doesn't create opportunity in the job market, but it does in competition. If you’re talented, and you’ve got the dedication, that’s all you need. Jackie Robinson did it, and so did Ichiro and Daisuke Matsuzaka, on a smaller scale. They got noticed regardless of the color of their skin, where they played, or the fact that the Boston Red Sox had to pay $50 million just to talk to Daisuke about a contract. Talent is at a premium, and owners don’t care if you’re purple, worship the devil, and cross-dress in your free-time as long as you can hit .330 with runners in scoring position. Although, to be fair, if you do those things, Boston might only pay $40 million to talk to you.
I don’t know if Vanessa will ever get that chance, because the gender separation is so accepted and institutionalized in eSports. The thought that girls are worse at games than guys is dogma to the point that tournament organizers and leagues have gender segregated competitions. That’s not a problem as long as the stereotype holds – which they never do. Sometime, somewhere, somebody will break the mold. And now that she’s here, what do we do with her? Let the system hold her back, and never find out if she can take home the title of “Best DoA Player”?
No, I think that’s the worst option. It completely betrays the spirit of competition. The whole point of playing these games is to figure out who the best players are and watch them perform. That goes double for the CGS, which is charged with revolutionizing the industry and taking it mainstream. It won’t happen without the best players.
The only other option besides holding her back is completely reworking the DoA portion of the CGS. They can’t just give the Optx the option to play her against the guys, because they’d be crazy to do it due to the scoring system. Why put her in the Men’s division and get an 8-4 record when she can go 12-0 in the Women’s division and get more points? The Optx shouldn’t move her voluntarily, because their goal is to win. The only other option for the CGS is to force San Francisco to move her, and that’s not going to happen. And if the CGS doesn’t force them, and the Optx won’t do it voluntarily, there aren’t many options left under the current system, which means the system might need to be changed.
That might not be a bad thing, considering that it’s better for the CGS if she’s playing with the guys. Michelle Wie was all over the sports news, and she couldn’t even make a cut on the PGA Tour. How big would the story be if Wie was in contention to win a title? Vanessa has already proven she can do that. And in competitive gaming, where publicity is like finding water in the desert, we could use as many big stories as we can get. In a sport dominated by males, with the stereotype being even worse than the reality, having a girl gamer be the #1 pick and competing against the guys for a title would be a huge story.
It's better for the fans, too. Watching her play against Master, OffbeatNinja, and Black Mamba would be infinitely more entertaining than watching her win 5-1 against opponents of the same caliber she faced this year. To be fair, I’m sure the other players will improve. They have talent. The problem is that Vanessa could just as easily improve, too, especially if she gets pushed by people that are better than her.
In essence, I don’t see any downside. And sadly, I still don't think that's enough to make it happen, because of the reasons mentioned above.
For me, it comes down to this: after the first season, we can safely call her the best female DoA 4 player. But that’s not a title, that’s a concession. It’s like calling Michael Jordan the best shooting guard the Bulls have ever had, or calling Steve Nash the best white point guard. They can all make bigger claims than that – for Vanessa, namely “Best DoA 4 player, regardless of gender”.
Could she do it? I have no idea. But I’d like to watch her try, and shouldn’t she at least have the chance?
