Bilspilsudvikleren SimBin har løftet sløret for Women and Wheels-turneringen, en turnering kun for kvinder, hvor deltagerne skal dyste professionelt i en række bilspil. Turneringen lanceres til efteråret, og sigter efter at giver støtte til et "female-friendly environment that encourages more women to play asports while drawing attention to the often hidden role of women in racing and automotive history." En procentdel af overskuddet gives desuden til kvindeorienterede velgørenhed.
SimBin-chef Allan Speed har sagt følgende om turneringen:
"We're thrilled to announce Women and Wheels. As a developer, we're acutely aware of the low female participation in esports. Around 7% of our race competitors are female. Unbelievably, that's probably over average. We want to see more women enjoying the thrills and spills of the virtual track, and Esports in general. At SimBin we've achieved 50/50 gender balance in our studio workforce, so we thought we'd try to encourage more women to compete in our competitions too. We spoke to Marie-Claire Isaaman (CEO, Women in Games) and Dr. Jo Twist (CEO, Ukie), who both thought it was a great idea. Then we got positive feedback from some well-known car manufacturers and a host of great sponsors and advocates got on board. Everyone could see that Women and Wheels is all about doing good while feeling good. It's got high-octane racing fun, it's building a supportive environment for women to develop their racing skills and confidence, and it's donating to charity too. It's a real game changer."
Pressemeddelelsen fortæller om kønsbalancen i eSport, hvoraf det fremgår at omtrent 50% af gamere er kvinder, men at tallet falder til 15% for dem der ser eSport, og bare 5% for deltagende i eSport.
"Women and Wheels is a fantastic initiative. It's a shame we need women-only teams, leagues and competitions in Esports but until the sector fully matures, becomes more gender balanced and takes steps to eradicate online bullying and misogyny, they represent a great way to get more women involved by building communities, confidence and skills. It's not true that women aren't competitive, or that they don't like cars. The CEO of General Motors is currently a women, and the founder of Autoweek, Denise McCluggage, used to race Ferraris! Esports has great potential to level the playing field for women in competitive sport, and I think Women in Wheels is progressive step towards achieving that." ", fortæller Marie-Claire Isaaman, der er CEO for Women in Games.
Konkurrencen bliver gjort tilgængelig via Steam, og der er også præmier til vinderne, såsom træningsprogrammer, €3000 og meget mere.
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