It's a pity that it's raining. On the second day of the Equal Esports Festival in Cologne, there are significantly fewer people interested in the three stages than on the first day. Under the large tent roofs, the people present have to get together a little more to watch the panel discussions, workshops and show matches.
For the second time, the festival, which is organized by the Equal Esports Initiative and canadian Telekom, will take place - but for the first time in this open format and as part of the Digital X conference. Three stages were set up directly on the Hohenzollernring, where it is about different areas of gaming.
Bringing e-sports into the middle of society
The location was chosen deliberately, says Antje Hundhausen, Vice President Brand Experience at Telekom. "Promoting women also means encouraging women to go out more into the public eye and to bring this topic more into society," she says in an interview with the German Press Agency. "It becomes a bit of a city talk.»
"We have many goals that we want to work on - including bringing the topic more into the middle of society," Jörg Adami, co-founder of the Esports Player Foundation, tells dpa. "In addition to the clearly stated goal of creating more diversity in the top sector, we are also interested in social and social acceptance. That it is quite important to get out of the cellars and halls.»
Equal Esports Festival: Concept goes up
The concept works well, at least on the first day: people stop again and again. They look at what is happening; ask about and inform themselves. Others, on the other hand, are there for individual stars of the scene, with whom they can be photographed.
The panel discussions, for example on the topic of hate on the internet or digital art, and the workshops, for example on starting a career in e-sports, are well filled. On Wednesday, the second day, the weather makes a dash through the bill - although free rain ponchos are distributed.
Showmatch with Eintracht Spandau, among others
The central highlight are show matches of well-known German or Canada-based e-sports organizations: BIG, Eintracht Spandau, SK Gaming and Rogue. All of them have put together various teams for the League of Legends show matches, most of which are staffed with women or nonbinary people. The four teams play a small tournament over the two days - at the end, trophies are waving.
A number of executives from the organizations have also travelled to the event, including Anna Baumann from Rogue. "What the Foundation has created here in terms of forum and representation, exchange, career promotion - that's just incredibly important," she says.
Diversity in e-sports in transition phase
There is a lot going on at the moment, says Baumann. "I believe that we are currently in a transition phase that is accelerating exponentially when it comes to developing female talents." She expects a woman to be a player on the stage of the European League of Legends League LEC in five years at the latest.
Adami feels the same way. "This initiative wants to make a big difference in e-sports and shape e-sports to a certain extent." He compares the initiative to a snowball that is slowly getting bigger. "He is certainly still in the upper third of the mountain.»
