'Dota 2' tournament ended with a weird, creepy video called 'Girls of Kiev'
After the closing of the Dota 2 Kiev Major yesterday, European team OG hoisted its trophy in victory and confetti streamed down. Host Paul "Redeye" Chaloner gave his final thoughts and thank yous to the production, the fans, and the beautiful esport of Dota. And then, the stream cut to a very weird video.
Tournament organizer PGL added a bizarre stinger at the end of its broadcast of the Dota 2 Kiev Major called "Girls of Kiev" -- a video compilation of women in attendance at the tournament. It's clear some were aware that they were being filmed, but most of the other women in the crowd were caught off guard.
PGL uploaded the video to YouTube with no description. It's kind of creepy.
UPDATE: May 2, 2017, 9:28 a.m. EDT Hours after this article was published, PGL removed the "Girls of Kiev" video from YouTube without saying anything. Here is a re-upload of the same video, just with different music and lower quality visuals.
Viewers, fans, and people involved with the competitive Dota 2 scene responded to the video on Twitter. Evil Geniuses' Dota 2 manager Phillip Aram seemed to be in disbelief, calling the video a "perv super cut."
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LeafyPeachy -- a Dota 2 fan and manager of an organization called Desoladies that helps create a welcoming, supportive environment for women in the Dota 2 scene -- wrote a long response to the "Girls of Kiev" video and posted it on Twitter.
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"While I truly hope that this video was put out with good intentions, I am having a lot of trouble discerning the actual motive behind this compilation," she wrote.
Perhaps the video was meant to highlight women in the Dota 2 community and show that, yes, they do exist, LeafyPeachy said. Or maybe they were just pandering to the males in the audience, as exemplified by this tweet from on-air interviewer Jake "SirActionsSlacks" Krenner:
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Of course, without any description or text on the video in question, there's no way to know the intention behind the video. PGL did not respond to our question regarding the intention of the video.
This lack of context meant people had to draw their own conclusions -- conclusions that are easily justified.
"The fact that PGL specifically went around getting footage of women watching the games, eating, or just chilling in their seat without any indication that they were okay with being the main subject of filming or being aware of this was extremely creepy and objectifying of these ladies," LeafyPeachy wrote. "We don't know if the PGL staff asked if these women wanted to be featured and they said yes, but it seemed like more of a stalker cam than anything else."
Lawliepop, another Dota fan who is the co-founder and product director of statistics site Dota Buff noted how creepy the video is.
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Rather than celebrating the women in the Dota scene with any kind of tangible highlight reel -- you know, interviews, showcasing their involvement in the community, anything -- the video feels superficial. Even if they were at the very least asked if they were ok with being shown off on the big tournament screens, this kind of video doesn't actually service the community of women who play and view Dota. It only functions to separate them from the male portion of the audience.
Don't do that.
"Yes, representation is important, but being put on as an after-show for the Major is not the way to do it," she wrote. "All this does is draw a line between us and the rest of the Dota community, and encouraging these toxic attitudes of treating/viewing women differently than the rest of the Dota community. If you wanted to normalize the existence of women then just include them in with the rest of the fans, don't make a women-exclusive video."
