In Street Fighter 2 Chun Li referred to herself as the strongest woman in the world. We took her word for it since she was outnumbered by men 11 to one.  But what do you do when the same ratio exists for the people playing her game seriously?

When the Evolution Championship Series  announced their featured tournaments for 2010, the titles for the biggest fighting-game tournament in the U.S. weren’t a surprise:  Super Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6, and other games from the two-year surplus of fighters. What wasn’t expected at EVO 2010 was a SSF4 women’s invitational tournament, a competition open to all female players who enter the main tourney.  It's no secret that most competitive players are male, and an all-girl tournament could be the key to breaking up this all-boys club.  While there isn't anything keeping a woman from performing combos as well as a man, this format could be an icebreaker for female players who want to get into competitive gaming.

Competition can be intimidating, even when you're in the majority.  This is especially true as fighting game tournaments are different from other video game competitions.  Most tournaments are independent from big organizations like Major League Gaming. There are no official teams, and the online modes of most fighters still can't replace playing in person.

There also aren't female gaming groups in the fighting game community who can help aspiring pros or organize teams like the PMS Clan or Team Foxy do for First Person Shooter teams. A women's tournament may seem condescending, but it could accelerate the changes necessary to make the community more open. 

So who cares about a bunch of girls playing in the tournament's Las Vegas venue? Fighting games grow thanks to exciting matches that make people want to get better and support the community.  They're built on hype.  Hype is strong enough to keep Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 alive back when the closest port to the arcade version was on the Sega Dreamcast.  Hype is strong enough to give the import-only Melty Blood a devoted following in the U.S.  If the invitational generates hype, the passion is there to build on that success.

Live streams of tournaments on Ustream and Justin.tv are so prevalent that Street Fighter 4 competitions can be seen every week.  Giving women their own spotlight that other women can tune into would attract more players than waiting for a Cinderella to reach the top of EVO's brackets.

Then there’s the timing.  In 2006 Mario Kart DS was an EVO featured tournament.  In 2009 EVO's Street Fighter 4 tournament had over a thousand entrants.  Fighting games are riding a wave of popularity they haven’t seen since the coin-op era, so why not use the biggest game of the biggest tournament in the country to expand the community?   EVO's organizers know what they're doing and won't let the invitational turn into a sideshow.