PMS Clan’s origin is one of a diverse group of women gamers who came together through shared experiences, competitive spirit, and a passion for belonging. Belonging to a group who understood us, creating a team we could compete with, and gaining acceptance in a world we didn’t quite feel welcomed in unless we were together.
While almost 20 years have passed and we’ve grown to a large community there still has not been a big enough shift in the openness and support for women players in competitive gaming. There is still harassment and a disproportionate gap in the number of women pro-am and professional players. This is even more critical for young girls, who will likely be deterred from ever exploring their potential due to the harassment and lack of support they will encounter. This is where we have the opportunity to make the most impact in the gaming space. We need to continue to develop and expand the awareness of our community, embracing and supporting the next generation so they have a place where they can share their passion and competitive spirit.
Over the last few years, the PMS Clan continues to be a community of players who have supported each other, but our competitive focus declined. Many of us, who were professional players and leaders, had opportunities to pursue careers in the gaming world or in other tech-related industries, which shifted our focus from driving competitive play. But we know competition is important for a community such as ours. It breeds leadership, commitment, passion and, most importantly, creates the role models we need to help combat the negative cultural and social influences.
Today, we are excited to announce that we’re actively building new initiatives that will help reignite our competitive focus in support of the next generation, while we continue to build a home for every gamer. We want more women and young girls to hear our message and have a safe place to share their passion and skills in competitive and casual gameplay.
To that end, we will be working towards these goals:
1. Expand the promotion of the CLAN COMMUNITY: Our goal is to increase our community and awareness by actively promoting PMS Clan and connecting with women players where they are playing. We’ll be doing this both online and at gaming industry events. Our next event is PAX West and you can find us in the diversity lounge. Read more about it here. Our Community’s goals continue to be to provide women and supportive allies a network and community that embraces everyone from the casual gamer to the professional player. This community is focused on inclusivity for all and we support every individual to pursue their passion and interests in gaming.
2. Launch a new set of COMPETITIVE PLAYERS AND TEAMS: Expand the support and create an environment for competitive players to play together and build their skills. We will be working to garner support for opportunities to put together players and teams for online ladders and tournaments. This includes all-female and co-ed groups. Our goal is to give women and young girls a place to share their gaming passions, have a sense of empowerment and support a “pro-women” environment to foster and build competitive gameplay and their skills.
3. Support PROFESSIONAL AND PRO-AM players and teams: Support and build all-female and coed pro-am players and teams to compete in esports tournaments. We will work to obtain sponsorship and create programs to build upon their skills. The ultimate goal is to enable and open opportunities for women gamers and women teams to enter professional leagues.
To support these goals, we ask those of you in the community, and the public at large, to help us spread the word and recruit more members to join us. We need members to relaunch and grow our game divisions, run small teams, bring in talent, lead community initiatives, and more. You can find open leader roles on our volunteer board. This is how we will cultivate more women gamers that will help equalize the competitive landscape and combat stereotypes that still exist to this day.
We can't succeed at normalizing women in competitive gaming without you.
- PMS Clan Leadership Team