Meet Caltys: The female pro looking to make her mark on League esports Twitter: @CaltyssMaya \u2018Caltys\u2019 Henckel isn\u2019t the first woman to play in the European Regional Leagues (ERL) system. But she wants to be the best. The ERLs have been praised across the globe for their ability to help young aspiring pros find their footing in the world of League of Legends. It\u2019s considered by many to be the proving grounds for those looking to secure starting spots in the LEC, Europe\u2019s showpiece League competition. It\u2019s also, much like the rest of the League of Legends ecosystem, a male-dominated field. There have been a few female competitors in the regional leagues \u2013 most notably Adina \u2018Shafu\u2019 Hiner, who competed in the Esports Balkan League (EBL) as the starting support for Team Neurotec. But even when taking those examples into consideration, the track record of female players isn\u2019t the best. Caltys is looking to change that. The path to the ERLs The Swedish AD Carry has been around in the scene since 2019, when she started her competitive career in the Women\u2019s Esports League with Out of the Blue, off-roling as a jungler. The team ended up winning the league\u2019s inaugural season. That same year, she also competed in La Ligue F\u00e9minine\u2019s second split with Out Of the Blue, but this time in her primary role as AD Carry. The team placed second in the split, and went on to win the league in summer. They also attended the 2019 GIRLGAMER Esports festival in Dubai, claiming a quick 3-0 victory in the final against Grow uP Girls EU. She\u2019s played on both women\u2019s and mixed-gender teams during her time in the scene, and she\u2019s played in promotional tournaments for both the LVP and the Prime League. Both times, her team failed to qualify for the main tournament. At the start of 2022, she finally got one step closer to achieving that goal, joining EBL team Valiance as their starting AD Carry for the Spring Split. This is her first experience in a tournament with direct qualification to EU Masters, and she\u2019s more than ready for the challenges she\u2019ll face. \u201cMy ultimate goal has always been to play with the best,\u201d she told Dexerto, \u201cand my eyes are of course set on the LEC but I know that even if I achieved that goal I\u2019d still want to go for more.\u201d https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealValiance\/status\/1482761466793144320 Rising through the ranks in Europe\u2019s competitive scene Her competitive drive is something that her coach, Josef Kolisang, picked up on almost instantly when he first started working with Caltys through the Esports Player Foundation (EPF). The EPF is a German non-profit that helps develop esports talent to compete at the highest level and provides support programs to young players balancing school, university, and work with a pathway to an esports career. In his role as coach, Josef provides one-to-one support to prospective pros like Caltys. He was also the official coach for SK Gaming\u2019s Project Avarosa, a program to help high-level female and non-binary League players experience a competitive environment and provide them with the tools needed to find success in esports. Today we had the pleasure of hosting @LaureBuliiV as she joined our #ProjectAvarosa bootcamp for the day! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, we hope to see you again soon! \ud83d\udc95#RUNSKG #EqualEsports pic.twitter.com\/LyNOkazuLN \u2014 SK Gaming (@SKGaming) November 19, 2021 \u201cShe was one of the first three applicants for the EPF\u2019s mentorship program\u201d he explained. \u201cWhat I saw in her was that she\u2019s a very eager person who really, really wants to improve.\u201d She picked up League when she was 12 years old on a recommendation from her older sister, and her love of the game began while playing socially with classmates. However, she dreamt of going pro from very early on in her playing career, and a trip to the 2015 EU LCS finals in Stockholm solidified that dream. \u201cI knew that was what I wanted to do one day,\u201d she told Dexerto. \u201cMy only regret is that I didn\u2019t start working towards it sooner.\u201d She found success in Europe\u2019s women\u2019s scene, but unfortunately, she explained, \u201cmixed teams don\u2019t consider experience with female-only teams valuable.\u201d The next goal was, of course, to start playing on mixed teams, but finding those starting spots presented its own challenge. https:\/\/twitter.com\/Caltyss\/status\/1473628442088419332?s=20 Josef explained that he \u201cwent to 12 managers and coaches and begged them to give her a tryout, not even a starting spot. And so many of them just refused.\u201d The debate over the value of women\u2019s-only teams came to a head earlier this year after the announcement of a women\u2019s-only CS:GO circuit run by ESL. It\u2019s a hotly debated subject in esports as to whether these events help or hinder the participation of women in gaming. And unfortunately, it\u2019s a topic that doesn\u2019t yet have a clear answer. Caltys explains that her time on female-only teams at the start of her career helped to \u201cdevelop her as a player and as a person\u201d, but that ultimately it \u201cdidn\u2019t help me get any offers\u201d when looking to try out for mixed teams. Joining Valiance and the road to EU Masters Joining Valiance in the EBL is her first opportunity to qualify for Europe\u2019s premier League of Legends tournament, and she\u2019s not taking it for granted. She found out about the team through coach Louis \u2018Smeag\u2019 Green, whom she had met while attempting to qualify for the LVP under a team not supported by an official esports organization. Although she failed to qualify with that roster, Smeag saw promise in her after multiple vouches and VOD reviews, and offered her a spot on the Valiance roster. https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealValiance\/status\/1483153852950061059?s=20 Valiance currently have a 1-1 record in the EBL after beating Nexus KTRL and losing to Crvena zvezda Esports. Although Caltys believes in the individual performance of her teammates, she\u2019s quick to assert that \u201cLeague of Legends is a team game, and we definitely have a lot to work on.\u201d The ultimate goal is to qualify for EU Masters, but in her work with the EPF she\u2019s found the importance of setting shorter-term goals too. \u201cI set up goals for myself every season, mainly around solo queue rank,\u201d she explained. \u201cI think it\u2019s especially important that I maintain a high rank since it\u2019s the easiest way to \u2018prove\u2019 I\u2019m good enough.\u201d She\u2019s got a lot more to prove than some of her male counterparts, simply because so much of her past experience has come from a background that isn\u2019t respected or appreciated by teams in League\u2019s ecosystem. The burden of proof And it will be a hard road to prove herself. As one of only a handful of female players to ever compete at Europe\u2019s highest levels, she will have to overcome significantly different barriers to the majority of ERL players. Josef told Dexerto that the EPF offers psychological coaching and support alongside in-game coaching, and that they are working to prepare Caltys for the adversities she may face. She herself explained that \u201conce you get into a team, the biggest concern is harassment,\u201d and she has spoken out on Twitter about the abuse she\u2019s faced in the competitive scene. I’ve had to deal with a lot of shit but enemy players throwing slurs at me during official matches is something new and it’s just sad. \u2014 G2 Caltys (@Caltyss) December 4, 2021 But it would be reductive to boil her experience as a player down to the hardships she may come up against. The experience of a female pro cannot be simplified down to only the harassment and institutional sexism that they will potentially face. She has proven time and time again that she is ready for whatever the world of esports can throw at her, in-game and out. \u201cI\u2019m happy as long as I\u2019m able to compete,\u201d she said. Coach Josef also highlighted how damaging this tokenism and reductive attitude can be in esports, especially for female pros. \u201cI don\u2019t want her to be the token player for people to go \u2018See! If you work hard enough you can do it!\u2019 because that is bulls**t.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s not the case that there aren\u2019t enough female players who are willing to try, it\u2019s that the organizations need to be more welcoming and more willing to change their infrastructure to allow women to compete.\u201d It\u2019s impossible to say whether this is the start of a radical shift in esports, and it\u2019s unfair to put the burden of proof of women\u2019s value as competitors on one player who is just trying to achieve a lifelong goal. Caltys is not every woman in esports: she is herself, and right now, she\u2019s looking to make her mark on the EBL with Valiance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet Caltys: The female pro looking to make her mark on League esports Twitter: @CaltyssMaya \u2018Caltys\u2019 Henckel isn\u2019t the first woman to play in the European Regional Leagues (ERL) system. But she wants to be the best. The ERLs have been praised across the globe for their ability to help young aspiring pros find their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}