Blizzard’s Bailey McCann Wants To Close The Esports Gender Gap

Like many now working in the video game industry, Bailey McCann considers herself a lifelong gamer, but, growing up, gaming was mostly just a fun hobby that spoke to her competitive side. It wasn’t until she got to college that she discovered the esports scene. A friend found out that she played Overwatch, invited her to join their University of Maryland esports team, and the rest is history. McCann fell in love with esports and soon started working with grassroots-level organizations on planning and hosting related events and competitions. 

The esports college experience left her with some of her favorite memories, and she can’t help but look back at it a little wistfully. “The year I went, me and my buddies placed like top 16 in Overwatch. That was like the highlight of our times—just a couple of pals getting together,” McCann, who is known online as “PizzaPenguin,” said during Thursday’s Refinery29 Twitch stream. “Now there’s a whole funded esports program, acceleration shop, they have a full program and a director. They have all this stuff, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s so cool. I wish I had that, but that’s so cool.’” 

While McCann, who now works as a project manager and product lead for Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch League, may have been specifically referring to her collegiate experience, there’s double meaning there. When she was coming up in the sports, the scene was overwhelmingly dominated by men; it wasn’t common to see marginalized genders competing at high levels. Now, as esports gains more backing at all levels, including at colleges and universities, people like McCann are driving the push to close the gender gap, carving ways for more diverse folks to access — and potentially find success on — the scene. This is something she’s actively doing as the lead on Overwatch's Calling All Heroes program, which is aimed at supporting marginalized genders and tackling the barriers that may prevent them from pursuing an esports career particularly in the Overwatch League.

“When I actually joined [Blizzard] a year and a half ago, this program was already kind of rolling — people were already talking about it and wanting to do something because the unfortunate reality is that gender equity in gaming is not the best. Our player base is not always representative of our esports base,” McCann said. “We want to have better gender diversity in our esports base because, at least for me — and I think a lot of other people can relate — when you see someone like yourself, you become so much more motivated. You’re like, ‘If they did, I can do it.’ That is so important, and does leaps and bounds. For me and the rest of my team, that has been the primary motivator, because when you see folks like yourself, you feel welcomed, you feel empowered, and you feel like you belong.”

It’s been about a year since Calling All Heroes was established, and McCann and the rest of the team can already see the impact it’s having, she told R29 Entertainment Director and Twitch host Melissah Yang during the stream, adding that Overwatch has seen almost a 300% increase among marginalized gender identities in the amateur player base since launch. Anecdotally, McCann is even seeing more interest in gaming from her teenage sister’s friend group — a huge shift in the landscape from when McCann was that age, and something she credits to big names in the industry making more effort to improve representation. And she doesn’t want to see this kind of changemaking stopped at the player pipeline either: McCann says the goal is to see better gender representation across all aspects of esports, from behind-the-scenes production to on-camera talent.

Although there is undeniably still a lot of work that needs to be done, McCann is feeling really optimistic about what the future holds. In her mind, there’s a clear sign of the great progress that has already been made. “I don’t think the community has ever been more supportive than it has been now. Each little step just helps pave the way,” she said. “It’s really cool to see how the dialogue has shifted. I’ve been involved in women and DE&I [diversity, equity, and inclusion] esports for a very long time, and a big thing before was always arguing why this was important. And I’d have to say, this is the year that I’ve had to argue that the least — and that’s a W.”