Women and players of other marginalized genders going pro in Apex Legends have often run into many of the same pitfalls: lack of consistent tournaments to give them opportunities to play, varying degrees of quality, and teams spread across multiple regions. The Oversight Women’s Series aims to change all that.
Announced today by Oversight, the new tournament series is another brainchild of minustempo and Chrono, who also announced a revamped Oversight Pro Series earlier this week. The Oversight Women’s Series aims to give the women’s comp community their own ALGS-style competition: 30 teams spread across three groups will compete in a triple round robin, with one matchday per week. At the end of the nine-week group stage, the top 20 teams in points from this round robin qualify for the final stage with a $10,000 prize pool up for grabs.
And the best part for these teams? It doesn’t matter where any of their players are playing from.
“It’s unrealistic for them to play in ALGS because I’d say about 90 percent of the teams are mixed,” minustempo told Dot Esports when talking about the desire to create a Women’s Series. ALGS rules prohibit players from playing in a different region from where they’re located, which has created headaches for some pro teams trying to change regions, such as Moist Esports’ visa troubles while trying to relocate its Aussie players to the U.S. “The women’s scene is already small as it is,” minustempo noted. “So being able to find two teammates that you can play with that are also in your region is going to be difficult as hell.”
In the past, this has meant many women’s teams that have tried to play and grow together had to split time between women’s tournaments with less-strict region lock rules, and finding different teams to try to qualify for ALGS. Compounding this issue are new players looking to build experience in the competitive scene, who receive the knock-on effects of teams having frequent roster swaps and spotty practice as a result.
In December 2022, minustempo talked to Dot Esports about many of these same struggles the women’s scene faces, and how the women’s comp players “just don’t have enough top-tier practice.” Now, a year and a half later, Oversight is ready to fill that void.
Just like the previously announced Pro Series, the Oversight Women’s Series is funding itself, meaning they aren’t depending on sponsorship dollars to keep the tournament running. The Women’s Series will also be broadcast by NiceWigg, the same as the Pro Series and once again putting a spotlight on an underserved portion of the competitive Apex community.
The Oversight Women’s Series will kick off on April 11 and run until June 20.
