Dota Valkyries Interview Recap

Bryony-Hope

5 min read | 13 May 2021

We recently spoke with the founders of the Dota Valkyries, Emma and Ruby, to learn more about what they are doing for women in the Dota scene.

You can check out the full interview on our YouTube channel, or check out the highlights below!

The Dota Valkyries are an organisation that works to support women involved in the Dota 2 esports scene. They work with women from all levels of play, but their main focus is to help individuals get to the highest tier of play. In the Dota pro scene, there is a clear lack of females at the top tiers of play, but Emma and Ruby are determined to change that over the coming years.

Whilst there is a focus on professional players, the Dota Valkyries are also determined to get involved from the grassroots level.

Emma is mainly involved in the community aspect of the organisation, whereas Ruby takes on the esports side. 
As with any esports title, toxicity is something that occurs within the Dota 2 community – and it is not easy to combat.

But, the Dota community is very well established, so toxicity and unforgiving behaviour is never going to be completely erased.

The Dota Valkyries want to support women in the community, and create a safe space for them to play without toxicity. Even though the Valkyries have not been around for long, the work they have done so far in the community has been incredible.

They initially thought they were going to get some backlash from their work, but this has not been the case for Emma and Ruby.

Ruby said: “The voice for us has always been louder than the voice against us, which is really nice to see.”One of the main aims for the organisation is to be able to increase the number of women in the pro scene of Dota, and to give them the same opportunities as male players.

Emma said: “We try our best to explain that we will keep all-female teams and pushing that agenda, and we are ideally looking for esports to be a 50-50 split if we can.”

In the industry, there are more and more female-only tournaments taking place as a way to encourage women to compete in esports.

They provide experience for women to get a feel for the competitive side of a title, but also to continue building up a community of like-minded individuals. The Valkyries are very open about their processes, especially in getting people involved with the organisation.

Any women that are interested in developing their skills and climbing the Dota competitive ladder can get in contact with the Valkyries and see where they can go!

Although the organisation was created in the UK, Emma and Ruby aim to be able to expand the community worldwide.

At the moment European Dota is the main focus, but the Valkyries plan to reach out to other female ambassadors across the globe to spread their positivity around the organisation.

The Valkyries are one of many organisations in esports aiming to promote inclusivity, and hope they can inspire many others to get involved too!

The full interview with Emma and Ruby is available below, and you can check out the Dota Valkyries on Twitter, and on their community Discord server.

Looking for more Women in Esports content? Visit our hub for more interviews and information about the initiative! 

You can also join the Women in Esports Discord server to join our lovely community.