A Better Question Is 'Who Cares?'...

Despite the growing popularity of professional gaming throughout the world – the audience figures for competitive gaming have reached 450m this year – female competitors remain scarce.

*shrugs*

There certainly are high-profile examples of female pros – trans woman Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn is one of the most successful Starcraft II players in the world...

I rather think you've just devalued your argument there, Keith...

...figures collected by Nielsen suggest that almost a quarter of the pro gaming audience is female, and in some parts of the world it’s much higher. So why aren’t we seeing that reflected in the Fortnite World Cup?

Because watching isn't the same as doing? But maybe there were reasons for it - barriers women couldn't...

Oh!

The easy answer is because no women qualified. The heats were entirely open and held online over 10 weeks – more than 40m players competed with no restrictions on age or gender.

Keith's convinced it's the 'toxic atmosphere' and 'hostility to females' that the males are guilty of (which you'd think would be evident to the watching female audience too)....

And because 'diversity' is all, this must change! Keith said so!

Though esports revenues are set to hit $1bn this year, it remains a young and immature industry. Working out best practices in terms of encouraging gender diversity is a challenge that will affect every publisher and event organiser in the world over the coming years...

They are making millions, and - presumably - will still make millions even if women don't compete. Why should they feel a need to 'tackle this'..?