Why Harassment And Abuse Won't Stop Annie Dro From Becoming A VALORANT Pro
On August 8, 2020, Annie “Annie Dro” Roberts became one of the first female players in the world to hit the Radiant rank in VALORANT. But, unlike her male counterparts who were met with praise when they achieved the FPS’ top rank, the response to Annie’s incredible achievement was very different.
While many supported her as one of few female players who managed to hit Radiant, others left sexist and transphobic comments under her initial announcement tweet.
“Technically you are a guy who thinks he is a girl so nah, it doesn’t count as first radiant girl”
“But you aren’t actually a girl”
“Carried”
“Ur a guy shut the f*ck up”
These were just some of many comments that Annie receives on a daily basis, and the slurs and abuse were something that partially contributed to her retiring from the Overwatch scene in December 2019. But now, armed with an ambition to become one of the best in VALORANT, Annie is staying resilient and using her platform to help create a safer and better environment for women and those of the LGBT community in gaming.
She responded to the harassment in a tweet:
I expect that at least on a daily basis that I'm going to be harassed by at least one person.
Alongside that, she also gave GGRecon some insight as to what life as a female LGBT gaming personality is like.
She said: "It's just the unfortunate reality of being not only a woman in gaming, but also LGBT and being openly LGBT. I don't really have the luxury of being able to just hide my status. I'm very open about it because I feel like it's important in getting acceptance and representation out there for people to feel comfortable, and not be pushed out of the gaming space - because we do deserve the space. If we got pushed out, that's exactly what they [the harrassers] want, and so the best way to not let them win is to definitely be open, and be proud, and be resilient - I think it's a big thing. I expect that at least on a daily basis that I'm going to be harassed by at least one person. It's just the unfortunate reality of being an internet personality.
"For the most part though at high ranks, I haven't really experienced too much harassment. I think it's a lot different at lower ranks where men, in particular, feel very insecure and kind of take it out on the other people around them. But I don't think there's been much targeted harassment towards me in the past week, which is nice. There are definitely a few cases where people have known about me and have called me like slurs like every single round. They call me slurs and then teabag me and stuff like that."
As a result of having to put up with targeted and frequent harassment, Annie has built up a great system to combat it and is an advocate for inclusivity and representation in gaming and esports.
She said: "I think having a good support group is important because there are people who will enjoy you. There are lots of men out there that would, in the most non-creepy way, love to have female people on the team. So acceptance is getting a lot better. You just have to find people and add them as a friend. If someone's actually not degrading towards you and is really friendly to you, just start building that and add them as a friend and just start building that support group of people that you can play with that aren't going to degrade you or going to be creepy towards you.
"There are lots of girls that are playing this game right now, which is really awesome. I think the more girls that play this game, the more women and gaming can be normalised, and it's not like a black sheep kind of deal when a girl talks in-game, and it's more just like, you know, normal."
I guess competitive girls at a high level are kind of hard to come by.
Annie is also one of the very few female players who's taken a step towards going pro in VALORANT. She's currently playing on an all-female roster under the team name "MAJKL". So far, no female teams have been invited or made it to top-level competition in VALORANT such as Riot's Ignition Series, but Annie is hoping she and her team can change that.
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She said: "One of our goals is to be that female team that can compete in tier one and not just play in the Ignition Series, but have the chance to win. We are grinding, we're all Immortal three and higher. There's a big chance that with the proper coaching and management in support of an org, that we can really show people that we deserve a spot in these tournaments.
"We all feel comfortable playing with each other, and we just want to build around that charisma. One of the things we talked about is, would we ever open it up to a mixed roster and kind of the general sentiment is "not really", but not because like we don't like men, but because we like each other, we just feel so comfortable with each other, and we can grow together.
"I think we will see more female teams, but as it is right now, I guess competitive girls at a high level are kind of hard to come by. I can only name probably a handful right now, but I think that'll change as we get more representation and as more girls play this game and really want to compete. I mean, there are a lot of girls that play this game just such as streamers, but they don't really have any plans to play 12 hours a day like we're currently doing. It takes a certain type of person to be able to do that. But they're out there, and I think as the years go on, we will see more female teams."
Images via Twitch
