Too Good to be True

Last week a witch hunt pervaded the Hearthstone community. Like most witch hunts, it spawned from a baseless accusation: a top Hearthstone player is not who they say they are. This statement, which was little more than a rumor, quickly became accepted as fact as it spread across Hearthstone communities, especially on websites like Reddit and YouTube. Normally a rumor like this might get some buzz, but would probably either be largely ignored or forgotten before long. But this wasn’t normal and the community didn’t move on, because this particular rumor invalidated the fact that a female Hearthstone player just might be better than a lot of the boys.

Hyerim Lee, a South Korean Hearthstone player who goes by the handle “MagicAmy,” became popular for quickly rising up the Hearthstone ranks. After winning a competition, one Redditor, who claimed to be a teammate of Hyerim’s, posted that he suspected that she was not, in fact, Hyerim Lee, or even a woman at all, but rather a man using his ex-girlfriend to fool other players into thinking he was a female player. The poster admitted that what he was saying might be conjecture, but it wasn’t long before multiple people, the original poster included, came forward claiming they had “evidence” to prove these claims: the fact that MagicAmy hadn’t played on the Korean circuit despite being Korean, the fact that she rarely ran live video streams, the fact that she didn’t attend offline events. The predominant theory was that the man had his ex-girlfriend stream her face over the live webcam while he played the actual Hearthstone matches.

Things only got worse when MagicAmy announced that she had to drop out of a tournament because of complications with a visa. When another former teammate came forward claiming the same things, a good portion of the Hearthstone community’s attention was turned towards “debunking” her and collecting evidence that she was, in fact, a man. Even top ranked, professional players joined in the fray. I won’t get into all of the details of the “evidence” that was gathered to prove these claims as it’s quite drawn out and complex, but one particularly aggressive investigation found that there seemed to be some overlap with account names she used and a man named William Blaney. People then began to accuse her of not only being a man, but of being a pathological liar, a con artist, and worse.

The accusations only spiraled downward from there, and it got to be so bad that MagicAmy’s team, Tempo Storm, launched an official investigation, which seemed to find concrete evidence that MagicAmy is, in fact, Hyerim Lee:

“We believe that MagicAmy is one person and that Hyerim Lee is indeed who she claims to be. This is based on multiple eyewitness and firsthand testimonies claiming that they interacted with her individually without William Blaney, her ex-boyfriend seen in cached pictures sharing the same username. We went through great lengths to cross reference travel records, personal information, and testimonies of accounts from her recent past. The personal information she has given us, combined with her employment records with Lunarch Studios, relationships with players, and the fact that she has met people face-to-face is enough to confirm her identity. As a final point, we asked ourselves throughout the entire investigation ‘If she/he is a fraud, what is the end game?’ because eventually the MagicAmy persona would have had to show up at an offline event as Hearthstone/Tempo Storm continued to grow. It made no logical sense to move from her homegrown team, which collectively placed top 8 at BlizzCon, to work extremely hard with our organization to get results, then “dash” when she’s getting paid for the good work she’s done. That would be the worst con of all time.”

It seemed that the damage had already been done, however, as MagicAmy announced that she would be taking a leave from Hearthstone for an indeterminate amount of time. This wouldn’t be the first time the Hearthstone/MOBA communities have driven female players out. Hafu, a prominent Hearthstone player, was bullied so much that, although she continues to play online, does not attend tournaments any more. A brief Google search turns up numerous results of accusations of Hafu and other female Hearthstone streamers “whoring” themselves out for attention and donations, that Hafu is over-dramatic, that it’s her fault she continues to get bullied because of the (understandably) negative way she reacts to being bullied/attacked, and for not tolerating people sexualizing her. Clearly, there’s a deep rooted problem with sexism in these, and other gaming communities, that is making these communities intolerable for female players – particularly successful female players. But for the purpose of this post, I’d like to focus on MagicAmy/Hyerim Lee’s case in particular.

Although I obviously cannot say with absolutely certainty that MagicAmy is, in fact Hyerim Lee or even a woman (although it seems pretty likely at this point that she is), this whole situation seems to point to a conclusion that this was a case of spectators and other players alike finding it more feasible that MagicAmy was a man in disguise than a really good female Hearthstone player capable of beating (or at least placing on par with) some of the best Hearthstone players int he world. Once again this ties back to the fact that the gaming community just loves to question the legitimacy of female gamers. Would anyone ever accuse a top ranked male player as being a “fake storefront” for a player who was actually female? No, of course not, and it probably sounds ridiculous to even propose that scenario, because, unlike female players, a cis male player’s gender will never be called into question. After all, it is all too often that – and this is particularly true if you’re a good/successful/popular player – you are male until proven otherwise and, if female, a fake/attention seeker until proven otherwise as well.

MagicAmy was not accused of being a man in disguise out of a genuine concern that a player was falsely advertising themselves or being deceitful. I am of the firm belief that this was an effort eliminate any threats to the accusers’ masculinity (being beaten or having their idols beaten by a woman) or drive her out of the equation altogether. I really need only to point to the fact that these rumors turned quickly towards accusing her of being a pathological liar, a con artist, and a scammer to prove that point and tarnish her character. Until a female player is able to stand her own with her male counterparts without fear of being accused, doubted, or harassed for her gender, our communities – especially the Hearthstone communities it seems – have a long way to go.