You wait, rifle in hand. An enemy appears. You kill him, and whoop for joy. Welcome to VALORANT, a popular video game that some people play professionally. This year the VALORANT Champions Tour, a series of contests that ends next month, will offer $1m in total prize money. Eighty players are competing; all are men.
你等待着，手里端着枪。敌人出现了。你将其击杀，并兴奋地喊了出来。欢迎来到无畏契约，这是一款拥有职业玩家的热门网络游戏。今年的无畏契约冠军巡回赛将于下个月结束，该比赛将提供总计100万美元的奖金。共有80名选手参加该赛事；所有选手均为男性。
Some 42% of gamers who watch e-sports (at least occasionally) are female, and women often commentate on tournaments. But of the 300 highest-earning e-sports players, not one is a woman.
在观看电竞比赛的玩家中，女性占比42%（至少是偶尔观看），而且女性观众经常会在比赛中发表评论。但在收入最高的300名电竞选手中，没有一个是女性。
Why so few women make it to the top is poorly understood. E-sports do not require physical strength. But they do require dedication, and the pool of avid female gamers is smaller than the pool of males.
为什么很少有女性能够成为电竞职业选手，人们对此知之甚少。电子竞技不需要体力，但也确实需要全身心投入，而且狂热的女性玩家比男性玩家要少。
It may be that girls are on average less keen than boys on video games, or have better things to do. Certainly, young males tend to play such games for longer hours than their sisters, which irks their parents but is essential if one wishes to turn pro.
这或许是因为，平均而言，女性对电子游戏的的兴趣要低于男性，或者说她们有更热爱的事情要做。当然，男孩子往往会比他们的姐妹花更多的时间玩此类游戏，这会让他们的父母很恼火，但如果一个人想成为职业选手，这是必不可少的。
Some women may find the culture uncongenial: amateur shoot-em-up gamers linked via headsets often shout obscenities at each other and the screen. Some female gamers face hazing.
一些女性可能会觉得这种文化不和谐：通过耳机联系在一起的业余射击游戏玩家经常对着对方和屏幕大声说着脏话。一些女性玩家还会遭受嘲弄。
All-female e-sports tournaments do exist, but are less competitive, less popular and less well rewarded. An all-female VALORANT tournament in September offered €20,000 ($23,000) in prize money. This is not much, but more than the players could have earned elsewhere.
全部由女性参加的电竞赛事确实存在，但竞技性、受欢迎程度和奖励都很低。今年9月，一场全女性无畏契约锦标赛提供了2万欧元（约合2.3万美元）的奖金。这个金额并不大，但比玩家在其他地方所能挣到的要多。
Some in the industry are trying to promote more female participation. G2 Esports, based in Berlin, recently announced its first-ever all-female team. David Beckham’s Guild franchise now includes Guild X, a team of five women.
一些业内人士正在努力推动更多女性参与电竞赛事。总部位于柏林的G2电子竞技俱乐部最近宣布成立有史以来的第一支全女性电竞战队。大卫·贝克汉姆的电竞俱乐部 Guild 如今也成立了一支全女性组成的电竞战队 Guild X。
They will enjoy the same tournament preparation as male players, to help them compete at a higher level. Klaudia “Cinnamon” Beczkiewicz, the captain, says: “It’s like we have a family...that believes in us.” Whether that is enough to transform e-sports remains to be seen.
她们将享受与男性选手相同的赛前准备，以帮助她们在更高水平上竞争。队长“肉桂”克劳迪娅·贝兹凯维奇说：“这就好比我们拥有了一个相信我们的家庭。”但这是否足以改变现状还有待观察。
重难点词汇：
commentate [ˈkɑːmənteɪt] v. 评论；解说；注释 dedication [ˌdedɪˈkeɪʃn] n. 献身，奉献；献辞
uncongenial [ˌʌnkənˈdʒiːniəl] adj. 志趣不相投的；不相宜的 obscenity [əbˈsenəti] n. 下流话；脏话
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