Not one of the Fortnite World Cup's 100 finalists was a woman. Why? | Keith Stuart

The esports industry must attract female pro players to avoid replicating the sexism that blights other sports

This weekend the best Fortnite players in the world gathered at Flushing Meadows in New York to compete in the game's first ever World Cup Finals for $30m (24m) in prize money. Tens of thousands of spectators packed the famed Arthur Ashe stadium to watch the action live, and many millions more viewed on Twitch and YouTube. Fortnite is, after all, one of the biggest entertainment brands on the planet, played by hundreds of millions. Amid all the hype and fanfare around the finals, however, one depressing fact remained unavoidable: not a single one of the 100 finalists was female.

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. 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; Katherine "Mystik" Gunn is the industry's highest-paid female pro gamer and won the SyFy channel's reality TV show WCG Ultimate Gamer; and Fortnite has stars such as One_Shot_Gurl and Loeya. But you could watch a year of big tournaments, whether it's Call of Duty, League of Legends or Hearthstone, and count the number of female competitors on the fingers of one hand.