Facepalm

I'm not on twitter, so I don't know all the details of the Magic Moonshot incident, but a friend explained the highlights to me the other day.

Halo Infinite has a deal set up with a independent community channel of casters called LVT. Halo/Microsoft/343 (however you choose it) doesn't care enough to cover the full spectrum of matches and play at their tournaments, so LVT is given access to cover that live feed and cast from the events. The only woman that was part of their team of casters goes by the name Magic Moonshot. Recently she set up a women's tournament (non-sanctioned and no prize pool) and went to the mats to exclude a transgender woman from the event. She would not budge and it comes out that instead of any skill gap or game knowledge issue, she just won't allow it for religious reasons. I had heard she spelled it out like a true frothing transphobic zealot, and it sparked a whole message from everyone in the community that #haloisforeveryone. She has refused to apologize or walk any of it back and as far as I know is now exiled from the channel and community.

So the only woman actually casting play by play halo matches during tournaments is now gone due to her own prejudice. Not everyone liked her commentary or personality but it was so important that she was there just to keep pushing toward greater inclusivity in the FPS game casting world. A real cutting off your nose to spite your own face moment.

The main stage desk host for Halo (Lottie) is a woman though. So while thankfully there's still some representation, it's not really the same thing. Hopefully Halo reads the room and gives a transgender person the opportunity to fill one of these roles in the near future. While the game is largely a toxic cesspool, it's important that everyone feels represented in the community and that people can see things through a unique perspective. I have little hope for that at the moment though with the abhorrent rise in anti-trans rhetoric and corporations trying to stay neutral enough to avoid criticism of having an opinion on it.

Fucking stupid country.