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Just a pretty face? Female ML talents bare lingering industry challenges

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Angela Coloma, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Chantelle Hernandez. Courtesy: Chantelle Hernandez. " src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/sports/03/25/chantelle-1.jpg"/><figcaption>Chantelle Hernandez. Courtesy: Chantelle Hernandez. </figcaption></figure></div>MANILA - Mobile Legends: Bang Bang shoutcaster Chantelle Hernandez had to face a barrage of hate comments when she started casting in the Philippines&#x27; biggest ML esports stage. As the first woman in the casting table of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League, she often felt like she had to perform right to avoid sexist comments. &quot;Mahirap siya kasi laging parang may stigma, [na] pag sinabing babae may norm na ito ka, ito lang ang kaya mo gawin. So everything is questioned dahil sa gender mo. Lalong lalo na sa esports,&quot; Chantelle said in a roundtable discussion ahead of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League matches last Sunday. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Development league host Brigitte &quot;Brigida&quot; Ramos shared that as a woman in a high-level machismo industry such as esports, she often felt the need to prove herself: &quot;When I started dito na-feel ko yung presence ng never-ending cycle of the thoughts of presence of the need to prove themselves in this industry.&quot; After adding former PBA Courtside reporter Mara Aquino as the league&#x27;s host and Chantelle as the first female caster, MPL Philippines decided to add more women into their talent pool -- Brigida and Claudine &quot;Odin&quot; Tayco (who bared she auditioned for Darna in 2019). Artist Kimberly &quot;BurgerKim&quot; Mas, is also a constant part of the ML:BB scene&#x27;s talent pool, having conducted the English cast of MPL Cambodia from her home, as an English commentator in MPL Malaysia Season 10, and is a steady presence in analyzing women&#x27;s tournaments. &quot;I feel like everyone thinks I&#x27;m just a pretty face or she doesn&#x27;t know much about Mobile Legends so parang there&#x27;s that constant need to tell them na &#x27;di kaya&#x27;,&quot; BurgerKim shared. &quot;So there&#x27;s always that, but it&#x27;s nice to have fellow women to help you out and siyempre they are your strength whenever there&#x27;s a broadcast,&quot; she added. The presence of more female talents, for Brigida, &quot;slowly starts to change the stigma and starts to take the notion na &#x27;pag may nakita babae may backlash agad.&quot; For Aquino, who carried years of sports broadcasting experience with her when she entered esports, said she didn&#x27;t feel the need to compensate, as one of the pacemakers in the ML:BB talent pool. &quot;You find out what they need and you give it to them. And be successful. That&#x27;s why inventions started, that&#x27;s why roles are filled. So when I started in MPL, with a broadcast background I asked them &#x27;What do they need?&#x27; and that&#x27;s what I give. Tips on broadcasting and hosting and such, and they didn&#x27;t have a host that&#x27;s more traditional in terms of like events, TV shows, and sports. So in terms of overcompensating, I never felt that because I knew what I could offer,&quot; she explained.Odin, who is the first female courtside reporter since the concept was introduced in MPL Season 11, agreed. &quot;HIndi ko naramdaman na there&#x27;s a competition na I have to be better than someone kasi kinuha ako kasi may maio-offer ako sa table na hindi parang sa kanila.&quot; &quot;Hindi ko tinitingnan na &#x27;oh I have to be better than him or her&#x27;.&quot; <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt=" Mara Aquino talks to Bren Esports. Courtesy: MPL Philippines" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/sports/03/25/mara-1.jpg"/><figcaption>Mara Aquino talks to Bren Esports. Courtesy: MPL Philippines</figcaption></figure></div><div>The history of female ML talents in the Philippines </div>Aquino, packed with a background on courtside reporting in mainstream sports, was one of the first-ever prominent female talents in ML:BB, if not Philippine esports. Chantelle, who first casted in MPL Season 4 and returned in MPL Season 9, is the league&#x27;s first female esports caster, with Odin, Brigida, and BurgerKim rising onwards.For Aquino, known to bring glamour into every intro of the local professional league&#x27;s games with her onstage fashion, the presence of female ML:BB talents is something the Philippines started. &quot;Sometimes it&#x27;s nice na if there&#x27;s no path yet, you make a new path where there&#x27;s no path and then you lead the trail... And now we see that the other regions are catching up, the Philippines started it,&quot; Aquino said. Other notable female ML:BB talents globally include analyst/casters Rachael &quot;Aeterna&quot; Melati and Monica &quot;Momochan&quot; Mariska of Indonesia, and Singaporean Mae &quot;ScrubbyCheeks&quot; Wong. This year, Malaysian-based Pinay streamer Rose shocked the crowd when she addressed Pinoy coach Dale &quot;Dale&quot; Vitug in Tagalog, on her very first day as MPL Malaysia&#x27;s host. On the other side of the world, Argentinian Barbara &quot;Secretaria&quot; Gottardo coached Latin American M4 World Championship team S11 Gaming. This begs the question: are professional Filipino teams ready to take in a female coach? &quot;The players are young. tapos imi-mix mo sila sa bootcamp na wala kayong makikita kung &#x27;di ang isa&#x27;t isa, and there is one female in there, that could be challenging,&quot; Aquino said. For Chantelle, it will take a long time to consider the idea as the esports ecosystem continues to develop. &quot;Ngayon pa lang tayo nagkakaroon ng sistema -- broadcasting, management in terms of production pero hindi siya imposibleng mangyari. Kasi the mere fact that there are these questions kino-consider natin siya as an idea.&quot; <figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2509271" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

'I feel like everyone thinks I'm just a pretty face or she doesn't know much about Mobile Legends so parang there's that constant need to tell them na 'di kaya'.'

Just a pretty face? Female ML talents bare lingering industry challenges

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Just a pretty face? Female ML talents bare lingering industry challenges

Angela Coloma,

ABS-CBN News

Published Mar 25, 2023 03:25 PM PHT

Read More:

Brigida

Odin

Chantelle

ML:BB

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

International Women's Month

Amazing Women

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