Xiaomeng "VKLiooon" Li, the first woman to win a Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals esports tournament, wants her fans to know that their gender does not matter - as long as they're willing to compete.

After the final match that won her the title of Grandmasters Global Champion, she spoke through a translator about her encounter with a man at signups for a big tournament two years earlier, who told her she "should not wait in line here" as it is "not for girls."

"And now, today, I'm here, with all the support from the fans," the translator continued to applause from the audience, while Li stands next to her with tears in her eyes. "So, I want to say to all the girls out there who have a dream for esports, for competition, for glory: if you wanna do it, and you believe in yourself, you should just forget your gender and go for it."

VKLiooon's victory was a clean sweep: she defeated Brian "bloodyface" Eason with 3-0. Along with being the first woman ever to win this competition -- or any major Hearthstone tournament -- she is also the first Chinese player to do so. This means she takes home the grand prize of $200,000, while bloodyface claims the runner-up prize of $100,000.

Before this victory on Saturday, VKLiooon became the first woman in China to win Season 1 of the country's Golden series, which secured her the ticket to the finals in Anaheim. Her plan to try and play Hearthstone professionally paid off, she said at a news conference after her win. She did not enjoy studying law at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, so she gave herself a year to try her hand at the popular card game. The clip of her moving speech, uploaded by PlayHearthstone, already has more than 170,000 views as of the time of writing.

via Blizzard

Invoking the word "feminism" in the gaming world often has a very divisive effect. In a Reddit post, the comments are almost split down the middle: while user u/Mahazzel maintains that, "[...] while her success probably helps inspire a lot of women to go into esports, they shouldn't have to face these additional hardships in the first place," some others are ridiculing bloodyface for "losing to a girl."

But one of the biggest takeaways by many is what VKLiooon presumably wanted to say in the first place: there is no reason why video games in general should be gender-exclusive. There are many comments on the full-length video of the event that praise VKLiooon, but also those that claim the finals were rigged, or make fun of her crying on stage after receiving her trophy.

It would seem that women still have a way to go until they are not ridiculed and belittled for their interest in gaming - and until fans of their rivals don't use their gender as an explanation for (perceived) lack of skill. Skill, or lack thereof, is hardly contained to one gender.

After all, when we lose, we're all considered noobs equally.

Next: Blizzard's New Take On Autobattlers