Dal launches its first female and gender鈥憂on鈥慶onforming varsity eSports team
Dal Pink is made up of students from various Dalhousie faculties who compete nationally in VALORANT鈥檚 Game Changers program.
Morgane Evans - Oct. 16, 2025
Zoe聽at TomorrowLAN in March 2025 at l'Universit茅 de Moncton
Dalhousie鈥檚 eSports Society (DeSS) has been around since the 2010s and has competitive teams for multiple games. But 2025 marks the first year it鈥檚 had a team specifically for women and gender-non-conforming players called Dal Pink.
Like any varsity sport, DeSS practices together, has a team jersey, and travels to tournaments to compete for money, prizes, and recognition. The games at these competitions range from League of Legends to Counter Strike to VALORANT and are offered in both professional and amateur settings.
However, eSports is still dominated by cisgender men. Women players only make up while just . Not only has this led to a lack of community for some players, but it has also created an expectation that all eSports players must be cisgender men.
鈥淧eople often assume that I'm a guy, which I think is funny,鈥� says Lauren, a Marine Biology student who joined DeSS two years ago. 鈥淭hey'll always assume you're a guy because you're playing a video game.鈥�
Launching Dal Pink
Although Lauren has never felt excluded in DeSS, she and other students wanted to create a women and non-binary team for years.
Zoe, a third-year Computer Science student, also saw the need for a team specifically for women and non-binary players. Inspired by VALORANT鈥橲 Game Changers program, which is an annual competition comprised of women and non-binary only teams, Zoe, Lauren, and others launched Dal Pink at DeSS this year to create a space for these players at Dalhousie.
The name, Zoe explains, refers to when she and other women were playing League of Legends with DeSS last year. On top of the two competitive teams (Dal Gold and Dal Black), there were three recreational teams. Their team chose the name Dal Pink, and the decided to keep it for the new Valorant team.
鈥淸I thought] it would be so cool to eventually have a Dal team compete in Game Changers,鈥� Zoe says. 鈥淚鈥檝e tried a few times to create a team, and this year we finally found enough players!鈥�
The DeSS executive team shared Zoe鈥檚 enthusiasm for Dal Pink鈥檚 creation. They too wanted to make the society more accessible for players across the university and host a space for women and non-binary students to play together.
鈥淭he goal is to try and further progress eSports at the collegiate level, where historically it's been extremely inaccessible for women and gender diverse players who would often avoid trying out due to harassment and disrespect from the community,鈥� explains Aidan, a Physics student and current president of DeSS.
Accessibility in gaming
Lauren recalls an uncomfortable experience she had earlier this year at Masters Toronto, a Toronto-based VALORANT tournament, when other players were ignoring her because she is a woman.
Lauren at TomorrowLAN in March 2025 at l'Universit茅 de Moncton (submitted photo).
Lauren hopes Dal Pink will offer a more supportive and inclusive environment for gaming, and Aidan hopes that Dal Pink will help players create lasting friendships with those from different backgrounds.
鈥淭he end goal of these teams is to introduce people to peers that they might not have met otherwise,鈥� he says. 鈥淸Being] on a team with four other people who all share the drive to compete and the love of the game makes it so much easier to make connections that can last years.鈥�
Dal Pink is just the beginning
The team has already created a community for many women and non-binary players to make those types of connections in DeSS.
As the team practices online, most players have not met in person. But Lauren says that is about to change. 鈥淲e're going to get together in person to have better team chemistry and get to know each other better. Just so we can perform better on the server and still have a lot of fun as friends,鈥� she says.
Although the team is small with just five players currently, Dal Pink and the DeSS executive are hoping the impact will be long-lasting.
鈥淒al Pink isn't a one-off team,鈥� Aidan says. 鈥淚f you want to play on a team with other women or gender-diverse students, there's a whole group of us on the server who will put in as much work as it takes to get another team like this off the ground.鈥�
For Zoe and Lauren, the two hope that they can strengthen their close-knit team and more women and non-binary students play.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been super nice to befriend fellow girlies in a gaming space that makes it so hard to find other girls,鈥� Zoe explains. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been able to grow as a team but also as friends! So it鈥檚 a really fun and positive environment with great energy.鈥�
鈥淗aving a Game Changer team is going to make more people join us and make it more aware that there are girls who want to play,鈥� Lauren agrees.
For more information about DeSS, visit their .