“How many of y’all have ever heard the phrase, ‘Hey, you’re pretty good for a girl?'” The question came from Emily Sun, an esports event organizer and a co-founder of Smash Sisters, an advocacy group that works to support girls and women playing competitive Super Smash Brothers. She was one of four women in esports who spoke at a recent panel at Seattle’s GeekGirlCon. Pretty much everyone in the room raised their hand.

“A lot of it is grassroots. If you want to see something done, if you want to see a really cool event, if you want to see something happen, you have to make it happen for yourself,” she said. “Especially for women. We want to see a lot more women in gaming, so we created Smash Sisters to help bring them out and give them a competitive space,” she said.