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LRT about creating gender-separated spaces for a competitive activity, even if the competitive activity doesn't need to be gender-separated in the competitive format itself, is consistent with what i've seen working well in fighting games.
the presence of dudes, especially if they're the majority in a space, does a lot to set expectations on how people in that space relate to each other. those expectations won't necessarily fit everyone who wants to be in that space, and it can be pretty hard to change them.
as a real basic example, think about how many men generally default to shitting on each other as a way of demonstrating closeness, and then think about how that behavior is perceived by people who don't share that closeness -- it can be read as alienating and mean.
in FGs, the default attitude i see many young men adopt is one of combative competition; we're all here to get stronger by beating the crap out of each other, so let's sit here and mash games until we're exhausted. it takes a while to get ppl used to asking questions bc of this.
this approach is useful for cultivating thick skin and strong relationships, but it also discourages people who need to work up to that level of intensity and don't like staying in that zone for long. a healthy FG group balances the need for grit with cooperative behavior too.
it's also just a good idea to create more spaces that de-center men. i spent a lot of time in women-owned spaces in college, and it was definitely formative for young me to see how women interacted with each other outside of the male-dominated spaces i was used to.
this is why people who go off about how the fgc is too soft now are biting on a false dichotomy. there is no singular "FGC" with a defined space or tone. each local, group chat, crew, discord etc has different vibes. hard and soft are a function of ppl and direction.
pretty much everything i learned about leadership and community organizing came from the women i worked alongside and studied from in asian american student organizations. most of it was about building trust and getting people to connect to each other in ways that felt good.
