Editorial: A Love Letter on the Importance of the Women in the Schmoedown

“We see it all the time, you know.  ‘Oh, there’s should be a woman’s league.’  There’s no woman’s league!  There’s no woman’s league.  We are the league.  We’re in the league.  And we’re the winners right now.” – Clarke Wolfe

The quote above was taken from the post-match interview right after the Shirewolves won the teams’ belts for the first time, making Rachel Cushing and Clarke Wolfe the first women to hold belts in the Movie Trivia Schmoedown.  Wolfe’s words have stuck with me ever since, and it feels right to start this editorial with them.

There has been a total of four women in the Schmoedown who have won a championship.  Cushing and Wolfe won the teams’ championship as the Shirewolves in August 2018.  Mara Knopic won the Innergeekdom championship just a few weeks later in September 2018, becoming the first woman to hold an individual belt.  Cushing won the Innergeekdom championship off Mike Kalinowski (who had beaten Knopic) the following year, and she became the first woman to hold two belts at the same time.  

But when it came to the singles division, it had been the domain of men.  Cushing and Wolfe both came close, each playing for the singles belt during a two-month stretch in 2018 but coming up short.  After their matches, there was a drought of women playing for the singles championship that lasted over three years.  But in September 2021, we finally had a woman play for the singles championship again.

And now we have Marisol McKee, the Movie Trivia Schmoedown singles champion of the world.

The fact that I can say that still puts a smile on my face.  The glass ceiling that existed in the singles division was finally broken by the woman known as Lady Justice.  Seeing McKee hold the belt in her hands meant more to me than I had been anticipating.  And while McKee deserves all the attention and praise that she’s been getting since the championship match aired, there are other women in the Schmoedown who deserve recognition as well.  Allow me to take a moment to list the female competitors and managers currently in the league.

• Shannon Barney (KOrruption)
• Mollie Damon (The Dungeon)
• Nicki Dimalanta (The Usual Suspects)
• Claudia Dolph (KOrruption)
• Paige Frabetti (The Usual Suspects)
• Haleigh Foutch (SWAG)
• Lacey Gilleran (The Den)
• Peggy Gubbins (The Den)
• Stacy Howard (The Stars)
• Jeannine the Machine (The Stars)
• Laura Kelly (SWAG)
• Jen Kempe (SWAG)
• Mara Knopic (The Dungeon)
• Beth May (The Quirky Mercs)
• Marisol McKee (KOrruption)
• Liz Shannon Miller (The Usual Suspects)
• Kate Mulligan (The Den)
• Perri Nemiroff (The Quirky Mercs)
• Sabrina Ramirez (The Quirky Mercs)
• Taylor Robinson (The Finstock Exchange)
• Jessica Schloth (The Den)
• Rachel Silvestrini (The Den)
• Roxy Striar (The Stars)
• Kim Taylor-Foster (The Finstock Exchange)
• Christy Vee (The Stars)
• VIDEODREW (The Dungeon)
• Klee Wiggins (KOrruption)
• Marie Wilson (The Usual Suspects)
• Britney Young (The Stars)

The fact that some of these women are bombarded with vitriol and hate on social media, especially if they either lose a big match or beat one of the men who the idiots who do this wanted to win, is horrific to me.  Social media can be a hard enough experience for a woman, so to have DMs or responses full of abusive language and threats can be terrifying and cause high anxiety and undue stress.  There are also the YouTube comments which can be even more hurtful than things said elsewhere.  These people hide behind the anonymity of screen names and the fact that they’re not face-to-face with the female competitor in question, and they say the absolute worst things they can think of. Some of the conversations that occur surrounding these women and their performances are abhorrent.  It is unfair to these women and I wish it would stop.

The path to the title that McKee went through ended with her beating Kevin Smith in a number one contenders match and then Ethan Erwin in the championship match, but to reach the number one contenders match, she had to beat both VIDEODREW and Jeannine.  Both of those matches were excellent, going down to the very end, but I took issue with the fact that McKee had to beat the two women just to get to a man.  I feel that the equality in the Schmoedown is at times unbalanced and that matches between two women are sometimes scheduled as opposed to giving the women a male opponent.  I can only speak for myself, but it can feel like pandering at times and I would like to see more matches where the female competitor takes on a man in an evenly matched contest.  Those matches are just as exciting as two women playing each other, at least to me, and then it’s not a matter of a woman taking out another woman on a path to get to play for the championship.

As a woman, I love to see fellow women succeed at things, especially when they are pitted against men.  That is not to say that I don’t appreciate the men who play the game because I do.  I think everyone who plays in the league should be applauded for their knowledge and for putting themselves out there.  But while I watched and enjoyed the Schmoedown, I didn’t really become as obsessed with it as I am until Cushing and Wolfe began to play.  The addition of players like Jeannine and VIDEODREW has helped continue my interest and obsession.  VIDEODREW has become my favorite player of all time because I relate to her character so much.

I was so excited for McKee to play in the championship match against such an accomplished player as Erwin.  I wanted to be at the Scum and Villany Cantina to watch in person so badly.  But I watched the PPV instead, and when McKee won, I’m not ashamed to say that there were tears rolling down my cheeks because her achievement meant so much to me.

There is no woman’s league and there never should be.  At the end of the day, the Schmoedown is a mental game, knowledge vs. knowledge, not a physical contest.  It’s about strategy and gameplay.  There is absolutely no reason to think that women are not just as capable as men are when it comes to these aspects.  The more the women succeed in the Schmoedown, the more successful I believe the league will become.  It shows off inclusivity and not division, that the Schmoedown is a place for everyone, and I believe that will attract more fans.  

I wish all the success in the world to the women who remain in the tournaments this season, and I hope that I see some of them competing in person when I attend Schmoedown Spectacular in December.  But even if I don’t, I will still celebrate the fact that there are so many capable women in the Schmoedown and continue to hope for the best for them all.  It might not lead to belts for all of them.  There might be struggles and there are guaranteed to be missed questions.  But I will be cheering them on and you should too.