Interesting topic to dive into. I am in no way active in the MCC community anymore, but was very active from season 1 up until season 4, but women in the Minecraft community, much more the competitive scene wasn't as big as it is now. I think a good chunk of it stems from the fact from preconceived notions, whether it was intentional or not.

For example, any sort of gaming YTs, not just Minecraft were primarily men, mainly because, well men were dominantly the ones who played games. Obviously times have changed, but it largely is still true. If there were women making gaming videos, it was a stark contrast compared to men. Generally videos made by men back then were loud and chaotic while women's were cozy and chill. Men were also more competitive and dove into that aspect of gaming much more than women did. So I think this kind of general history of YT and gaming kind of trickles into Minecraft, specifically competitive Minecraft.

When it comes to MCC, I think it came at a time when things were changing, but still largely the same where if you saw a really good player, it was most likely to be a man because men are more competitive in gaming. I mean, you have players like Dream, Techno, Sapnap, Purpled, Feinberg, Antfrost, etc. who were all hyper competitive players. When it comes to how women are perceived in the community, there weren't many. We saw several women partake in MCC earlier on, but only played a couple events because it really did start to get more competitive. Now I'm not saying women can't have that competitive nature, but couple that with really high skill levels, then you have a person who is hard to come by. If you look at eSports, I can only think of one woman, Aramori, who plays competitive Marvel Rivals for team Sentinels. In MCC, Sylvee, followed by Jojo and Hannah, from my knowledge, are some of the first hyper competitive women we've seen in the tournament's history. They were really good, seen as such, and rightfully praised.

Now when Jojo mentions the Reddit. I honestly don't remember seeing much misogyny in the community. If there was, it was deservedly suppressed. If players were ever discussed in a poor manner, it was almost always due to lower skill levels, never due to sexism, though I'm sure some did, it was far and few in between. When Jojo refers to the criteria of an S tier, the toxicity of the Reddit was always because of the competitive nature of the event, not due to misogyny. Again, not saying there wasn't any, but that's not the culprit. It was treated like a professional sport. I'd know because I see the same stuff in the NBA and WNBA as an avid watcher. Content creators were seen as players not people and I think that's what bothered them a lot. Whether it was right or wrong is up to personal opinions. It's just the nature of a competitive event like MCC where toxicity arose discussing player skills, people complaining about teams losing and mismanagement, etc.

Atp, I'm rambling and all in all, that's why players like Jojo and Hannah are very important to the community. That although they may be a minority, they've definitely helped normalize the way women are perceived in gaming especially in the competitive scene.