Furious streamers slam Minecraft ‘Pride Month’ tournament that mainly features cishet white men
Minecraft tournament MC Championship is launching a special Pride Month event, but many have criticised the organisers for a lack of diversity.
The Minecraft Pride Championship 2021 will see various teams competing across a number of different minigames, all live streamed on both the official Noxcrew stream and the participating streamers.
So far 11 teams of four have been announced on the Twitter account, mixing regular Minecraft players with members of the LGBT+ community.
However, by including popular Minecraft streamers (many of which are cis white men), there is a distinct lack of diversity across the entrants.
The event has since been heavily criticised.
•11/40 lgbtq people
•1/40 trans people
•1/40 Lgbtq people of color
•7/40 poc
•1/40 black people
•6/40 Asian
•33/40 white
•1/40 lesbiphobe
•2/40 anti black white man
— Dee | ?? (@girly_depressed) June 20, 2021
Wait, the majority (MAJORITY) of people in the @MCChampionship_ Pride event are straight, white, cis men?
Really??
There's underrepresentation & then there's this. The most watched Minecraft esports competition has a special #pride event and the majority are white cishet men? pic.twitter.com/jJJVPCBh8w— BiggusBennus ? (@biggusbennus1) June 20, 2021
The event is partnering with YouTube Gaming and The Trevor Project, however as some popular streamers have exclusivity deals with Twitch, they won’t be able to stream the event on YouTube.
It suggests that certain streamers have been chosen for their name and/or following more than representing a community.
There will be lots of new faces ?
We wanted to include more YouTube streamers and people from the LGBTQ+ community ?️?— MC Championship (@MCChampionship_) June 18, 2021
Scott Smajor, organiser of the event, addressed criticism in a Twitter thread.
“I realise how I have failed in representing some communities in this coming MCC, and while I did try, it wasn’t enough,” he wrote.
I don't want to not say anything on the situation, as I feel like it is my responsibility to take the criticism I'm seeing. I realise how I have failed in representing some communities in this coming MCC, and while I did try, it wasn't enough.— Scott Smajor (@Smajor1995) June 20, 2021
“This Pride MCC had a lot more challenges than a normal MCC does when it comes to teams. I’ve had a lot of people ask why certain creators weren’t in this one, and while I would love to have had them, exclusivity contracts were an issue.”
Streaming the event was a major consideration in choosing participants: “Most people want to be able to stream their first event, as playing in your first MCC is a big experience. So them not being able to was an issue for a lot of people. Which was why I stuck to the old MCC player pool for people who couldn’t stream.”
Smajor also admitted to working on the event himself and lacking capacity: “I have seen a few threads who have been very fair in explaining their issues, and I have done my best to read them and understand the problem. If I’m being totally honest, while I do try my best to find CC’s from under represented groups, it is really hard for me to do myself.”
The Minecraft Pride Championship 2021 will take place on Saturday 26 June.
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