At John Dewey High School, the Minecraft club annually participates in the Battle of the Boroughs championships, an E-sports competition in which students from different compete against each other in challenges and present their Minecraft builds to the judges.
“One of the big things that we participate in is E-sports competitions where students build in Minecraft in time challenges and present their builds to the judges and it’s this competition city-wide called Battle of the Boroughs championships,” said the founder and advisor of the Minecraft club, Mr. Ahmed.
These competitions consist of three rounds, lasting from November to June. During the first round, the theme of the challenge is released on the Battle of the Boroughs website, which is usually centered around redesigning New York to be more sustainable and equitable.
“[The Battle of the Boroughs] is more of a competition for us to explore our creativity and see how we can help the world,” said John Dewey High School sophomore and Battle of the Boroughs participant Jerry Zhou.
Afterwards, the students create their build and present a video to the judges to see if they move on to the second round. In the second round, they compete against students from other local high schools live in front of the judges.
“And what would happen is we wouldn’t know the theme until right before the competition began,” Mr. Ahmed said, “They have 30 minutes to prepare with their team and then another 30 minutes to build. Then they have to physically present it to the judges.”
After advancing on to round 3, The winning teams from each borough prepare and build for 30 minutes each.
However, despite having won the Battle of the Boroughs last year, there have been setbacks during the competition.
“Some setbacks and challenges, I would say, are coordinating times with the teammates on when to build and just being collaborative in that regard especially,” said Mr. Ahmed, “This year, I’m working with pretty much all new kids on my Esports team and all my seniors graduated last year, so it’s also figuring out the dynamics of the team and who works well together.”
At the time of writing this article, the Minecraft club had only completed one round, which began on Dec. 3, 2024, for which the score was not revealed yet. More coverage on Dewey’s involvement with this year’s Battle of the Boroughs competition is to come when the results of Dewey’s performance are revealed.
A poster for the Minecraft club in a John Dewey hallway.
