On Saturday, May 10, 2025, high school and middle school Minecraft teams and their parents gathered in the auditorium in anticipation for the annual Battle of the Boroughs Mayor’s Cup Semifinals. They were shown clips and news coverage about the Battle of the Boroughs before Sean Arnold, Director of School Pathways, got on stage.
After discussing how the the competition will be scored based on the rubric, what will happen during the semifinals, and how it ties into future-ready skills (called The 7 Cs) such as Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking, the Elementary, Middle, and High school teams were called by name.
The Mayor’s Cup begins with the Preliminary Competition, which lasts for two hours. During the Preliminary Competition, the Challenge Prompt is revealed and the teams have to research topics related to the prompt and check their computers to make sure there are no technical issues, which is done in 30 minutes.
The teams then have to complete their builds within another 30 minutes and present them to the judges for five minutes. The results are then given to the teams before lunch break. Afterwards there is an extended game overview and a wrap-up.
In order to prepare for the competition, the Minecraft club did building drills in which they learned how to quickly build and also came up with basic plans for what they might need to build, what material blocks to use, and who will work on which building.
“”One thing we try to do is, when we’re competing, we strategize on where each person is going to sit because I known these kids for years now,” said founder and advisor of the Minecraft club, Mr. Ahmed, “And then that tells me ‘Oh, I put this kid in the middle because he’s going to be the team leader so [he] needs to communicate with everybody. The one kid who can do things on his own doesn’t need that much collaboration, we’ll put him at the end by himself.'”
Minecraft Club members Jerry Zhou and Isis Copelin of BLOCKHAMPTON present their build to the judges.
Although they were unable to prepare for anything specific, BLOCKHAMPTON was still able to work on their technique and how to quickly build things or getting familiar with keyboard shortcuts.
“Obviously, we don’t know the theme until right before competing,” said Mr. Ahmed, “But just having some basic idea of [what to build] helps you flesh out what you want.”
The prompt involved building and redesigning the MADE Bush Terminal, a real-life building within Brooklyn, in terms of more accessible transportation. During the build, BLOCKHAMPTON, John Dewey’s Minecraft team, used Redstone, the in-game electronics and circuitry, to power up rails for wheelchair accessibility.
The winners of the Battle of the Boroughs Mayor’s Cup were The X-Men, a Minecraft team from The High School for Global Citizenship.
Although BLOCKHAMPTON did not win the Mayor’s Cup, they were able to reflect on what they could have done in order to improve their builds in the upcoming years.
“We could have included more ecological things,” said senior and BLOCKHAMPTON member Ayan Shakoor, “I feel like it was kind of lacking in that regard. We could have added a lot more green areas like plant life and also make it more inviting.”
While the final score was never released, the scores are determined by multiple factors such as teamwork, presentation, inclusiveness, comprehension, and Redstone and coding.
A few weeks later, on Saturday, May 31st, the Battle of the Boroughs Mayor’s Cup Finals were held at the First Annual NYC Video Game Festival. The High School Division Winners were the team Diamond Sword Bustamoney from the World Journalism Preparatory: A College Board School in Queens. BLOCKHAMPTON was unable to participate in the competition, but was still able to attend the event.
