- Registration is now open for the second Intermunicipal Minecraft League for Primary schools in the Madrid region, with 100 team spots available until 31 January.
- The tournament is aimed at students in the second and third cycle of Primary and is structured in three qualifying phases guided by teachers.
- Each school team must research and digitally recreate a local landmark in Minecraft, combining fieldwork, documentation and creative design.
- The initiative seeks to promote cultural heritage, digital skills and key competences such as critical thinking, teamwork and problem-solving.
The regional government of Madrid has officially opened the enrolment period for the second Intermunicipal Minecraft League, a digital competition designed for Primary school pupils that blends video games, local history and classroom learning. Over the coming weeks, schools from across the region will be able to register their teams and take part in a project that brings together cultural heritage and educational technology in a practical way.
With a clear focus on students in Primary education, the programme aims to turn the familiar universe of Minecraft into a structured learning tool inside the classroom. Far from being just a game, the league uses the platform as a space where children investigate, plan and build, including tools such as a chatbot inside Minecraft, while reinforcing academic content and getting to know the most emblematic places in their municipalities.
Registration window and who can take part
According to the regional administration, Primary schools from anywhere in the Community of Madrid can enter teams in this new edition. The registration period runs from mid-January until 31 January, giving school management teams and teachers several days to organise their groups, set up resources and launch a Minecraft server and submit the required documentation.
In total, the organisers have made 100 team slots available for this season. Places will be allocated among the centres that apply within the established deadline, ensuring a diverse representation of schools and municipalities. The competition is aimed especially at pupils in the second and third cycle of Primary education, ages where curiosity for technology and the surrounding environment tends to be particularly strong.
The project is promoted by the Regional Department of Digitalisation, which leads the technological and innovation component, together with the Department of Education, Science and Universities, responsible for aligning the activity with the official curriculum. Both departments underline that the initiative is fully integrated into the educational framework and not conceived as a separate extracurricular activity.
The league returns after the response obtained last year, when around 2,550 pupils from 30 schools in nine different municipalities took part in the first edition. That initial experience has served as a reference to adjust dynamics, refine the calendar and strengthen coordination with teachers and management teams ahead of this new call.
A tournament built around local landmarks
At the heart of the competition lies a simple idea: each team must select a symbolic monument or landmark from the municipality where their school is located and turn it into the central element of their project. From there, the students are asked to research its history, design the structure and recreate both the building and its surroundings inside Minecraft.
This approach allows participants to link digital construction with real-world heritage. While they measure, calculate and plan blocks in the game, they also delve into the origins of the chosen site, its architectural characteristics, its role in the town or city and the stories that the local community associates with it.
Beyond copying the outline of the monument, the competition encourages teams to create a complete virtual environment around that reference point. This may include nearby streets, squares, green areas or any other element that helps to contextualise the building within its urban or natural setting, always within the possibilities offered by the Minecraft environment.
Through this combination of research and design, students are expected to develop skills such as spatial interpretation, planning and creativity. Teachers accompanying the process can connect the project with different subjects, from Social Sciences and Art to Mathematics, Languages or even basic programming and logic.
Three qualifying phases linked to the curriculum
The Intermunicipal Minecraft League is structured into three successive qualifying rounds. In each stage, school teams must complete specific tasks that are directly related to the Primary curriculum and are assessed by an external jury.
In the initial phase, pupils are often asked to explain why they want to participate and what monument they plan to work on. This first step usually involves writing a brief text, preparing a short presentation or filling in a registration form in which they set out their motivation, expectations and the reasons behind their choice of landmark.
During the second phase, the teams focus on gathering information about the selected place. The rules encourage the use of offline sources such as interviews with local residents, talks with historians or municipal staff, and visits to the monument itself whenever possible. This is complemented by the collection of visual and written materials, including old photographs, current images, brochures or historical documents.
The final qualifying round centres on the digital recreation of the monument and its environment in Minecraft. At this stage, all previous research is translated into blocks, textures and structures within the virtual world. Pupils must decide on scales, proportions and materials available in the game, including game mechanics like fence gates, while keeping as much fidelity as possible to the real model and integrating creative elements that help explain its context.
Throughout these three stages, the organising team highlights that the challenges are designed so that academic content is present in a natural and practical way. Measurements and calculations connect with Mathematics, historical references with Social Sciences, written texts with Language, and design decisions with Artistic Education. The idea is that the competition complements classroom work rather than replacing it.
Role of teachers and jury evaluation
Teachers play a key role as guides and coordinators throughout the process. They are responsible for organising the groups, supervising the research, managing the technical resources needed for Minecraft and ensuring that the activity fits into the school timetable without overloading pupils.
Rather than acting as players, educators are encouraged to facilitate teamwork and distribute responsibilities within each group. Some pupils may focus more on documentation, others on design and building, and others on writing or presenting the project to the jury. This internal organisation helps students to discover different strengths and to experience collaborative project work in a controlled setting.
Assessment is carried out by a jury appointed by the Community of Madrid, made up of professionals linked to education, digitalisation and culture. This panel reviews the work presented in each phase and awards points based on criteria such as historical accuracy, creativity, technical execution in Minecraft, quality of the accompanying documentation and clarity of the final presentation.
The scoring system is cumulative, so that teams add points as they move through the rounds. The groups with the highest total scores qualify for the following stages and remain in contention until the end of the tournament. This format rewards continuity, planning and sustained effort over time rather than isolated achievements.
In parallel, the organisers stress that the main objective is not to establish a purely competitive ranking, but to generate meaningful learning experiences for all participating pupils, regardless of their final position. Schools that do not reach the last round are still expected to complete substantial work on their chosen monument and to share it within their own educational communities.
Educational goals and digital skills
The Intermunicipal Minecraft League is framed within the digital transformation strategy of the Community of Madrid, which aims to bring new technologies closer to the school environment and reduce the digital divide from the earliest years of education. In this context, the use of a widely known platform such as Minecraft is seen as an accessible way to introduce more advanced concepts, although teachers often need guidance on Java edition support and compatibility.
One of the key aims of the project is to develop basic and intermediate digital competences among Primary pupils. This ranges from learning to use a computer safely and collaboratively to understanding how a virtual environment is constructed, how information is saved and shared, and how to solve technical issues that may arise during the building process.
Alongside these technological aspects, the league also emphasises historical research and critical thinking. When students compare versions of the same monument, verify dates or contrast different sources of information, they are putting into practice skills that are central to academic development and to understanding their own territory.
Teamwork is another central pillar. The activity is designed so that pupils must negotiate ideas, divide tasks and reach agreements on the design of the project. This collaborative dimension aims to reinforce communication skills, respect for different opinions and the ability to manage small conflicts, all within a supervised and educational framework.
The competition also serves as a platform to foster problem-solving abilities. From adjusting the scale of a building that does not fit the planned plot to deciding how to represent complex architectural details with limited blocks, participants constantly face challenges that require analysis, trial and error and the search for alternatives.
Context within regional digitalisation policies
The initiative is aligned with the broader Digitalisation Strategy of the Community of Madrid 2023-2026, which includes measures to modernise public services, promote technological training and support innovation projects in the educational sphere. Programmes like the Intermunicipal Minecraft League are part of this roadmap, focusing specifically on younger generations.
Regional authorities point out that early exposure to digital tools in structured contexts can help future citizens move more confidently in an increasingly technological job market. The aim is not only to familiarise children with devices and applications, but to teach them to use them in a critical, creative and responsible manner.
By linking Minecraft to the discovery of local heritage, the league also seeks to strengthen the bond between pupils and their municipalities. Knowing the origin of a square, the history of a tower or the significance of a church can make it easier for children to recognise the value of their immediate environment and feel part of it.
The organisers underline that these types of projects can contribute to reducing inequalities in access to digital learning, especially when they are open to all Primary schools in the region. By providing a common framework and shared resources, the administration aims to ensure that centres with fewer means can also participate in innovative experiences.
Through this second edition, the Community of Madrid intends to consolidate the league as a regular fixture on the school calendar, gradually building a network of teachers and centres that share practices, materials and methodologies related to the educational use of Minecraft and other digital tools.
With registration now open and a limit of 100 teams, the new season of the Intermunicipal Minecraft League offers Primary pupils in Madrid the chance to combine video games, research and local heritage in a single project, while schools find an additional channel to work on digital competences, cultural awareness and collaboration in the classroom.
