On August 10th 2024, Block Wars officially returned after taking just over a 4 month break! Following the comeback also came with several changes such as new team names & logos, new updates to your favourite games, a new game itself and even a new logo change… All things I’ll be covering in todays blog!

So wherever it be the case that you don’t have time to watch a VOD, you’re not sure who to watch or maybe you want to read about it instead. You’re in the perfect place as today we’ll be covering my thoughts and views on Block Wars Season 11!

Interested? Let’s get started…

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WHAT’S NEW

Block Wars has undergone an entire branding ‘rework’, and as much as it’s a great concept, I have my slight nit picks. Not that my opinion entirely matters as I’m sure they have their reasons, however I’m aware that my opinion isn’t an unpopular one. I’d also like to add that my thoughts don’t mean I think the change is a wrong one.

With the announcement of a pending return also came the announcement of a new logo! Going from their old colorful, fun and stand out one which showed that this was still a silly little Minecraft event and a for fun one at that. We’ve then moved into a very corporate like red and blue one with thick block text. I’d like to assume that the reasoning behind this was to come off as more professional and show their plans for the future which I respect, however I can’t help but feel saddened by the switch. Once again not saying it’s the wrong decision.

Alongside this however, we’ve been blessed with a brand new Mascot! Greg was great and I’m interested to find out where he’s gone, however we welcome in Sprout. With the new mascot brings what seems to be pending Block Wars lore. We’ll be sure to try and keep up with that over the course of the next blogs!

On the two team announcements days we were welcomed with 8 new team names alongside a colour to go with them. If I’m not mistaken, the changes are to essentially be more sports like which I love the idea of as this hasn’t been seen before. However, my partial OCD isn’t fully satisfied with the way they went about it.

The new team names are:

• Red Comets

• Orange Fighters

• Yellow Thunders

• Green Giants

• Aqua Archers

• Blue Bandits

• Purple Phantoms

• Pink Knights

The reason my partial OCD doesn’t take too well to this is because we go from three teams that don’t have the same starting letter as their respective colour then into four teams that do and a final team that doesn’t again. My problem isn’t how they don’t all have the same starting letter but more so that it varies back and fourth. Again I love the idea of the sports team concept, I just also like consistency.

Our final change then before getting into the games is regarding the lobby! A whole new beautifully built lobby to explore. One thing I’d like to mention specifically is the changing billboard right at spawn. It’s a great idea and perfectly sets up the possibility for future collabs & sponsorships! There’s also some amazing new features (and good for practice ones at that) such as the use of boats on the ice in the lobby. However, I’m deeply disappointed that there was no football on the football pitch. SoonTM surely?

Every game also received an update, however, we’ll talk about each of those when we get to that game!

GAME 1: ORDER UP

As voted by the contestants, the first game we got to witness was Order Up! A gamemode in which you have to gather ingredients, craft recipes and deliver them to the hungry customers. The more orders you get completed in the 10 minute time frame (previously 12 minutes) will get you more points!

Previously in Order Up there were stages in which you killed ‘bosses’, however that has since been removed and instead you now put spare items into a composter to slowly level up and unlock new upgrade abilities. The composter only becomes active every now and then so you have to be tactical. Alongside this, there is also a new ‘rush order’ in which every team at the same time are given the option to complete in a certain time frame and have it delivered, getting extra points in the process.

I’d like to credit the new transporting abilities. The new map is very clean, some room for mistakes but that makes it that much better. However, the ability of only one team mate getting the elytra alongside being teleported straight back to the kitchen after completing an order, makes the game a lot more player friendly.

Once the game ends, the players are given a 30 second ‘overtime’ to complete the final orders they’ve made. This is a nice feature as a lot of the time you may get an order made but not enough time to get it delivered.

I’d like to give a notable mention to team Thunders for completing two orders in overtime, originally joint 25 orders with team Phantoms however taking the lead at the end due to the extra 30 seconds. For a new variant of the game and the first of the night after a few months, I believe it went very well and the point gap wasn’t major. That being said, the difference between 1st and 8th was 1,030 points.

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

GAME 2: TRAILBLAZERS

We then go into our second game of the night being a majorly revamped Trailblazers. A gamemode in which the players are given 12 minutes to complete as many courses as they can or to do them as fast as they can. This being the first movement game of the night.

The completion section features Dropper, Parkour & Elytra as opposed to the time trial course which features Trident, Obstacles and Ice Boat. For the completion section, players are given four different difficulties to complete on different maps, in doing so are rewarded with points, and obviously more the harder the level.

For the time trial course however, the contestants are given courses to beat as fast as they can. Depending on how fast they beat them means the more points they get, alongside bonus points for getting in the top three on the leaderboard.

Throughout the twelve minutes, ‘Gold Courses’ of the different movement games will randomly open giving you the option to get 25% bonus points for completion on doing so. Some being completion and some being time trials

I liked the feature which let you leave a game whenever you’d like as well as the ability to restart your run if it didn’t feel fast enough. Leading to the decision of taking the points as they are despite not being your fastest time or to replay it costing another maybe 40 seconds to not even guarantee extra points. Tough choices.

The maps for this gamemode were stunning, especially with everything being so easy to navigate between. I will say that there was one expert dropper course that seemed very hard… I’m sure it was tested and is possible, however, after watching it back multiple times I still have no clue how you’d complete it. Maybe I missed the POV that did?

It goes without saying that the Comets impressed a lot in this gamemode. Gaining over 300 more points than the Thunders in second place. Stand out names to make the top two teams even more obvious here consist of Camman18 & Purpled on Comets and Feinberg on Thunders.

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

GAME 3: OVERSPLEEF

Our third game of the night was Overspleef! A slight revamp of the original famous spleef you all know and love. A gamemode in which all 40 contestants go head to head against the other teams (even their own teammates technically), to mine blocks and knock other people down to the next level and eventually into void.

This spleef consisted of three rounds with different variations in each. Round one being classic, round two being Tnt and round three being meteor.

Honestly, there’s sadly not much to say about this gamemode, spleef is a very popular gamemode amongst events nowadays meaning it’s very hard to make it original or stand out. I think Block Wars did a good job with the decay spleef as well as in meteor spleef. How the game ended despite there still being several blocks on all the layers felt like it worked well. All things considered the rounds went pretty quick.

I’d like to give credit here to the Phantoms for an amazing performance, with both PrinceZam & Reddoons getting the most amount of kills being 8 & 7. However, you have to again notice that the Thunders were in second place still fighting for that top spot. I’d love to know how points would look this season if point multipliers still existed.

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

GAME 4: BLITZ HUNT

This counts as a movement game right? Well even if not, we move onto the forth game of the night being Blitz Hunt! A game in which each team is given a round to hunt as many players as they can from the other teams.

I must say that this new Blitz Hunt is pretty amazing, from the idea to the execution, it all felt very clean. As mentioned in the update video, the map changes every round. The issue with a lot of games in general is the memorization of maps from the perfect place to move to or just knowing the optimized hiding spots leads to major advantages. Or even just knowledge from hunting in a later round and knowing roughly the best spots.

I also enjoyed the new features for hunters every now and then to know how many hiders are in a radius but not at all unbalanced since the hiders also get to know if they’ve been detected. Sadly there’s not much to mention again on this game either as its very much hide and seek.

I feel like I’m repeating myself a bunch however all eyes on team Thunder and this time Knights! From strong hunting rounds to amazing hiding ones. Our stand out players this game being Boosfer, Camman18 & Feinberg for placing top 3 in this gamemode.

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

GAME 5: BATTLE

With a break in place and the votes down to the audience, Battle was the second most voted for game meaning it’d be our first PvP game of the night. Having this played this late into the tournament was certainly an interesting choice. I wonder if not voted by the audience, would it have won the contestants vote?

Battle is a kit based PvP game in which all 8 teams battle it out in the same arena to kill the other teams, capture points and survive as long as they can. All three things providing you with points. With the revamp we see a new selection of kits per class with only three different classes being Support, Damage and Utility. Still with only one kit per person.

A nice feature added to this gamemode being that every time you get a kill, you regain 2 hearts. As much as it isn’t a crazy buff, it certainly helps with preventing cleaning and just keeping you in mosh pit fights that tad bit longer. As well as this, things such as damage points, the ability to not capture unless its only your team on it and as mentioned survival points really make this gamemode all that bit more friendly.

To look at a little less positive side of this gamemode, the point differential here was pretty crazy. Seeing the Comets (in 2nd before this game) get 1859 points as opposed to the Giants (in 5th before this game) get 577 points. An over 1200 point difference between first and eighth this late into the event and even an over 300 point difference between first and second was very noticeable. However, that’s just how events go especially when players get random pop offs!

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

GAME 6: RACE

Being a ‘movement Andy’ myself I was very glad to see this game NOT benched. As much as I love bow games, I’m a sucker for movement games, even more specifically race ones. Hence the reason why I’m also a fan of Trailblazers. However, since that’s a big mix, Race takes my top spot.

Race is a gamemode which once again is pretty much summed up by it’s name, a game in which all 40 contestants race against other teams including their own to complete all 3 laps as fast as possible to get as many points as possible. Alongside this, also getting bonus points from the new ‘overtake’ system!

I wanted to start by talking about how nice the map is, it was beautifully built with multiple different themes to look at. Alongside this, I also appreciated the different path choices you could take that being both Easy and Hard. I know this is pretty common, however, it made it worth it to go faster for those who felt they could, but also how it was marked being very obvious alongside plenty of time to make the choice.

The ‘overtake’ feature was certainly an interesting one. I know it was added to even things up a little and help out with points for the people who aren’t as good at the game, however it’s interesting that if you’re constantly at the top and just simply good at the game you don’t get these benefits. Not in a bad way interesting either, just a fun new feature!

As per usual we had our stand out players! The top three featuring Feinberg, Purpled and Camman18! Honestly Camman had an amazing event as we’ll get into more later but it goes without saying that these are very clearly amazing movement players. Also big credit to Shadoune for placing in 4th! To do this well on a brand new map is truly outstanding.

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

Game 7: EXTRACTION

Extraction was our penultimate game of the night alongside also being the second and final PvP game we’d see. Alongside this being the first game of the night to have a point multiplier, 1.5x.

Extraction is a game in which all teams go head to head at least once looking to wipe out the opposing team and make a great escape. Each round, two different teams of 5 will fight it out with crossbows and unlimited arrows to get kill points alongside extra ‘extraction points’ based on how many people escape.

The map used for this event was nice and compacted. I will say as it being (sometimes) quite closed quarters, the quickdraw level on the crossbow made it that (sometimes) it came down to who’s brain processed quicker. All in all however the map was very nice.

I liked the pinging feature, if you had a call out for where someone was but couldn’t explain it well, the ability to ping came very helpful and overall good add. Especially if used correctly! Alongside this the smoke bombs.

To point out individual stats, Reddoons, Couriway, Shadoune, Purpled & Sleepai were the top 5 with the most amount of shots landed all being over 40, however, multiple people got over 10 kills.

With that however, the point differential this game again was noticeable. With the first time a multiplier was used this entire event, Comet in first getting 2907 points as opposed to Fighters in second getting 2268 and Thunders in eighth getting 1059 was a massive gap. Once again this can come down to players having good events, however, for it to happen in the only two PvP games was interesting.

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

GAME 8: TOMB TITANS

We then go on to the final game of the night, a brand new game being Tomb Titans, alongside a 2x point multiplier. Tomb Titans is pretty hard to explain over text but I’ll try my best. Essentially take Sands of Time but remove the sand keeping your time alive and add multiple different items that give you a wide variety of value to then deposit for points. Oh and all teams are in the same tomb!

To start, I wanted to say that it was very interesting to see a brand new game being the final played. I understand every game has received changes, however, this is completely new and it was still the game played with the most multiplier.

I wanted to start by saying how I like the concept. I think it’s a nice little twist on other games in this style and the fact that you’re all in the same tomb fighting for the loot but without the ability to fight each other was interesting to see. The idea of being able to loot other peoples dead bodies was also an interesting choice, not sure if I was a massive fan of the ability at first but it worked well.

I will say that your inventory can get cluttered very quickly, and unless you do extensive research or learn quick which items give more value, you’re left lugging around less valued items and forget to pick up or switch them out for more valuable ones. But that eventually will come down to game knowledge and research.

Overall, solid gamemode. A little bit drained out and not exactly crazy entertaining. I think the reason people love Sands of Time so much is because of the risk factor, you have to constantly get sand, work as a team and keep your time alive. With this game however your only enemy is dying to a mob or simply not making it to a portal in time which is down to lack of time management. Unless I completely missed a feature!

See below the top 8 teams following this game!

SHOCKWAVE

After a dominant performance from the Comets and a sadly poor performance in the final game from the Phantoms. We saw the Comets go head to head against the Thunders! Shockwave is a brand new finale game added to Block Wars in which the top two teams go head to head in a Valorant type gamemode.

Alternating two rounds each, each team is chosen as an attacking team or a defending team. To put it bluntly, attackers have to plant a bomb and the defenders have to stop them before they do or disarm it before it explodes.

I appreciate the constant effort Block Wars puts in to try and make an original finale game but I still feel they’re yet to reach satisfaction. As much as this gamemode is a cool concept on paper, if you played the TubNet game or even play any FPS games similar to this, with there only being 4 rounds to win, if the attacking team goes 2-0 up or vise versa it can be hard mentally to replicate that the other way around.

Personally, I prefer games that have an even playing field throughout, meaning both teams have the exact same odds and its completely down to whoever plays better. But nevertheless I respect the efforts.

The Comets consisted of: AnthosTV, Camman18, GenGEEGA, MeichaFox & Purpled

The Thunders consisted of: Boosfer, Demenishki, Feinberg, KingSammelot & Shirahiko

With our final coming to an end, after an extremely dominant performance the entire event, Comets win 4-1 after originally going 2-0 up. Therefore winning the first edition of Block Wars series 3!

Final Thoughts

And that brings the end of Block Wars 11!

I wanted to take this last segment to leave my final thoughts on how the event went down. I will say I’m very pleased to see the return of Block Wars! I watched perspectives from all POVs and everyone seemed to have a good time, however seeing some teams constantly stuck at the bottom while others dominated, I hope to see that change going forward. But as a player manager myself, I also respect that these things just happen.

However, I don’t want to end on a negative and would like to say that I like the path in which Block Wars is going. With all of the new players being added, although not being Minecraft players, the future is super interesting and I look forward to what they have in store!

I’d also like to give massive props to Camman18 for having an amazing event and taking first place. Also being his first 1st individual!

Also, if any Block Wars staff are reading this, I understand you’re all volunteer. However, if possible, please update the website after events ASAP! Also, if you could add a live update for the top 40 individual and team points like MCC has it, I believe that’d be a very cool feature. Luckily I had the Block Wars wiki to help, but would also love to see these features added if you can!

If you have any feedback regarding this blog on how to improve, or maybe something you’d like to me talk on specifically next time, feel free to join the InsideMC Discord and let me know!

But with that being said, this brings the end of the InsideMC Blog, thank you all for reading, stay safe, don’t eat too much bread, pieces!

This blog is not in affiliation with Block Wars or Minecraft, everything wrote about and said today are purely my own thoughts and feelings and aren’t influenced from any third parties.