Spejdercraft – A Far-Reaching New Community Bridging the Digital and Scouting Worlds
The virtual world of Minecraft merged with guide and scout life when Spejdercraft took to Scenen (the Arena) with a spectacular show featuring three well-known Danish Minecraft YouTubers (Minecrafters) and Jamboree Denmark’s familiar host, Lakserytteren[1]. The Minecrafters Nat[2], Emil and Mikkel Trier[3] competed in three challenges, collecting points in the race to win the Golden Pickaxe!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@Lakserytteren1
[2] https://www.youtube.com/@GodNatasja
[3] https://www.youtube.com/c/TrierGaming/about
This is exactly what I dreamt of a year and a half ago when the idea first emerged […] That buzz from the children and the interaction that can grow between the digital and the real world” Helene Schiermer, team leader for SES events
Virtual Campsites Built from Home
Thousands of guides and scouts, around twice as many as had originally registered, sat eagerly waiting in the rain for up to 20 minutes for the show to begin. The guides and scouts had already had the chance to warm up for the event on the Minecraft server Spejdercraft. Here they could build a campsite, take part in activities and earn badges and even their scarf, already a couple of months before the Spejdercraft event. In this way, children and young people who could not go to the jamboree could still be part of the community and the jamboree experience. It was an opportunity that many made use of and felt grateful for.
The server also stays open for a few months after the jamboree.
https://spejderneslejr.dk/nyheder/spil-spejdercraft/
Community can be difficult sometimes when it gets too big […] So this is a way for children who find it overwhelming to face 30,000 people to still get a taste of the jamboree and guiding and scouting, even if they cannot be there in person” Helene Schiermer, team leader for SES events
The atmosphere was full of motivated and engaged guides and scouts. Several leaders said that the guides and scouts themselves had asked to take part in the event. The leaders from the Danish group Thingvala Vangede felt it was a better way for the guides and scouts to spend the morning than simply staying in their own camp. At the same time, you could sense the leaders’ own nostalgia for Minecraft from their childhoods.
The Danish influencer Lakserytteren took to the stage
At 10:05 Lakserytteren stepped onto the stage to huge cheers. He introduced the competition and the Minecrafters, which is apparently the boomer word for Minecraft YouTubers. The guides and scouts were split into three teams: The Winners (Mikkel Trier’s team), The Blueberries (Nat’s team) and The Pandas (Emil Trier’s team).
The guides and scouts then had to help guide their “team leader” through the challenges. The first challenge was to build a campsite, but the Minecrafters had to earn their materials by collecting badges in fire, wood, stone or wool. The campsites were judged by the strict guide and scout leader Lasse Winther, who picked out every flaw and shortcoming and pointed out that it was against fire safety rules to have a campfire less than three metres from a tent, EVEN in Minecraft.
The Minecrafters then had to make their way through a maze, with the guides and scouts helping them find the right route. The challenges ended with Speed Building, where they had just one to two minutes to build to a theme drawn at random from Lakserytteren’s hiking rucksack.
This meant that the Minecrafters were pushed to show how well they could build campfires, tie knots and work out what would really impress a guide or scout leader (which was clearly a well-organised campsite).
The Minecrafters were challenged in different disciplines and critiqued by the strict guide and scout leader Lasse Winther. Photographer: Mathias Thomsen
Dialogue Between Minecrafters and Guides and Scouts
Rain jackets were pulled on for the occasional showers that came and went. The energy, however, could not be dampened; there was shouting, laughing and waving of scarves as the Minecrafters and the guides and scouts called out to one another.
The guides and scouts were almost falling over each other when I was allowed to talk to them afterwards. Ulvehøj guides and scouts liked “EVERYTHING!”, while KFUM Engesvang thought it was cool and great fun.
Several of the guides and scouts had already visited the server and built impressive campsites, exactly in the spirit the team had hoped for and imagined.
“I like all the YouTubers. I’ve watched YouTube videos with every one of them. So I didn’t really mind who won.” Junior scout, from the Danish group Ulvehøj Spejderne
An Alternative Approach to Guiding and Scouting
The challenges ended with Mikkel Trier winning with seven points, closely followed by Nat with six. He could therefore claim the Golden Pickaxe, which he proudly held up for his team. The other Minecrafters could hunt down a “diamond” consolation prize hidden among the audience.
After the event there was a meet-and-greet, where guides and scouts could queue to say hello to the Minecrafters and Lakserytteren. The crowd moved like a wave, and even after half an hour there were still guides and scouts passing the time with massive boogie woogie dancing!
All in all, it was a hugely successful event that also shows an alternative approach to guiding and scouting, and what connect and include can look like in practice.
We need not close ourselves off in our own community. Everyone in the community must mean, that we can also invite people other than scouts in.” Helene Schiermer, team leader for SES events
