City Life Org – First-Ever NYC Video Game Festival

Presented by Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment at 
Convene Brookfield Pace, 225 Liberty St 
9:00am – 6:00pm, Saturday, May 31, 2025

In Partnership with National Esports Association and NYC Public Schools, Includes 3rd Annual Mayor’s Cup Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Final

Features Fortnite & Valorant Esports Competitions, Arcade, Cosplay Competition, Indie Game and Robotics Demos, VR Experiences, and More – Free and Open to All New Yorkers!

REGISTER FOR THE FREE EVENT HERE

The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment today announced that the City of New York will host its first-ever NYC Video Game Festival — a day-long free celebration of New York City’s booming digital games community featuring esports competitions, arcades, demos and more for New Yorkers to enjoy, Saturday, May 31 9:00am – 6:00pm at Convene Brookfield Place. The event will include the 3rd annual Mayor’s Cup Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Final, in partnership with NYC Public Schools and the National Esports Association, and will serve as the kick-off to the NYC Summer of Games calendar, tracking digital gaming events across the City from June – September 2025. Registration for the NYC Video Game Festival (NYCVGF) can be found HERE. To follow the conversation on social media, please tag #NYCVideoGameFestival.

The NYCVGF will include:

• Elementary, middle, and high school teams competing live in the Mayor’s Cup Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Final, with the challenge to build a more sustainable, future-ready New York City;
• Fortnite® & Valorant® eSports tournament finals;
• New and unreleased NYC-based developer games, casual and classic arcade games, plus table games with family and friends;
• Career and education expo with representatives from New York State college game development programs, game developers, and game industry professionals;
• Cosplay competition for prizes;
• Robotics & VR showcase, and more.

Leading up to the NYCVGF, Video Game Amateurs (VGA) will host live Fortnite and Valorant qualifying rounds for NY Collegiate esports teams on Friday, April 25 at 7pm and Saturday April 26 at 12 noon. New York’s strongest collegiate squads, from Baruch College, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, The City College of New York, Queens College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, SUNY Canton, Farmingdale State College & more will compete for a spot in the finals. The events will be broadcast live on TWITCH across three channels: twitch.tv/vgamateurs | twitch.tv/ECAC_Esports | twitch.tv/cunybcesports.

Also leading up to the NYCVGF, NYC Public Schools will host a semi-final competition in each borough to determine which 3 teams (one K-5 grade team, one 6-8 grade team, and one 9-12 grade team) will represent their borough in the Mayor’s Cup Final on May 31.

The introduction of the NYCVGF comes on the heels of new investments recently announced to help cement NYC’s role as a global hub for the digital games industry. The investments total over $1 million and include support for the ‘Made in NY’ Animation Training Program, the Game Design Future Lab within NYU Tandon Future Labs and CUNY’s first-ever Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Game Design at City College of New York (CCNY).