It’s Brooklyn’s turn! All this week, the New York Videogame Critics Circle is proud to present the finalists for the Minecraft Education: Battle of the Boroughs. Below, we present Brooklyn’s elite competitors – with some prime quotes, questions and answers from each team.

Additionally, the Circle’s Playing With Purpose Program is part of the Battle with its own Minecraft Writing Challenge. On June 8, the Circle’s Ryan O’Callaghan will announce four Minecraft Writing Challenge winners at 12:30 pm during the Mayor’s Cup Finals on June 8, presented by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, at the recently-renovated Brooklyn Public Library. The event takes place all day long and is free to all. The lucky winners of the Minecraft Writing Challenge will get a cash prize – and bragging rights for the year.

For months now, students across the boroughs have been busily competing to win the big battle. According to the Mayor’s Office, here’s more detail: “Building on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done (GSD), the city’s strategic climate plan, and the Mayor’s Digital Gaming Initiative, student teams will compete to create the most inclusive future-ready city spaces. Mayor Adams’ video message is right here.

Each borough has determined 3 teams (one K-5 grade team, one 6-8 grade team, and new this year a 9-12 grade team).”

We are super happy to present these terrific Brooklyn finalists! 

BROOKLYN FINALISTS: 

• Division: Elementary School
  • School: P.S. 321 William Penn (15K321)
  • Principal: Elizabeth Phillips |
  • Coach: Sara Silver |
  • Team Name: Berthas
  • Location: 180 7 Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215
  • Response to NYVGCC question; Why did you choose your name
    • “Our team name originated from a mooshroom (Mushroom-cow) called Bertha. Our teammate spawned it in the Minecraft BotB world. Unfortunately, we couldn’t have her in the BotB project, but in honor of Bertha, we kept the name and our teammate drew the logo.” – 5th grader, Luca Vaswani 
  • Team photo:
• Division: Middle School
  • School: I.S. 98 Bay Academy (21K098)
  • Principal: Maria Timo
  • Coach: Alyssa Gracey
  • Team Name: The Redstone Pros
  • Location: 1401 Emmons Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11235
  • NYVGCC questions: From student Lizaveta Samsonava:
  • • Why did you choose your team name?

The name, “Redstone Pros” was chosen as a team name for the “Minecraft Battle of the Boroughs Competition” because redstone can be considered a form of green energy. Green energy, which is a major theme of the competition, is produced via a method or a material that doesn’t cause harm to the environment. Redstone is a sustainable material in Minecraft that will never run out when used as an electrical resource to power machines. Our team name refers to both a sustainable source that’s positive to the environment, as well as the power of our team!

• Why did you choose this design/what is it?

On the day of the Minecraft Battle of the Boroughs Brooklyn Finals, one of the most unique components of our build and design were our curved anti-flood dams and water basins. The flood proof dams protected the city from major flooding while also converting the kinetic energy of the water to electric energy to power the city in a sustainable way. The water basins featured logos of small businesses to promote entrepreneurship. These builds really helped us stand out and propelled us to the finals of this competition. Not only did we find it fun, but we also learned how to cooperate and work together as a team in the process

• Team photo:

Pictured from left to right: Milana Ziskand, Tamer Tooma, Samir Ilyosov, Iris Liu, Lizaveta Samsonava, Alyssa Gracey

• Division: High School
  • School: John Dewey High School (21K540)
  • Principal: Heather Adelle |
  • Coach: Mashfiq Ahmed
  • Team Name: Blockhampton
  • Location: 50 Avenue X, Brooklyn, NY 11223
  • NYVGCC questions from student Jayla Mallette:
    • Why did you choose your team name?

“When we started the Minecraft Club during the pandemic and remote learning, we would listen to the rap group BLOCKHAMPTON a lot while playing Minecraft together. BLOCKHAMPTON was a very diverse group and we loved their inclusive lyrics. When we participated in Minecraft’s Peace With Nature Global Build Challenge in 2021, we had to come up with a team name. We eventually decided on BLOCKHAMPTON, a Minecraft-themed parody name of the rap group. Since then, it’s been our go-to team name even though the actual rap group has disbanded.”

• Why did you choose this design/what is it?

“We thought that it’s important to include elements of Kingsbridge’s rich history and culture into the build of the Kingsbridge Armory. The building is a large space that has been unoccupied for decades, and we wanted it to be used to bring the community together. In order to avoid contributing to gentrification and to ensure that the renovated armory causes no displacement or unfamiliarity in the neighborhood, we felt it was crucial to include local businesses. In order to support the growth of the local economy, we made sure to include open spaces where we could have a diverse food court along with the many activities in the armory like a roller skating rink, arcade, and sports center. It was also important to include variety of educational opportunities for people of all ages such as ways to reduce your carbon footprint, a library, computer labs, a teen center, and an art station.”

• Team photo: