Imagine a cause you’re passionate about in your community. Maybe it’s making sure everyone has access to healthy meals, creative arts at school or opportunities to get outdoors. Now think about what it would mean to use some of your fave games to address the IRL issues you see in the world around you. That’s where Team Hyper Pigmentation comes in. 

Soon-to-be sixth-graders Arden, Aurelia, Eleanor, Izzy and Leela—all students at PS 889 in Brooklyn—are building up their communities block by block (and they’ve got *multiple* medals to prove it). The girls secured back-to-back victories at NYC’s citywide Minecraft education competition, Battle of the Boroughs, the last two years. This year’s competition took place at the NYC Video Game Festival, presented in May by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. And let’s just say: Team Hyper Pigmentation brought the pixel-perfect build. 

Battle of the Boroughs challenges students to use Minecraft to imagine a better version of NYC. And with their second victory in a row, it’s clear we can trust Team Hyper Pigmentation’s gaming skills to lead a citywide glow-up.

Now, just in time for back-to-school season, this dream team is sharing how their teamwork, strategy and friendship has turned into community innovation–and how they’re inspiring other young girls to do the same. 

Level One: The Club That Changed Everything

While the trophy may be new, this group’s teamwork actually goes way back. A year before their first competition at Battle of the Boroughs, you could find the girls playing games during free periods in their third-grade classroom. Eventually, Eleanor’s mom posed the question that started it all: Why don’t you start a Minecraft club? And ofc, it was an immediate “Yes!” from the girls. 

For Eleanor, continuing to game with her friends was important when heading into her first competition last year. Even when her mom wanted to place her with different teammates, Eleanor was confident that going with her OG gaming squad was the key to success. 

“We didn’t even know that us coming together could make our friendship even stronger,” she says. “The fact that we were all friends before Battle of the Boroughs…we already had a big connection to what we’re doing now.”

Level Two: Getting Their Heads In The Game

To make a massive NYC Minecraft build is already a huge undertaking. And doing so under a strict time limit adds another complicated layer.

Battle of the Boroughs provides competitors with specific prompts for their builds, all of which relate to issues within their own communities. Teams had 30 minutes to research the prompt, 30 minutes to plan out their ideas and 30 minutes to actually build their solution in Minecraft. The stakes of all this prep rely on a 5-minute presentation of the final build. 

It’s no wonder Team Hyper Pigmentation felt the pressure. “I don’t think any of us realized before we started the competition how much better the competition got this year than how it was last year,” describes Izzy. Luckily, the girls’ practice sessions of brainstorming, building ideas and problem-solving strategies prepared them to rock this year’s prompt. 

“The prompt was to redesign a real place in your neighborhood to make it an artist hub where everyone can show their talents and express the things that they love and are good at,” explains Eleanor. Their winning build? A talent house that combined theater, art and music, with eco-friendly compost bins to improve performing arts. “Old blankets could be used for costumes for the theater,” says Eleanor. 

Even under such stress, the girls learned how to lean on their teammates: a skill that applies across *all* group work. Whether it be a school project, sports game or dance troupe, the best teammates know when to take the lead *and* when to ask for help. “My teammates really encouraged me to do my best,” says Leela.

Level Three: A Win For The Girls

The all-too-common fear of stereotypes, judgements and people underestimating you is a v. real issue (even for these two-time champions). But Team Hyper Pigmentation’s double victory serves as inspiration for girls everywhere who feel the pressure of entering male-dominated fields. 

“I remember there was someone last year who was telling us that we would never win—and kind of just doubting us,” says Leela. “We never listened to them, and I feel like that got us to where we were supposed to be.”

One of Team Hyperpigmentation’s sweetest impacts? The v. cute moment of the girls’ siblings holding up “Hyper-pigs in training” signs at Team Hyper Pigmentation events (aww!). 

Win or lose, the message from Team Hyper Pigmentation stands strong: “Never give up, even when times are really stressful,” says Aurelia. Whether you’re nervous for an audition, soccer tryout or your own gaming tournament, Team Hyper Pigmentation reminds us that blocking out the doubt is the key to (Mine)crafting your own personal wins.

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