PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Catherine Brunzos didn’t expect to be the worldwide winner of a video-game tournament.
But the 13-year-old Federal Hill resident, part of a two-member team representing the Providence Community Library, came out on top last weekend in the International Games Day Minecraft Hunger Games against 94 other teams.
“In the middle of it, I was kind of nervous,” she told The Providence Journal Tuesday evening. “And then I thought, ‘I might win it!’ ”
Catherine, an eighth grader at Nathan Bishop Middle School, is the daughter of Martha Brunzos, a licensed mental health counselor, and Christopher Brunzos, a direct-service staff member for Resources for Human Development of Pawtucket. Martha Brunzos said she wished her daughter good luck as she left Saturday for the tournament, and then got an excited message: “I’m in the finals!”
Catherine said she thought that she won because “people cheered me on.” She added: “I would consider myself pretty good at the game of Minecraft.” And, she said, she thought people at the library would agree.
Catherine, a patron of the library's Rochambeau branch whose username is “Catybrun,” participated in the tournament with teammate Elijah Caldwell, 12, from the Washington Park branch. The competition, which took two days, was linked to International Games Day @ Your Library, held Saturday. Providence Community Library was the only Rhode Island library to take part in the tournament.
The competition was modeled after the “Hunger Games” of movie and book fame, in which a team of a boy and a girl enters from each competing district and the contestants battle until one victor is left.
Minecraft, one of the most popular video games of all time, has over 33 million registered users. Providence Community Library hosts a Minecraft server that anyone with a Minecraft login at any PCL library can access.
Martha Brunzos noted that both she and Catherine’s father work in social services. But Catherine said that’s not her ambition.
“I want to be a computer programmer,” she said.
CORRECTION: The original version of this story gave the wrong age for Catherine Brunzos. It also included another teammate who ended up not playing.
The original version of this story was posted at 4:29 p.m.