Twelve Mercer Island Destination Imagination teams participated in the Global Finals tournament from May 22-25 in Kansas City, Missouri. The STEM-centered tournament included more than 650 worldwide teams, including some from China, Korea, Mexico, Qatar, Poland and Ukraine.

The highest honor for the local teams went to Heroic Villains, which won second place for the senior high scientific challenge. Three teams just missed the podium earning fourth place: Drama Dragons (elementary scientific), The Crazed Monkeys (elementary engineering) and Diet MTN Dew (senior level service learning). Other teams in the top-10 placement include: The Mean Green Beans (fifth, senior level scientific) and Artificially Intelligent (seventh, senior level fine arts). Counter Theory was 11th place in senior level service learning, Bīngqílín earned 11th in middle school engineering, DI Maniacs took home 12th place for elementary technical, Gumball Gang was awarded 13th place for middle school fine arts, Dazzling Dragonfruits was 16th in middle school fine arts, and Queens: Don’t Go Bonkers took home 21st place for their fine arts presentation.