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Nintendo World Championships

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Not to be confused with Nintendo World Cup.

Nintendo World Championships
GenreVideo game competition
Location(s)Nationwide
CountryUnited States
InauguratedMarch 8, 1990; 34 years ago (1990-03-08)
Most recentOctober 7, 2017 (2017-10-07)[1]
Organized byNintendo of America
Websitenwc.nintendo.com

The Nintendo World Championships (NWC) is a nationwide video game competition series, organized by Nintendo of America.

The first Nintendo World Championships was in 1990, touring 29 American cities, being hosted in Los Angeles, CA twice. The NWC was conceived by Steve Grossman and Jay Coleman principals at EMCI, Nintendo's marketing agency. The event won numerous marketing awards and was sponsored by Pepsi, Reebok and Nabisco. It was based on a custom game cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System, which would historically become one of the most rare and valuable NES cartridges. The NWC is considered the first ever e-sports event.[citation needed] On June 15, 2015, the second Nintendo World Championships took place for its 25th anniversary as part of Nintendo's E3 2015 coverage. The third Nintendo World Championships was held on October 7, 2017.

In 2014, Nintendo released NES Remix 2, featuring the reminiscent Nintendo World Championships Remix, which uses emulation and online leaderboards to incite informal public competitiveness.

1990 Nintendo World Championships

Preceding the NWC in 1989 and in 1990, and coinciding with Nintendo's 100th anniversary, Nintendo started its first annual nationwide video game competition series as the Nintendo Challenge Championship (NCC) in Canada.[2] Nintendo assumed full distribution and marketing from its partners and rebranded its competitions as the Nintendo World Championships.

The original Nintendo World Championships began on March 8-11, 1990,[3][4] in the Fair Park's Automobile Building in Dallas, Texas, and ended up touring through 29 cities across the United States.[5] Players from three separate age groups (11 and below, 12-17, and 18 and above) competed across three days. The top two scorers then competed for the title of City Champion. The finalists won a trophy, US$250, and a trip for two to the World Finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. The runners-up won a Nintendo Power Pad and a Game Boy.

The World Finals were held December 7–9, 1990,[6][7][8] conducted similarly to the City Championships and were located at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, California within the Star Trek Theater, now Shrek 4-D. There, contestants played a special Nintendo World Championships cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The cartridge contains three customized minigames based upon the popular games Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. The objective is to achieve a high score according to a custom cumulative scoring formula across all games, within a total time limit of 6 minutes and 21 seconds.[9]

Three 1990 World Champion titles were given. Jeff Hansen won in the 11 and under category, Thor Aackerlund won in the 12–17 category, and Robert Whiteman won in the 18 and older category.[10][11] There was no official competition round to crown a single winner. However, after the competition ended there was an informal face-off between the three winners, with Thor Aackerlund taking first place, Jeff Hansen taking second, and Robert Whiteman finishing third. The top winner in each age category was awarded a $10,000 U.S. savings bond, a 1990 Geo Metro Convertible, a 40" Rear-projection television, and a gold-painted Mario trophy. Runners up in each age category received a $1,000 U.S. savings bond and a silver Mario trophy.[citation needed]

Thor Aackerlund later became the official games spokesperson for Camerica Corporation, a direct competitor to Nintendo, immediately after winning the Nintendo World Championship. Jeff Hansen later became the United States representative to Japan to win the World Championship title in Tokyo, Japan, and again in Las Vegas at a rematch with the Japanese champion, Yuichi Suyama.

After the World Championships, Nintendo sponsored additional similar competitions including the Campus Challenge in 1991 and 1992, and PowerFest in 1994, before reviving the World Championships in 2015.

Cartridge

The 1990 Nintendo World Championships 1990 competition was based on the NES cartridge of the same name. It is unknown how many gray cartridges were made - the highest numbered cart as of September 2020 is #353.[citation needed] Copies of the gray cartridge were given to the ninety finalists after the championships concluded. Another twenty-six gold copies are known to exist, similar to the cartridge for The Legend of Zelda, which were given as prizes in a separately-held Nintendo Power magazine contest.[12][13] Both versions have an exposed bank of DIP switches which could be flipped to set the amount of time the player had to complete the three games, shorter and longer than the 6 minutes 21 seconds used in the actual competition. The Nintendo World Championships 1990 game cartridge is considered to be the most valuable NES cartridge ever released and one of the rarest; with collectors having paid six-digit prices for a single copy.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

2015 Nintendo World Championships

A screenshot of Narcissa Wright's run through a level in Super Mario Maker, during the final of the 2015 Nintendo World Championships.

On May 13, 2015, Nintendo announced the return of Nintendo World Championships to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original event, as part of the company's E3 2015 coverage.[23] Qualifying competitions were held on May 30, 2015 in eight Best Buy locations across the United States;[24] at each location, contestants competed for the high score in a specifically-desgined mode of Ultimate NES Remix.[25][26][27][28] The winners from each of these eight locations, plus eight players invited by Nintendo (six speedrunners and two celebrity contestants), became the contestants for the live event.[29] Among the auditioning qualifiers, former finalist Patrick Scott Patterson attempted to qualify but was narrowly beaten out by Jordan DeMarco; no original competitors from the 1990 event thus qualified for the event.[27]

The competitive event used an elimination tournament format with a repechage bracket named the Underground, with competition based on a wide history of Nintendo's game library since the 1980s. The live video of the Championship's final event was streamed online from Los Angeles on June 14, 2015; commentators included Audrey Drake of Nintendo Trehouse and competitive Pokémon VGC commentator Justin Flynn.[30] An edited-down exclusive one hour television special aired on Disney XD later on in the year, featuring exclusive retrospective interviews with many of the contestants and a shortened overview of the competition.[31][32]

The competition was ultimately won by John Goldberg, known as professional Smash Bros. player John Numbers, the qualifying player from New York. He would eventually audition for, qualify to compete in and eventually make it to the finale of the 2017 Nintendo World Championships as well.

The event proceeded as follows:

  • Stage 1: Splatoon (Wii U) - Top 16 Compete; 12 Advance to Stage 2 The sixteen competitors were randomly divided into four teams of four, which would then compete head-to-head over three battles; the winners of the first two turf wars immediately advances to Stage 2, as would the winner of the third and final battle between the two initially-defeated teams. In the first round, Essentia (Kari Johnson), John Numbers (John Goldberg), Packie (Patrick Haendle) and Trihex (Mychal Jefferson) defeated MrBlarney (Michael Yi), Jovenshire (Joshua Ovenshire), TMR (Piotr Delgado Kisuelczuk) and BSG4000 (Chris Bidwell). In the second round, Fernsig01 (Fernando Terracuso), Mad Mage (Michael "Mick" Synodis), Bananas and Arin (Arin Hanson) were defeated by JksnBlksn (Jordan DeMarco), Sinister1 (Luke Miller), Timzy88 (Timothy Hanson) and Cosmo (then known as Cosmo Wright). In the third round, Fernsig01, Mad Mage, Bananas and Arin would reign victorious and also survive, sending MrBlarney, Jovenshire, TMR and BSG4000 to the first-ever Underground.
  • Underground Stage 1: The Legend of Zelda (NES) - Bottom 4 Compete; 1 Advances to Underground Stage 2 No longer competing as a team, the four eliminated competitors are given a second chance; the first competitors to successfully obtain the Triforce after competing the first dungeon from the original Legend of Zelda game would stay alive and move on to the next Underground, while the other three competitors would be permanently eliminated from the competition. Despite an early lead by MrBlarney, BSG4000 would go on to obtain the Triforce first, thereby eliminating Jovenshire (14th), MrBlarney (15th) and TMR (16th).
  • Stage 2: "Blast Ball" from Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS) - Top 12 Compete; 8 Advance to Stage 3 In a similar fashion to soccer, remaining contestants - again, divided into randomly-designated teams - would attempt to blast an oversized ball into the opposing team's net within a predetermined time limit. The winning team in each round, in addition to the best-performing player on the losing team, would be advancing. In the first round, Trihex, Bananas and Cosmo defeated Essentia, Sinister1 and Arin, the latter of whom also advanced. In the second round, Fernsig01, Packie and Timzy88 were defeated by John Numbers, JksnBlksn and Mad Mage; Packie additionally advanced to Stage 3.
  • Underground Stage 2: Super Metroid (SNES) - Bottom 5 Compete; 1 Advances to Underground Stage 3 This challenge was widely considered both by the competitors and commentators to be either the hardest or second-hardest round of the entire competition.[30] With only one life to defeat Moher Brain and escape Planet Zebes, the Underground's "run or die" simultaneous timed speedrun head-to-head duel would only give one competitor the chance to live to fight another day. BSG4000 (13th) was almost immediately eliminated from the competition, just as Essentia (12th) and Fernsig01 (11th) failed to fare especially well. Down to an almost neck-and-neck race between the remaining two players, Sinister1 managed to edge out Timzy88 (10th) for a spot in the final Underground while the other four players were eliminated permanently from the competition.
  • Stage 3: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) - Top 8 Compete; 3 Advance to Stage 4 Split into two groups of four, the divided competitors played on an identical set of three races on 200cc, with the best player from each batch advancing as well as the next-best-performing player overall (though as the second group had a tie for first, no next-best was determined). In the first group, Trihex (15+15+12=42), managed to defeat Bananas (8+10+6=24), Arin (2+2+9=13) and Cosmo (1+1+8=10). In the second group, John Numbers (9+9+15=33) and Mad Mage (8+15+10=33) edged out JksnBlksn (7+12+6=25) and Packie (2+10+3=15). With that, Trihex, John Numbers and Mad Mage advanced to Stage 4, while everyone else headed to the final Underground.
  • Underground Stage 3: "Balloon Trip" from Balloon Fight (NES) - Bottom 6 Compete; 1 Re-Enters the Competition With only one spot in the final four left on the line, the six defeated contestants had to achieve the highest score overall across three minutes, played in two heats. In the end, Cosmo (12,030) surprisingly defeated Arin (11,610; 5th), JksnBlksn (10,480; 6th), Bananas (7,820; 7th), Packie (7,150; 8th) and Sinister1 (6,500; 9th), thus re-entering the competition while the other five competitors were permanently eliminated from the tournament.
  • Stage 4: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U) - Top 4 Compete; 2 Advance to Stage 5 The final four competitors were slated to compete in Free-For-All (Trihex as Toon Link, John Numbers as Shulk, Mad Mage as Falco, and Cosmo as Roy) in two six-minute brawls, in which the overall best-performing two players would advance to the finale once the scores were added up. With Trihex as Toon Link, John Numbers as Shulk, Mad Mage as Falco Lombardi, and Cosmo as Roy, John Numbers pulled ahead in the first round (+2), and Trihex held second place (0), followed by MadMage and Cosmo tied for last (-1). The second round ended with John Numbers as the winner once again (+2), Cosmo in second (+1), MadMage in third (0), and Trihex in fourth (-3). When the scores were added up, John Numbers (+4) and Cosmo (0) were announced as the two competitors who would be moving on, thereby permanently eliminating MadMage (-1) in 3rd place and Trihex (-3) in 4th place from the competition. (John Numbers happened to be a highly-ranked competitive Smash Bros. player, as he noted in an interview.)[31]
  • Stage 5: Super Mario Maker (Wii U) - Top 2 Compete With another world premiere announced, the two finalists were slated to compete in four custom Super Mario Maker levels; for the first three, whoever completed the levels faster (or got further should neither one make it in time) would gain a fifteen-second advantage during the final race per victory, where the two players would battle head-to-head to the finish. As the levels were meant to be a surprise, the first three were played blindfolded one after the other; John Numbers, as the winner of a coin toss, decided to go second.[31] John Numbers managed to win the first round by a fine margin; the second match was closer, with Cosmo managing to complete the level faster. The third level was won by John Numbers, giving him a fifteen-second head start, though in the final level Cosmo performed poorly and John Numbers happened to break away early on. Gamesradar said that Numbers demonstrated "impulsive mastery" of the Super Mario Maker levels which were "hellish", "sadistic", "evil", and "truly weird".[33] Shigeru Miyamoto made a surprise appearance to present a trophy to John Numbers, the winner, and an autographed New Nintendo 3DS XL system to each of both the final two.[34][35]

2017 Nintendo World Championships

On August 8, 2017, Nintendo of America announced the return of the Nintendo World Championships. Qualifying rounds took place August 19, 2017 through September 10, 2017 at selected Best Buy locations across eight cities in the United States. John Numbers, the returning champion of 2015, was one of the 13-and-older qualifiers.[36]

The main event was held on October 7, 2017, at the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom, and was streamed online via YouTube and Twitch, as well as being simulcast on Disney XD's "D|XP" block. As with the previous event's formatting, the 2017 Nintendo World Championships used an elimination tournament format including the returning Underground repechage bracket, showcasing recent and retro games alike; the Underground was noted to be generally more forgiving in this case, as multiple contestants had the opportunity to advance to the next Underground whereas the 2015 event was far more unforgiving.

This includes select gameplay modes and levels from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U, 2017), Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS, 2017), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, 2017), Splatoon 2 (Switch, 2017), Balloon Fight (NES, 1985), and other games for those consoles and for Nintendo 64, Wii, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy.

The overall winner was Thomas Gonda, who defeated the 2015 champion John Numbers.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Nintendo World Championships are returning this October". Nintendo. August 8, 2017. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  2. ^ "Nintendo Power Flash Canada Issue 5, 1989" (PDF).
  3. ^ "The Story of the First Nintendo World Championships - IGN". IGN. May 13, 2015. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  4. ^ "The Nintendo World Championships '90". AtariHQ. 1997. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  5. ^ "NWC Contestant Information - Flickr - Photo Sharing!". Flickr. November 18, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  6. ^ "The quest for the golden Nintendo game - Ars Technica". Ars Technica. September 12, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  7. ^ "Nintendo's Powerfest '90 Is The Video Game Olympics - tribunedigital-chicagotribune". Chicago Tribune. December 7, 1990. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  8. ^ "The Azure Heights Forum: Nintendo World Championships 1990". Miami.edu. December 7, 2000. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  9. ^ "Nintendo World Championships 1990 for NES". MobyGames.com. September 16, 2005. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  10. ^ "Scan of official contestant information flyer". Bob Whiteman. October 18, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
  11. ^ McFerran, Damien (December 24, 2018). "Feature: The Real Wizard: A Nintendo World Champion's Tale". Nintendo Life. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  12. ^ "Nintendo World Championships 1990". AtariHQ.com. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  13. ^ Theobald, Phil (March 7, 2009). "Playing with Power". PlayerOnePodcast.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  14. ^ Digital Press Mini Rarity Guide. Messiah Entertainment. 2005.
  15. ^ Racketboy.com. Holy Grails of Console Game Collecting
  16. ^ "The Holy Grails of Console Gaming - The Rarest, Most Valuable, and Desirable Games Ever". RetroGaming. 2006. Archived from the original on September 1, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  17. ^ "Nintendo World Championships 1990". Uncrate.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  18. ^ Hendricks, JJ (June 23, 2009). "How I Got Nintendo World Championships Gold". Price Charting. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  19. ^ "The quest for the golden Nintendo game". Arstechnica.com. September 12, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
  20. ^ "The $15,000 NES Cart". Edge-Online.com. May 1, 2008. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  21. ^ "NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS NWC 1990 Cartridge". ebay.com. December 11, 2009. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  22. ^ Pitcher, Jenna (February 5, 2014). "Nintendo World Championships cartridge sells for $100K on eBay". Polygon. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  23. ^ "Nintendo World Championships headline Nintendo's expanded lineup at E3 2015". Nintendo. May 13, 2015. Archived from the original on July 5, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  24. ^ "Nintendo World Championships Headline Nintendo's Expanded Lineup at E3 2015". MarketWatch.
  25. ^ "The Nintendo World Championships 2015 Dream – Part 1: Fernando Terracuso". n4g.com. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  26. ^ "The Nintendo World Championships 2015 Dream – Part 2: Mick Synodis". n4g.com. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  27. ^ a b "The Nintendo World Championships 2015 Dream – Part 3: Jordan DeMarco". n4g.com. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  28. ^ Sheets, Connor (June 13, 2015). "Alabama man to compete at Nintendo World Championships". AL.com. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  29. ^ Nintendo World Championships - Announcing More Details!. Nintendo. June 9, 2015. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  30. ^ a b Nintendo World Championships 2015. Nintendo. June 14, 2015. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  31. ^ a b c "Nintendo World Championships 2015 - [Disney XD] - video Dailymotion". Dailymotion. September 21, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  32. ^ Ferguson, Andrew; McFadyen, Scot, Nintendo World Championships 2015 (Game-Show), Banger Films, retrieved August 22, 2022
  33. ^ Kietzmann, Ludwig (June 14, 2015). "Nintendo World Championships conclude with hellish Super Mario gauntlet". Gamesradar. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  34. ^ Osborn, Alex (June 15, 2015). "Nintendo World Championships 2015 Winner is John Numbers". IGN. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  35. ^ Leone, Matt (June 14, 2015). "John Numbers wins Nintendo World Championships 2015". Polygon. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  36. ^ "Nintendo World Championships 2017 – Official Site". Nintendo. October 7, 2017. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  37. ^ "Congratulations to Thomas G., your #NWC2017 champion! 🏆". Twitter. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
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