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The Mario Kart franchise continues to thrive since the release of Mario Kart 8, but now it is time again for its eldest brother, Super Mario Kart, to hold the annual World Championships this week between 12th – 17th August at La Suze-sur-Sarthe in France. The original game actually has this huge event held every year and many from abroad travel in to meet and compete. Nintendo of France is a major sponsor with some nice prizes being given out for the top players, including five Nintendo Wii U systems, five copies of Mario Kart 8, then trophies, medals and many other Nintendo related prizes from the other sponsors. You may refer to a previous article we wrote earlier this year with a more detailed background on the Super Mario Kart Championships.

Let’s see what will be happening at the World Championships this week.

Last year’s Championship was on Twitch TV for the first time and the same will be set up again. It will be kicking off at around 11-12pm Pacific / 2-3pm Eastern / 7-8pmUK / 8-9pm CET on Tuesday 12th August 2014 and wrapping up with the closing awards ceremony on Saturday 16th August, with players returning home by the 17th. The Twitch stream will sometimes show the hall with all the players competing, and when big matches are played on a particular main TV they will be live streamed accordingly. A caption will be left showing who is competing at that moment on the main screen and commentary will happen occasionally by one of the members.

Schedule:

Tuesday 12th August (Time Trial one try competition): Competitors arrive; Time Trial one try competition to commence by mid evening. It is a real test of nerves on the first day to drive sharp but without crashing. Players will be assigned to a TV each around the perimeter of the hall and perform their one try on all the tracks in a random order. The next set of players will commence after that. This will narrow down to the finalists with some sudden death one tries taking place that are streamed. Medals are awarded for the Top 3.

Wednesday 13th August (Match Race): The first of the multiplayer modes; and will consist of group stages with leagues in the afternoon, followed by Top 16 qualifiers in the evening to do playoff matches. Competition will start around 4am Pacific / 7am Eastern / 12pm UK / 1pm CET. The leagues will continue on to the end of the afternoon. The Top 16 players who qualify will enter the playoff bracket and some exciting matches can be seen from there during the evening hours. The primary TV will show the bigger matches on live stream during the Top 16 / Quarter / Semi Final rounds, most likely a top seed player vs their rival, or a big rivalry match in general. The 3rd place matches and Finals should be on somewhere in the 11pm – 1am time CET.

Thursday 14th August (Battle Mode): Similar format as per Match Race, with a league stage beginning from 4am Pacific / 7am Eastern / 12pm UK / 1pm CET and lasting the afternoon. After enough balloons have been burst, it won’t be over yet as the Top 16 highest scoring players in the group stage for Battle Mode will advance to the evening’s playoffs. There are likely to be some very interesting rounds to see indeed. Definitely watch out for USA vs France Battles here which are likely to happen at some time in the evening.

Friday 15th August (150cc Grand Prix): Arguably the toughest mode as the contenders have to race each other and work around the CPU…Leagues begin from 4am Pacific / 7am Eastern / 12pm UK / 1pm CET and continue through the afternoon. The Top 16 proceeds in the evening again and there will be high speed racing action on the 150cc mode until after midnight. You will again get to see the medals handed out to the Top 3 afterwards.

Saturday 16th August (Awards ceremony / Freeplay): The score combining all of the Tournament modes is recorded on a database. The awards will then proceed and trophies go out to the Top 3 players. The prizes from Nintendo of France including Nintendo Wii U systems and Mario Kart 8 copies will be issued accordingly, plus many other prizes for the rest of the players.

Sunday 17th August – The competitors return home.

A trailer has been prepared to show you an introduction to the event, the competitors who are taking part this year (not including any last minute visitors if applicable); and also some video clips of the action from last year in the main hall. Please see the video below.

Would you like to compete in the Super Mario Kart World Championships for one of the future editions? If yes, you can check on the official website for registration next year: www.ffsmk.org

The event is certainly growing despite the game’s age and we hope to see these classic Championships continue for many years to come.

We hope you will enjoy watching the Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships; tune in to the Twitch channel between 12th to 17th August 2014 to see the action unfold.

With thanks to Sami Cetin for providing this article.