The Nintendo World Championships kick off today, pitting 24 competitors from across the globe against each other in a series of mysterious Nintendo games.
NWC is a video game competition series, organized by Nintendo, with players competing in different Nintendo games for a faster time, highest score, or winning in multiplayer for a chance to be crowned the champion.
The last NWC finals were held at E3 2015. Contestants competed at different locations around the United States for a chance to take part in the live event. They had to play a mixture of single-player and multiplayer-themed games, with the two finalists competing in a speedrun contest on custom Super Mario Maker levels.
Eight of the 24 participants are invitees, which include WWE superstar Bayley and popular speedrunner 360Chrism. The other 16 players made it to the event by winning qualifiers around the United States over the past few months. The qualifiers tasked players with completing a track on Mario Kart 7 in the quickest time to advance to the live event.
Unlike most tournaments, participants won’t know what games they’ll be playing at the event. The only game currently guaranteed to be played is the recent Metroid 3DS game, Metroid: Samus Returns.
The festivities kick off in the Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom at 5pm ET on Twitch.
