You are welcome at this year’s Nintendo World Championships even if you’re part of the Wii generation

By Brenna Hillier

Nintendo World Championships 2017 welcomes gamers of all ages, not just those who can remember the first event.

It looks like Nintendo intends to make its World Championships event a regular affair, having previously hosted just two – one in 1990 and another for the 25th anniversary in 2015.

The 2015 event was a very nostalgic affair, but Nintendo is looking to the future now as it fosters the upcoming generation of potential loyal Mario fans. To that end, presumably, a new competitive bracket has been added for players aged under 13.

People who are 12 or younger weren’t even born when the GameCube came out; the Wii or even the Wii U may have been the first new Nintendo hardware launch of their lifetimes. The Power Glove and the robot thing are like archaeological relics for them.

Now that we’re all finished remembering how very, very ancient we are, on to the particulars. Qualifiers will be held throughout August and September at Best Buy stores in a range of major North American cities – check out the schedule and register to compete on the Nintendo World Championships website.

To qualify, you’ll need to play a round of Mario Kart 7 on 3DS. The lucky winners from each qualifier will be invited to compete in the grand finals on October 7 in New York.

Despite the name, it seems like the World Championships are a North American thing, as qualifiers are open only to residents of the US and Canada, except Quebec. That’s a shame, the 1990 event saw Japanese and North American champions battling it out.

Still, those of us elsewhere in the world may like to tune in – Nintendo made a couple of announcements at the 2015 event.

Although the 2015 Nintendo World Championships occurred during E3, which is a natural time for announces, the Switch is making everything Nintendo much more exciting these days so we’re expecting Nintendo to leverage the event to give us some news, too.