Nintendo World Championships 2015 (Photo : Reuters)
This week the E3 video game conference hosted the Nintendo World Championships, which was the first one since 1990. The tournament at the annual conference in Los Angeles provided a head-to-head battle between some of the world's best gamers, and ended with Super Mario Maker.
The last time Nintendo held the video game championship was in 1990 Each winner in the three age categories won a $10,000 United States savings bond, a 1990 Geo Metro car, and a gold-painted Mario trophy.
This year, the championship players qualified in tournaments held at Best Buy locations throughout the U.S., according to Mashable. Then in the world championships they competed in five rounds.
The top-ranked players battled each other in both classic and new Nintendo games. Some examples are The Legend of Zelda and Mario Kart 8.
Super Mario Maker, which is set to be released this year, ended the tournament's tough competition, according to Polygon. It was a big shocker for the contestants.
John "Numbers" Goldberg won the Nintendo competition, defeating 15 other gamers. Goldberg is from Queens, New York.
After the gaming contest Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto congratulated the finalists Numbers and Cosmo Wright, handing them autographed 3DS XL consoles. Nintendo hired him in 1977. Miyamoto went on to create game franchises such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Star Fox.
The first Nintendo World Championships were inspired by the 1989 movie "The Wizard." The film became infamous for its product placement for Nintendo games.
During Nintendo's first video game championship, gamers played a special NES cartridge. They had 6:30 minutes to pick up 50 coins in Super Mario Bros., complete a race course in Rad Racer, and build as many Tetris lines as possible.
Although it has been one-fourth of a century since the first Nintendo world championships took place in 1990, it is not clear when the next one take place. It could be in 2040.
