I hosted a Mario Kart World tournament at work and lost — and this is the most important thing I learned

Tom's Guide

19 hours ago

Full disclosure: I didn't pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2.
I wasn't fully convinced that it was worth upgrading from my OG Switch, which still works just fine. I told myself that if they ported Baldur's Gate 3 to the Switch 2, that would be enough reason to buy it.
That hasn't happened yet (and I don't know if it will), but since then, I've had hands-on time with our shared Switch 2 in the office, and I often spend my lunch break playing a Knockout round in Mario Kart World with Harry from TechRadar (we're friendly rivals).
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one of my favorite games on my OG Switch, so naturally I really enjoy Mario Kart World too. One day, when Harry and I were playing, we came up with the brilliant idea to host a tournament for our office. We pitched the idea to five of our colleagues and they all agreed. Everyone loves Mario Kart, right?
So seven of us chose a date and time after work and let it unravel. Luckily, no friendships or work relationships were harmed in the making of this tournament.
The rules for our Mario Kart World tournament were simple: one group of four players and another group of three players would compete across 12 races, with the winners from each group battling it out in a best-of-three showdown.
We plugged one Switch 2 into one TV and another Switch 2 into another TV next to it. With our Joy-Cons and third-party controllers in hand (the Turtle Beach Rematch included), we battled it out.
Despite my high hopes, I finished second in my group which meant I did not progress to the finale. I was bummed, of course, because I really do enjoy winning, and I get very competitive. The only person I'm genuinely happy to lose against is my partner and that's where I draw the line.
So no, I was not happy finishing second and that meant I had to now watch the two winners from the groups race it out. As I sat there with my arms crossed and my eyebrows slightly furrowed (no, I am not a sore loser), something dawned on me. I... actually enjoyed watching others play? Gasp.
I sat there with my eyes fixed on the TV and I thoroughly enjoyed the two finalists navigate their way around shortcuts and drift into oblivion while NPCs bombarded them with red shells and the occasional blue shell. And I have to say: Mario Kart World makes for a great spectator sport, and a lot of it is down to the NPCs.
I've sunk at least 80 hours into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and never once did I think the NPCs outsmarted me. Sure, once you fall down the pecking order and find yourself in the last 10, things get sticky. But never as bad as in Mario Kart World as having 24 racers on track results in a lot of chaos — so much so that people have often complained about the game's difficulty on r/NintendoSwitch and r/MarioKart.
NPCs, for a change, seem intelligent and smart. They'll take shortcuts, grind on rails, target you, so on and so forth, and if you aren't in top form and aren't utilizing shortcuts, the game will punish you.
That's what made watching the finale of our tournament so thrilling — the five of us who watched it had no idea what to expect, and I doubt the finalists did either. It was so thrilling to watch, and definitely more fun to watch than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which, after a while, becomes predictable and you don't even break a sweat playing 150CC+.
Our office Mario Kart World tournament has cemented the game as one of the greats for me, which I didn't think earlier. With the plethora of characters and vehicles to choose from and the different types of race tracks, it's a whole lot of fun for people who don't like video games either. I can't wait to host another tournament now.