Nintendo World Championships dates, latest news: Competitions start Aug. 19; four weekends in eight locations

Nintendo World Championships 2017 Youtube/Nintendo

The Nintendo World Championships are approaching and players from all over are competing to see who will win. The events start in a week, spread over four weekends across eight locations, with the finals scheduled in October.

Nintendo announced the start of the games on their official website, and revealed the locations about the qualifying events. The qualifier rounds will be held in eight Best Buy stores all around the United Sates. The participants will be divided into two groups by age, and both groups will play "Mario Kart 7" from the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. 

The first group comprises of participants who are 12 years old and below. They will play as Mario on the Nintendo 3DS "Luigi's Mansion" course using the Standard Wheels, Standard Karts, as well as Super Glider. The second group is composed of participants aged 13 and up, will play as Bowser in the "Bowser Castle 1" course on another console, the Game Boy Advance, also using the Standard Wheels, Standard Karts, and Super Glider. 

The player with the best Time Trial entry from both age groups will be able to qualify for the Nintendo World Championships 2017 in Oct. 7 at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom in New York. Participants will play their way through various games where the winner is chosen via elimination process. 

There are also some perks for the players regardless if they win or lose the qualifiers. All participants will be able to try out the demo versions of "Super Mario Odyssey" for Nintendo Switch, which will be released on Oct. 27, a few weeks after the Nintendo World Championships. They will also be able to experience the demo version of "Metronoid: Samus Returns" on Nintendo 3DS family of systems, which will be released on Sept. 15, weeks before the Championships. 

Those who will drop by the qualifiers and are also members of MyNintendo can check in using their QR codes to receive 100 Platinum points. The first 200 MyNintendo members who drop by at each location will also receive a special MyNintendo pin. 

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