Super Mario Kart Championships 2019 PRESS-KIT
Table of Contents
- The Game
- The Community
- The Championships
- 2019 Edition
- Results
- Photos and Videos
- Reactions and Quotes
- Social Media and Contact
The Game
Super Mario Kart is a 1992 kart racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. The first game of the Mario Kart series, it was released in Japan and North America in 1992, and in Europe the following year. Selling 8.76 million copies worldwide, the game went on to become the fourth best selling SNES game of all time.


The Community
The community surrounding the game was essentially founded by Sami Çetin, who is also referred to as ‘the Godfather of Super Mario Kart’ because of this very fact. He launched a website to keep track of Time Trial records way back in 1999. Amazingly, over 20 years later he hasn’t missed a beat and has singlehandedly updated these rankings on a weekly basis! All the while he has actively recruited players, stimulated competition and has made sure everyone is playing according to the rules. Largely through his efforts and those of other community members, the player base has grown steadily with every passing year: currently there are well over a thousand registered members, each with a full set of times.
In the early 2000s another major development occurred as the community discovered the use of boosting (back then dubbed as New Boost Techniques or NBTs). A boost is generated by powersliding for roughly one second, very similar to the way mini turbos work in later iterations of the Mario Kart series. While boosting the kart will not lose speed offroad; naturally this tech completely revolutionized the way the game was played and raised the skill ceiling considerably, keeping both Time Trial and multiplayer competition fresh and interesting for many more years to come.
That being said, this game is about so much more than just Time Trial competition and a group of French players spearheaded by Franck M. recognized this and kickstarted the Super Mario Kart multiplayer Championships (back then known as the "Championnat de France" or CDF) in the summer of 2002. This CDF series has essentially been running on an annual basis since then and has grown into the global Championships that we know today.
The Championships are always played on the European version (PAL) of the game. The original Japanese (and American) version of the game runs on an NTSC system and does not only go faster (60hz versus 50hz), but also has some very unique and interesting characteristics. Because the physics are different, the two versions are viewed as completely distinct games by the community. In 2019, a group of American karters known as ‘the Kartel’ organized the first American SMK Championships (ASMKC), played on the NTSC version of the game. A handful of European karters showed up for the inaugural event as well, indicating once more that SMK competition is a truly global affair.
For the true speed demons out there, we also keep track of the best times driven in GP150cc mode. There are even separate ladders for times achieved with and without the use of beneficial items, such as shortcut-enabling mushrooms and feathers.
With the popularity of speedrunning on the rise in the late 2000s, Super Mario Kart community members also set out to speedrun their favourite game. SMK’s various speedrunning ladders are maintained at https://www.speedrun.com/smk. So called ‘all cup runs’ became the run of choice, where a player races through each cup on the GP150cc difficulty as fast as possible. Such an all cups race was performed by runners Neo (sponsored by Meltdown) and KVD at Awesome Games Done Quick in 2016 in front of an audience of 150,000 Twitch viewers. GDQs are the biggest speedrunning charity events in the world, which routinely raise over a million dollars for cancer research. The runners did not disappoint: the race ended with an exciting photo finish, the closest finish ever recorded at a GDQ event!
The Championships

The SMK Championships, as mentioned above, were created in 2002 by the French community as a national tournament, which welcomed two Swiss players for its first ever edition (Cédric Leutwyler, who became president of FFSMK in 2005, and Raphael Braun, who was still there in 2019 in Alphen!). Prior to FFSMK, the original association was called AFJSMK (French acronym for French Association of Super Mario Kart players). 16 players attended the 2002 edition, Jérôme G. becoming the first overall champion after winning Grand Prix 150cc (Franck M. won Match Race, and Jérôme Girault won Battle Mode). There was no Time Trial in what was called "CDF" in its early years – the competition was 100% made on multiplayer modes. A historical partnership with Nintendo of France also started on that year.
In 2004, Time Trial was eventually added to the competition, won by Franck M. 21 players attended this edition, and the record was broken again in 2005 with 28 players attending, forcing AFJSMK to divide the group stage into two groups. At the end of these championships, AJFSMK president Franck M. turned the association into FFSMK, and Cédric Leutwyler became the new president afterwards. In 2007, dual-system (PAL and NTSC) Time Trial World Champion Karel van Duijvenboden attended the very last CDF as a last minute surprise guest, and ranked 8th overall, with two semifinals (Time Trial and Match Race).
This led the community to think about an expected next step: international championships welcoming players from all around Europe, called "CDE" (for European Championships) in 2008. The attendance record was literally burst, with 39 players from France, Switzerland, Netherlands of course, but also UK (including Sami Çetin, founder of the community, attending SMK Championships for the first time), Germany, Belgium… and even USA with Los Angeles Battle Mode star Drew Blumfield, who played on the PAL version of the game for the first time and managed to win the Battle Mode tournament, also reaching the Match Race final and finishing runner-up overall behind Florent Lecoanet, 2007 French Champion – then, also 2008 European Champion.
Drew’s will to attend again, in addition to a Brazilian player request, made FFSMK consider turning the event into world championships for 2009, which is the "CDM" we know today. At the end of this edition, Cédric Leutwyler resigned and French Time Trial rising player Guillaume Leviach (who had also organized the 2008 edition) became FFSMK president, expecting to make SMK Championships grow every year and keep on welcoming players from all around the world.
The 50-player barrier was reached in 2012, for a very special CDM celebrating both SMK 20th anniversary and the Championships' 10th birthday. For the first time ever, players from Sweden attended, the competition was live-tweeted on the FFSMK Twitter account, and a special NTSC exhibition competition day was held in addition to the traditional PAL championships. This was also the only year a non-French player won the tournament: Sami Çetin was crowned World Champion in-between Florent’s 8 overall titles. The year after was another huge milestone with two main events: the first Japanese player attending SMK Championships (Takashi Ogasawara), and the beginning of the official livestream on Twitch, directed by Patrick Wessels from Netherlands.
In 2015, the biggest French video game outlet jeuxvideo.com hosted the SMK Championships livestream on its web TV Gaming Live, directed by Twitch veteran Valentin "Yamato" Lormeau. After a first attempt in 2016 at the Start to Play festival (year of the first title for Julien Holmière!), SMK Championships tried to turn into an esports-like competition by joining the Esports Game Arena scene in 2018 in Alphen for the first time. This was the very first edition held out of France and the number of non-French players did not stop increasing from that point, still including several US players, and also two Australian players in 2019, the first of them being part of the event every year since 2017, making sure every continent was represented in addition to an Algerian-born player, Salim Araissia.
After a whole decade of World Championships, 15 countries have been represented, a third of them having been able to secure medals so far, and the SMK Championships look very, very far from coming to an end!
2019 Edition (#SMKC19)

In 2019, the Super Mario Kart Championships returned to the Esports Game Arena in Alphen aan den Rijn for a second time. This recurrence was made possible thanks to our sponsors, which include multinationals like Nintendo and HyperX, as well as local franchises such as restaurant De Beren, Game Mania, Marc Huisman Cars, Kwaad Genie TVs and The Arcade Hotel Amsterdam.

The 2019 Championships were organized by SMK community members Sophie Jarmouni, Patrick Wessels, Karel van Duijvenboden, Daniel Guemy (FFVIMan.fr), Julien Holmière and the Esports Game Arena team. The action was broadcasted on two Twitch channels: "esportsgamearena" and "ffsmk". Throughout the event the Esports Game Arena Twitch channel received over 25,000 unique viewers. Commentary was provided by Norwegian caster Marius Hukkelas (founder of the Karthritis podcast) and Samuel Gomez (for the FFSMK channel); they were assisted on co-commentary by a colorful variety of community members throughout the week. Progress and results were published live on Twitter by Guillaume Leviach with the hashtag #SMKC19.
The SMK Championships of 2019 were extensively covered by the Dutch media: nationwide mainstream media as well as local stations took an interest. An item shot by Dutch TV station PowNed which featured (among others) an interview with Japanese karter Takashi Ogasawara, went viral on Facebook and reached over 130,000 views. The event was also announced on the biggest news site of the Netherlands.
This year, no fewer than 48 participants took part in the event, coming from 12 different countries: Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, United States, Japan, Norway and Spain.
Results
Day 1 - Time Trial:
1st - Sami Çetin (UK)
2nd - Julien Holmière (FR)
3rd - Florent Lecoanet (FR)
In the grand final, Sami edged out Julien - "ScouB" - on Bowser Castle 1 by a difference of only 0"31 and wins his 4th gold medal in this mode! Florent - "Neo" - got the bronze medal at Karel's expense on Mario Circuit 2 but got eliminated before the final on Vanilla Lake 1, which is also the track where he got eliminated last year in the grand final.
Other noteworthy things on this day, the British Adam Ferguson ranked just outside Top8 by finishing 9th in his first ever participation. The Belgian (and Championships organizer) Sophie Jarmouni and the American Jonathan Toole-Charignon reiterated their performance from last year by once again reaching the Top 8.
Pas de première médaille d’or pour @ScouBsmk 🇫🇷 et encore un triomphe de @SamiCetinSMK 🇬🇧 en Time Trial, pour 0"31 ! 😱
— FFSMK (@FFSMK) August 13, 2019
No first gold medal in Time Trial for Scoub, Sami wins it again by a very small margin of 0"31! 😱#SMKC19 pic.twitter.com/yHjiw5rHG8
Day 2 - Battle Mode:
1st - Julien Holmière (FR)
2nd - Geoffrey L. (FR)
3rd - Sami Çetin (UK)
For the very first time in the Championships' history, the gold medal in Battle Mode was claimed by the same player two years in a row. After a very intense grand final (11-10!) against Geoffrey, Julien managed to break what used to be called a curse in the community. And if we look at Sami’s performance, this was the first time he won a medal in this mode.
Another great performance: Salim Araissia (FR) managed to beat Harold Christensen (FR), the former three-time champion of this mode, in a thrilling Top 16 match.
🔴 Fin de cet incroyable marathon avec la victoire finale de ScouB, quadruple champion du monde de Battle Mode et premier joueur à enfin garder son titre deux années de suite dans ce mode !!! 😎👍🏻#SMKC19 pic.twitter.com/bFlAaboFis
— FFSMK (@FFSMK) August 14, 2019
Day 3 - Match Race:
1st - Julien Holmière (FR)
2nd - Florent Lecoanet (FR)
3rd - Sami Çetin (UK)
On Thursday, in Match Race, Julien managed to clinch his 3rd gold medal in this mode by successively beating Sami in the semifinal (9-7) and Florent in the final (11-5), and virtually secured the overall title barring a sub-par performance on the last day.
Other noteworthy result: Leyla Hasso (UK) made the upset of the day by beating former semifinalist Jérémie Clément (FR) 5-4 after saving three match points. It was the player's first time qualifying for the quarterfinals in a multiplayer mode.
🏁 MATCH RACE – TOP 3
— FFSMK (@FFSMK) August 15, 2019
🥇 Julien Holmière 🇫🇷
🥈 Florent Lecoanet 🇫🇷
🥉 Sami Çetin 🇬🇧
Next 👉🏻 Grand Prix 150cc! ⚡️#SMKC19 pic.twitter.com/Iex3NYK8kb
Day 4 - Grand Prix 150cc:
1st - Geoffrey L. (FR)
2nd - Sami Çetin (UK)
3rd - Julien Holmière (FR)
The last day of competition saw the rise of Geoffrey L. (FR) in Grand Prix 150cc as he won a very well deserved 2nd gold medal in this mode against Sami in the grand final (4-3). Julien completed the podium by beating Karel in the match for third place (3-2).
The day also reserved its share of outsider upsets as Sophie Jarmouni offered Belgium its first ever multiplayer quarterfinal by beating Conor Wood (UK). But the match that evoked the most emotion, with a score of 2 cups to 1 that went to the wire, was between the American Jonathan Toole-Charignon and the Japanese Takashi Ogasawara, for whom the crowd cheered as he won the decisive final race..
🔴 TAKASHI MAKES IT!!! 💪🏻@cyocyokirimoice is the first Japanese player to reach a SMK Championship quarterfinal! 🇯🇵
— FFSMK (@FFSMK) August 16, 2019
Takashi Ogasawara est le premier Japonais à atteindre un ¼ de finale de championnat SMK ! 👍🏻#SMKC19 pic.twitter.com/aFaTcHZowp
Overall Ranking:
1st - Julien Holmière (FR)
2nd - Sami Çetin (UK)
3rd - Geoffrey L. (FR)
4th - Florent Lecoanet (FR)
5th - Karel van Duijvenboden (NL)
In the overall rankings (obtained by adding points from all 4 modes) Julien finished first for the 4th time in a row. Sami secured a very solid 2nd place, and Geoffrey, with his gold medal in Grand Prix, managed to pass Florent for 3rd place. Karel completes the Top 5 for this year. Fun fact: both Julien and Sami won a medal in each mode this year. Other great performances in the overall rankings: Takashi from Japan hits his first Top 10 overall with a great 9th place, and Sophie completes the Top 10 with her best result in the Championships so far.
🏆 #SMKC19 TOP 3 🏆
— FFSMK (@FFSMK) August 17, 2019
🥇 Julien Holmière 🇫🇷
🥈 Sami Çetin 🇬🇧
🥉 Geo Label 🇫🇷
📺 https://t.co/YMD6HsdhcY pic.twitter.com/W7Kj5VfwF9
Photos and Videos
Battle Mode Grand Final
Julien "ScouB" Holmière vs Geoffrey "Geo" L.
Match Race Grand Final
Julien "ScouB" Holmière vs Florent "Neo" Lecoanet
Grand Prix 150cc Grand Final
Sami "Godfather of SMK" Çetin vs Geoffrey "Geo" L.
Time Trial One Try Grand Final
Julien "ScouB" Holmière vs Sami "Godfather of SMK" Çetin
Reactions & Quotes

Paul O'KellyIt is hard to believe that the journey from playing the game up until my participation in this amazing event was only 10 months long.
The Team UK players were all so helpful and inspiring to make me push myself to be at my best in the lead up my first CDM. At the tournament itself I learned skills from players of all nations and the welcome was unbelievable.
2020 cannot come soon enough to compete but more importantly to meet the new friends and community that gave me one of the most amazing moments of my life.”
Ireland - First Participation - Ranked 26th.

Thomas RunhartWe are running a lot of big events these days, but I know everybody here at the Esports Game Arena can say that this is the most amazing event: the Super Mario Kart championships.
I think that the Fortnite championships got less attention from the media over here than these championships.”
The Netherlands - Esports Game Arena owner.

Sophie JarmouniI discovered the championship in 2014 thanks to a group of friends who were doing a report on the competition. I used to go there as a dilettante, to have fun. I didn't know I was going to meet some of the most important people in my life and even less than five years later I would want to get involved in the community to the point of organizing the competition, while improving my ranking.
The enthusiasm for the game never diminishes, the annual week we spend together is probably the one I expect the most, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.”
Belgium - Organisation team - 6th Participation - Ranked 10th.

Drew BlumfieldI just hope you all don't get too old and too tired to make the trip across the border, into the Netherlands in future years, it means so much to everyone to see the same faces and even new faces.
It's not really about SMK, even though it's a fantastic game, one of the best game ever made, thanks to Nintendo for making the game, but it's the people we meet here and how we are all family here, and it's so fantastic that we hope we get a bunch of new players in the coming years.”
United States - 12th Participation - Ranked 16th.

Karel van DuijvenbodenI would say that what makes SMK Championships stand out as a competitive gaming event is 100% tradition. It’s been going on since 2002 and the culture of the event is id imagine very much different from more contemporary gaming tournaments. The core members have been meeting yearly (or more) for over 10 years.
They are not only competitors, but often good friends who visit each other on holidays outside of the gaming realm as well.
In terms of the culture, the first few years players spent the night camping and it was a very free-spirited event, almost hippy-esque even. That spirit has stuck, even though all players stay in hotels and airbnbs nowadays. The competitive aspect has always been there, but since there are no big monetary prizes, professionally sponsored esports players and careers to think of, it’s not completely dominating the experience. That’s not to say that the level is lower because of it
When you’re all playing the game for over 10 years, the evolutionary warfare that develops between players makes the overall level simply monstrous.”
The Netherlands - Organisation team - 13th Participation - Ranked 5th.

Takashi OgasawaraThe Grand Prix match against Lafungo this year was the most wonderful memory of my life.”
Japan - 3rd Participation - Ranked 9th.

Lucie CarneyI needn’t have worried, despite playing against three of the world’s top players, I’ve never been made to feel more comfortable and happy to play a game I knew I would losing, so much so that I resigned myself to practicing and entering more modes next year.
The SMK community really are a wonderful bunch of people; welcoming, kind and helpful beyond belief. By the end of the tournament I felt part of the family and the excitement when players asked me to sign their posters has sealed my fate for next year. I’ll be back, and this time I’ll get in 40 minutes practice. ;)”
United Kingdom - First Participation - Ranked 45th.

Marius HukkelåsAll these people that I have known throughout the last decade and a half are all meeting up to compete in what is now an incredibly competitive retro game with a skill ceiling so high, it will never be reached.
Of course I would make the return as main commentator in 2019, this time also handling a significant portion of the streaming station as well.
It is amazing how this community has so many delightful personalities and dedicated people, as it really is a team effort to make the CDM happen each year. Even to those who no longer have hopes or aspirations of placing in the game still come out for this yearly event, which continues to baffle the audience into nigh-on disbelief at the quality found at the very top.”
Norway - Commentator - Second Participation - Ranked 34th.

Julien HolmièreEven though we are all good friends and having a lot of fun, the competition’s level is pretty high and we push ourselves to the limits. But funnily, it seems there are no limit to this game as we keep discovering new things and improving world records every year.
There are so many layers to this game that its lifetime seems to be endless...”
France - 13th Participation - Ranked 1st (2019 Champion).
Super Mario Kart™ and its characters are ® Nintendo