Besting 23 opponents in games of the past and present, Thomas “Ito” Gonda of California won the Nintendo World Championships over the weekend in New York City.
Thomas — a 21-year-old computer science student at San Diego State University — unseated defending champion John “Numbers” Goldberg during a best-of-three final series of Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch console.
The victory ended his status as a lifelong runner-up, Thomas said.
The Nintendo World Championships, held Oct. 7, featured head-to-head competition on games like Mario Party 2 and Donkey Kong Country Returns.
