We've seen our share of weird gaming tournaments. Farming Simulator has a yearly competitive tourney (and it's really good). Excel spreadsheet nerds compete in Vegas for a legit championship belt.
So why doesn't Solitaire have a world championship, too? Just because it's a game you only ever half-heartedly play while you're stuck at your desk waiting for the clock to hit 5:00 pm so you can go home and play some real games?
Maybe so, but that's about to change, as 400 players will be flown to Miami to sit at poker tables playing Solitaire on iPads (at least according to the video on that page). Can you feel the excitement? Not really? Let me up the ante, then: they'll be competing (at Solitaire on iPads, remember) for a chance to win $150,000, and it's all being presided over by notorious ESPN loudmouth Stephen A. Smith.
If you're still not excited, you must at least be curious about how you could possibly make Solitaire interesting to watch, even with the boisterous Smith tapped to host. And, unfortunately, the email PC Gamer was sent doesn't really shed any more light on that.
"The World Solitaire Championship is the first-ever global competition for Solitaire, transforming one of the world’s most iconic casual games into a thrilling cultural event," says Papaya, makers of the Solitaire Cash app. "Players from around the world will compete for prizes, recognition, and a weekend experience at Temple House Miami, South Beach’s premier event venue."
Cool, but again, as an event, how is this exciting? The email only mentions solitaire again in relation to Smith, saying he's known for his "unmatched passion, insight, and larger-than-life presence," and that he'll help "spotlight Solitaire as a skill-based competition for adults, leading up to the debut of the World Solitaire Championship."
Until today, I'd never have thought of a promotional email as something that could go off the rails, but it pretty quickly does:
"As part of this partnership, Papaya is launching a broad online campaign to promote the finals, with Stephen A. Smith participating as the ambassador," it continues. "This AI-driven campaign was produced by cutting-edge tools available today for advertisers, led by Ariely Original, a creative lab and advertising agency, in partnership with The Artery, a leading visual effects and creative studio, and Too Short for Modeling as writers and directors. The result is not just an ad, but a new blueprint for how real talent and generative AI can work hand-in-hand to create stories that feel authentic, cinematic, and entirely new."
Um, email? What the hell are you talking about? This was supposed to be an advertisement for a Solitaire app, and now it's an advertisement for… an advertisement?
Well, whatever. I'm at least a bit curious to see how competitive Solitaire works. I once watched a video about a competitive jigsaw puzzle championship and it was honestly pretty gripping—maybe people playing Solitaire would be fun to watch, too?
We'll find out in February. There's no indication of how we'll be able to watch this event, or if you even can, though I assume you wouldn't hire Stepehen A. Smith if he wasn't going to be on a screen for people to stare at.
For what it's worth, I tried the Solitaire Cash app this morning and played a few games, and yeah, just like all those free poker apps, it's Solitaire with a bunch of pop-ups encouraging you to spend money. I earned 90 theoretical cents after playing two games, but the entrance fee for the next tournament was a dollar, so that's when I bailed. Looks like I won't be heading to Miami myself.
