Raaga is your NATIONAL CHAMPION for the 2ND TIME in a ROW!!!

On the 27th and 28th of October, Raaga flew up to the Gold Coast to play in the state, national and global Mario Kart finals organised by The FUSE Cup. Throughout several races against the finalists, Raaga came out on top to claim the title of national champion for the 2nd time in a row!



The FUSE Cup is an e-sports organisation that runs tournaments across Australia and neighbouring countries for multiple games such as: Mario Kart, Just Dance, Rocket League and Super Smash Bros. Their tournaments are aimed at Year 5 to Year 10 students and aims to not only provide a safe and supportive space, but also to teach about cyber safety and digital wellbeing. Students who compete in the FUSE Cup's tournaments first play in their respective divisions before they are invited to play in the state and national finals live at the FUSE Festival held in Gold Coast. Raaga was one of the many students who made it through to the state finals and were invited to play at the FUSE Festival that took place across 2 days.



On Day 1, Raaga played against a student from Yarra Valley Grammar who was the Melbourne Metro Division Champion. For the state finals, Raaga and his opponent had to race across 4 maps from the 'Special Cup' which were: Cloudtop Cruise, Bone-Dry Dunes, Bowser's Castle and the new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Rainbow Road. The player with the most points at the end of the 4 races would be crowned state champion and be invited to play in the national finals on Day 2. Raaga finished P2 on Cloudtop Cruise, P1 on Bone-Dry Dunes, P1 on Bowser's Castle and P1 on Rainbow Road.

In total, Raaga scored 57 points which was 6 points more than his opponent, allowing him to claim the title of Victoria state champion in the primary school category. Due to his stunning victory against Yarra Valley Grammar, Raaga was invited to play on Day 2 in the national finals against the Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia state champions! This time around, the 4 maps that were chosen were from 'Lightning Cup'. These consisted of: Tick-Tock Clock, Piranha Plant Slide, Grumble Volcano and the N64 Rainbow Road. Raaga was in full form going into nationals, taking P1 in the first map.

Unfortunately, throughout the 2nd race, a controller fault was discovered and hence all races were reset. Due to this, Raaga's P1 finish in the first map was not counted towards his total points. Raaga’s P1 loss in the first map meant that his opponents had a 2nd chance at victory. Without realising, he had unintentionally painted a target on his back. The other drivers were determined to steal P1 for themselves and unfortunately for Silverton, they succeeded. Raaga finished in P4 instead. However, even with this huge disruption to his momentum, Raaga didn't lose confidence in his driving ability and track knowledge and brushed it off very easily to claim P1 in Piranha Plant, P1 in Grumble Volcano and P1 in the N64 Rainbow Road. What a show of resilience!

With a total of 54 points, Raaga was crowned the national primary school Mario Kart champion of 2023! With his national victory last year, this means that Raaga is one of the first few players in the FUSE Cup to claim the title of national champion 2 times in a row! Although there were lots of smiles and celebrations, the FUSE Cup organisers had one last thing in store for all the national Mario Kart champions; and that was the privilege to play in the global tournament. The FUSE Cup held 3 different national tournaments for Mario Kart throughout Day 2: one for primary school students (grade 5 to grade 6), one for high school students (year 7 to year 8) and one for senior school students (year 9 to year 10). All three national winners were joined by the Mario Kart champion from the FUSE Cup Singapore Showdown held earlier in the year to see who would be crowned the global Mario Kart champion.

Raaga and the others raced against each other on the familiar ‘Lightning Cup’ maps and traded positions multiple times throughout all four maps, but ultimately it was the senior school champion who took home the win to be crowned the FUSE Cup global champion of Mario Kart. Raaga came 2nd in the global tournament with only a 4 point difference to first place. So close! To not only be the national champion for the 2nd time in a row, but also the 2nd best Mario Kart player in the world, you really got to have a high level of dedication and resilience in the sport! What an impressive achievement Raaga! Well done! We want to say a huge thanks to Dan and his team at The FUSE Cup for organising this special 2 day event for not only Raaga, but all the students around Australia to compete in and take pride in representing their school at the state and national level. If you’d like to see videos of Raaga’s races, please head over to the school’s Facebook page.