Cool Off This Summer with the Ice Cool World Championship Tournament

The Ice Cool World Championship Tournament takes place this year, with North American finals at Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana (August 2nd-5th). The North American champion will receive a trip for two people to Riga, Latvia, where they will join other national champions from 19+ participating countries, in order to crown the World Champion at the Final Series at this year’s BaltiCon (November 24th-25th).

How It All Came Together

Ice Cool is the penguin flicking dexterity game that took the world by storm, winning many prestigious awards, including the “Oscar” of board gaming, the Kinderspiel des Jahres. In order to support the growing community of players, we here at Brain Games (the designers and publishers of Ice Cool) are pleased to announce the World Championship Tournament. 

Two years in the making, the Ice Cool World Championship Tournament has come a long way since the first official tournament, held in our company’s hometown of Riga, Latvia, back in 2016. Since then, there have been more than 300 tournaments held all over the globe. So, we decided it was time to invite the best players in the world to the city where Ice Cool was born.

The Road to the World Championship

From January this year, and continuing on until November, hundreds of Ice Cool tournaments are taking place all over the world. The exact structure varies from country to country, but in general, each country will have regional tournaments, and their winners will go on to participate in the country's national championship. Then, each country’s winner will be given a free trip and accommodation for 2 people to attend BaltiCon (November 24-25th, in Riga, Latvia), in order to compete in the World Championship Final. 

As of writing this, there are nineteen countries participating in the tournament: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, and Japan. All told, there will be more than 250 individual tournaments along the road to the World Championship.

North American Championship 

In the United States there will be 28 State Championships altogether, which will be followed by 9 Regional championships. Then, the regional champions from the US will join the regional champions from Canada to determine a North American champion at this year’s Gen Con, in Indianapolis (August 2nd-5th) 

For more information about tournament schedule in the United States and how you can join the tournaments and win cool prizes, see our World Championship website.

Prizes

Winners of tournaments at all levels, will receive a custom-made limited-edition Ice Cool trophy. Winners AND runner-ups will also be given special goodies, including exclusive packages of promo cards that can be combined with the Ice Cool base game for game tweaks, added replayability and extra fun! 

The winner of the World Championship will receive a trophy worthy of a champion - an exciting and exotic weekend getaway for two people, travel and accommodation covered - on top of receiving the first title of Ice Cool Champion of the World! Look out for more details on our website!

Be sure to check back for more information about tournaments and upcoming games… as well as another unannounced huge Ice Cool promotion that we will be revealing this Fall!

Brandan Parsons is a marketing and game development associate at Brain Games Publishing. He helps evaluate and develop new games, regularly attends community meetups and conventions, and is always up for another game of Ice Cool.