Nintendo Partners With Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance (ISEA) to Welcome Students to Competitive Gaming

Courtesy of Nintendo of America Inc. - Press Release - Provided By: ChrisWill Media/William Antie

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 12, 2025 – Nintendo of America is partnering with the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance (ISEA) to make gaming competitions more social, accessible, and rewarding. Starting this fall, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Splatoon 3 games for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch – OLED Model systems will be used for school-organized tournaments and events for grades 4 through 12, reaching over 80,000 elementary, middle, and high school students across 23 states. Nintendo of America and the ISEA are excited to offer students another way to gather in the name of fun and friendly competition. As part of the partnership, Nintendo will provide a large quantity of Nintendo Switch Online memberships and digital game download codes at no cost.

“We are so excited to partner with Nintendo as we continue to grow and expand competitive gaming opportunities for students across the country,” said ISEA President Danielle Johnson. “Games are a fun, communal experience. We want to make gaming accessible to as many students as possible regardless of their previous gaming experience. School-based gaming programs connect students that may have not been involved in social competitive activities before, and every student deserves a place to belong at school. These programs not only raise student attendance and achievement but also help students build healthy relationships that can last a lifetime.”

In November 2023, Nintendo of America reorganized its official guidelines and application portal for individual competitive gaming event organizers. The goal was to make the process of hosting not-for-profit, small-scale community tournaments involving games for which Nintendo owns the copyright easier and more transparent. This partnership with the ISEA is yet another way to help build and support an engaged and connected gaming community.

“We support kids who want to celebrate their passion – or discover a new passion – by getting involved in memorable cooperative and competitive play experiences,” says Bill Trinen, Vice President of Player and Product Experience at Nintendo of America. “Working closely with the ISEA ensures that we are creating a fun experience that is open to everyone.”

To find the organization that is building esports in your state, and to learn more about the ISEA, please visit the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance official website: www.iseaesports.org

Additional information on official Nintendo tournament guidelines is available here: https://en-americas support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/63433/~/community-tournament guidelines.

About Nintendo: Nintendo Co., Ltd., headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, has been providing a wide range of entertainment products and experiences since its founding in 1889, beginning with the manufacture and sale of Hanafuda playing cards. Since the 1983 release of the Family Computer (Famicom) system in Japan, and continuing through Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo’s focus has been the development, manufacturing, and sale of its gaming systems and software. To date, Nintendo has sold more than 5.9 billion video games and over 860 million hardware units globally, and has created franchises such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, The Legend of Zelda™, Pokémon™, Metroid™, Kirby™, Animal Crossing™, Pikmin™, and Splatoon™. Nintendo strives to expand the number of people who have access to its characters and worlds. Its continuing mission is to put smiles on the faces of everyone it touches with unique entertainment experiences, centered on its integrated video game hardware and software products. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for operations in the Americas. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at https://www.nintendo.com/.

About the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance (ISEA): Founded in 2022, The Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance (ISEA), is a nationwide coalition of educator-run scholastic esports organizations serving grades K through 12. ISEA is committed to advocating for, protecting, and elevating scholastic gaming programs in order to empower all students to use esports as a platform to grow socially, emotionally, and academically. Official ISEA-affiliated scholastic competitive gaming organizations include the Texas Scholastic Nintendo ISEA partnership Page 3 Esports Federation, Garden State Esports in New Jersey, the Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation, the Minnesota Varsity League, and many others across the U.S.

For more information about Chris and Will, please go to their official website at chrisandwill.com or listen to their podcast show on iHeartRadio, "What About Our Life?"