
Some lucky "Mario Kart 8" players were recently able to duke it out on an 100-foot jumbotron screen in a 40,000-seat stadium.
Aerial footage posted to Twitter on Tuesday captured an excited Super Mario crossing the finish line on the massive jumbotron screen at Kauffman Stadium, home to the Kansas City Royals baseball team. The game being played seems to be "Mario Kart 8," the latest iteration in Nintendo's fan-favorite franchise.
The video was captured by a helicopter for the local news channel KCTV, while en route to Arrowhead Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs play in the NFL. The tweet from KCTV sports reporter Tom Martin has gotten more than 50,000 reactions at the time of publication.The jumbotron, named CrownVision, sits out in center field, measuring approximately 85 feet wide and 106 feet tall. Which is to say, it's a much bigger screen than most people have in their living rooms.
The mystery of who was actually playing the game was the question of the day on Twitter. Was it employees, taking a video game break? Was the stadium the victim of a break-in from game-loving burglars?
The real culprit, it turns out, was Royals Charities, the Royals' team beneficiary foundation. The Twitter account for the charity responded to the video to say the Mario Kart was being played as part of a fundraiser. Royals Charities also teased that a "video game party" could happen again sometime in the future as the prize for a charity auction.
we sent our helicopter out to get aerials of Arrowhead Stadium and on its way there it noticed a game of Mario Kart had broken out on the Crown Vision board at Kauffman Stadium?? pic.twitter.com/rOy0icieVi
- Tom Martin (@TomKCTV5) January 8, 2019
This is a part of a @Royals Associates fundraiser with us to kick off the year! You may even see a video game party on CrownVision as an auction item in 2019
- Royals Charities (@royalscharities) January 9, 2019