Get ready for a new kind of competition as The Snow League heads to Cardrona for the World Challenge in New Zealand, September 18-19, kicking off Season Two in the Southern Alps.
Fans can watch all the action live on The Snow League YouTube channel.
The World Challenge introduces a team-based format, with athletes competing for team honors outside of The Snow League’s World Championship points season. Set against the backdrop of Cardrona’s iconic halfpipe, the event brings a fresh competitive format to a dramatic new setting for The Snow League.
The World Challenge introduces a team format to The Snow League
While the Snow League regular season is all about individual points, The World Challenge in New Zealand will bring together four teams, each made up of one male and one female skier and one male and one female snowboarder, going head-to-head for team glory and a $20,000 USD prize purse.
The unique event gives The Snow League an opportunity to bring a smaller group of athletes together, experiment with team competition, and explore a new dynamic for both athletes and fans as the league continues to innovate.
Here’s what the athletes have to say:
Competing for Team Challengers alongside Australia’s breakout star Indra Brown, Season One champion Luke Harrold and Olympic gold medalist Gaon Choi, Cam Melville Ives says the team format adds a new level of pressure:
Now you’ve got your whole team on your back and you got a bit more responsibility. So you really got to, I guess, lock in when it matters because your team is on your shoulders.”
Team North America’s Hunter Hess, whose team includes Snow League veterans Amy Fraser, Brooke D’Hondt and Jake Pates, sees the format as a strategic shift:
I think competing as a team just gives you a little bit of a different perspective. It’s not you just riding for yourself out there. You’ve got to play the game a little bit more efficiently and find the best ways that you can give your team an advantage. Just give each individual that leg up so that you all succeed. It’s just a different mindset.”
Each athlete earns points based on where they finish in the competition, and those points add up for their team. At the end of the competition, the team with the highest combined score takes home the World Challenge Overall title.
A New 720 Spin Cap Introduced for Semifinals
The World Challenge will introduce another new competition parameter in the semifinals: a 720-degree rotation cap. That means no 900s or 1080s—challenging athletes to find new ways to separate themselves.
The 720 limit applies only to the semifinals. Once the finals begin, athletes can bring their full arsenal back into play, with all rotations on the table.
What’s the goal? Snow League COO Ian Warda explains:
From the beginning, we’ve wanted The Snow League to challenge athletes in different ways. That’s part of why we created the head-to-head format and why we require athletes to drop in from both sides of the halfpipe.
“The 720 cap is another experiment along those lines. There’s been a lot of conversation among fans and athletes alike about ‘spin to win,’ and as progression keeps accelerating, there’s an opportunity to create a round where athletes have to think differently about how they separate themselves.
“If you take some of the rotations off the table, suddenly amplitude, grabs, creativity, execution and overall style become even more important. We’re not trying to slow progression down. We love progression. We just think there are a lot of different things that make snowboarding and freeskiing incredible to watch, and this gives athletes a chance to showcase another side of that.”
The athletes are on board and excited to try something different.
Team Challengers’ Ryusei Yamada, whose run already incorporates lower-rotation tricks, has said this of his own style of riding featuring low-rotation tricks: “Halfpipe riding today is becoming increasingly focused on higher rotations. Within that, I want to show the good things about snowboarding that go beyond just spinning more. I want to carve out my own path to compete at the highest level in the world without relying on higher rotations.”
Kelly Sildaru, who will be making her debut on Team Europe alongside Jon Sallinen, Queralt Castellet and Jonas Hasler says:
“I actually really like [the spin cap] because it puts more focus on style, creativity, amplitude, and the quality of your tricks rather than just doing the biggest spins.”
Team Challengers’ Mischa Thomas agrees:
“I’m a big fan of [it]. I think it’s going to be super sick. It allows us to be a bit more creative and not have that kind of ‘spin to win’ feel about it.”
One-Hit Tiebreakers Are Official
Another exciting addition to the World Challenge format is the third-run tiebreaker. Instead of completing full runs, as they do during World Championship competition, athletes will settle head-to-head ties with one-hit battles.
The inspiration comes directly from the athletes. During Season One in China, Snow League Champion Yuto Totsuka and runner-up Ryusei Yamada spontaneously introduced the format during their semifinal battle. The friends had joked about trying a one-hit showdown ahead of competition, and when the opportunity arose, they went for it. Their chosen trick: a switch backside double alley-oop rodeo 900.
The athletes loved it. The crowd loved it. Now, the one-hit tiebreaker is officially part of the World Challenge format.
Hunter Hess sees plenty of strategy in the new format:
“There’s going to be a lot of strategy at play. People are going to need to play their cards right and know who they’re up against and know their opponents’ cards as well. So I think it will be really fun and it will be pretty unique. But yeah, you got to study your game and your opponents.”
The inaugural Snow League World Championship is set for September 18-19. The event will stream live on The Snow League’s YouTube channel on Friday, September 18 beginning at 5:30 pm ET (Saturday, September 19 at 9:30 am NZST) followed by a one-hour encore presentation on Sunday, December 27, 2026 at 2:00 pm ET on NBC.
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