UNO championship tournament at Las Vegas esports arena

Players sat at the table. Dealers were given the go ahead and before long, it was time to shuffle up and deal.

But this wasn’t the World Series of Poker. This was the UNO Championship Series at the HyperX Esports Arena with $50,000 up for grabs to the winner. The tournament capped off a yearlong celebration of the game’s 50th anniversary.

“When we thought of the first 50 years, we thought about what’s next,” Global Head of Mattel Games Ray Adler said. “What can we do to cap off this amazing year of celebration? When I think of what it feels like to have an UNO tournament, this is the vision. I can’t think of a better place in the world than here in Las Vegas and at the HyperX arena.”

The tournament was broadcast on TikTok on Uno’s official channel and by popular streamer Ninja. The arena, which has been used for a variety of traditional gaming and unique events since opening, proved to be a perfect partner for the tournament.

“It’s 50 years building to this moment, I think that’s special in its own right,” Allied Esports CEO Jud Hannigan said. “This game has played a huge role in the last 50 years in entertainment for families of all ages. When you think of what we do here mainly with gaming and esports, this fits right into that. We’re excited to host the event and be involved in the production as well.”

Players qualified for the finals through online matches. The finalists then played a series of matches with Aldwin Rodriguez emerging as the final victor. With the tournament in the books, Mattel is already looking ahead to what’s next.

“There’s still so much more to go and do,” Adler said. “We have some great new product launches coming into 2022. We launched a new game called UNO Triple Play earlier this year and we’re taking it beyond traditional tabletop games to things like this. We want this event to become bigger and bigger and last forever and ever.”

As UNO turns the page on a half century, Adler said UNO continues to be the number one card game in the world because of its ability to bring people together.

“UNO is really a game that anybody can play,” Adler said. “UNO is for everybody. It’s language agnostic, so even if you don’t speak the same language, you can play together because that’s how ubiquitous it is. This tournament is reflective of that. We have people from all over the world. That’s what UNO is all about.”

Contact Lukas Eggen at leggen@reviewjournal.com. Follow @LukasEggen on Twitter.