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The Omegathon of PAX West 2025 is over, and the winner of the entire event is… Prof.Pine, who didn’t just demonstrate his mastery over all things Minecraft over the past four days, but his mastery over Mario Kart World, as well. Because, oh yes: the final of the PAX West Megaton 2025 wasn’t what people were expecting at all…

As is traditional, the final round of the Omegathon doubled as the closing ceremony of PAX West 2025 as a whole; after being played onstage by the Phinny Ridge Steel Band playing a version of everyone’s favorite sports anthem ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ finalists Prof.Pine (real name Patrick, from Shoreline in Washington) and TisAMystery (Jonathan, from an undisclosed location in Nevada; let’s just assume it’s Area 51 for the hell of it) face off for a final round of Minecraft — only joking! Despite an attempt to mislead the audience into believing that they were in for the sixth round of Minecraft in a row, including a console set up to look like a Minecraft block, the final round instead centered around a Grand Prix in Mario Kart World… a game, it turns out, neither of the final Omeganauts had played before.

As if the equal playing field in terms of experience wasn’t exciting enough, it helped that there really wasn’t a clear winner as the Grand Prix got underway — the race between the two players was pretty even all the way down the line, until Prof.Pine finally reached the finish and took the crown for the year.

Although TisAMystery was consoled with the reminder that he gets to return to PAX West in 2026 as an automatic entry for next year’s Omegathon — and that returning players do have a tendency to finish victorious second time around — let’s not forget that Prof.Pine didn’t just take home bragging rights with his win: he also gets to attend the PAX of his choosing on the convention’s dime — something he was told while being reminded that there is a PAX in Australia next month…

PAX West returns in August 2026, but Omegathons will take place at the many different PAX shows before then — October’s PAX Australia, November’s PAX Unplugged, and next spring’s PAX East. Good luck to all who take part.

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