Team Challengers Takes Inaugural Snow League World Challenge

Windy conditions and close battles were the story at The Snow League‘s inaugural World Challenge event at New Zealand’s Cardrona Alpine Resort on September 18. It was the League’s first event of its second season, with 16 of the world’s best halfpipe skiers and snowboarders heading to the Southern Hemisphere for a chance to be crowned the first-ever World Challenge Champions.

Unique for this event, the athletes were divided into four teams. Three were regionally based: Team North America, Team Europe, and Team Asia/Pacific. The fourth team, called Team Challengers, represented emerging talent from multiple regions. Each of the four teams was represented by one male and one female snowboarder, alongside one male and one female freeskier, and individual scores counted towards their team score. First-place finishers in each category earned their team 10 points, followed by second place with 7, third place with five, and fourth place with 3.

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These were the athletes representing each team:

• Team North America: Jake Pates (men’s snowboard), Brooke D’Hondt (women’s snowboard), Hunter Hess (men’s ski), and Amy Fraser (women’s ski)
• Team Asia Pacific: Cam Melville-Ives (men’s snowboard), Gaon Choi (women’s snowboard), Luke Harrold (men’s ski), Indra Brown (women’s ski)
• Team Europe: Jonas Hasler (men’s snowboard), Queralt Castellet (women’s snowboard), Jon Sallinen (men’s ski), Kelly Sildaru (women’s ski)
• Team Challengers: Ryusei Yamada (men’s snowboard), Sara Shimizu (women’s snowboard), Fin Melville-Ives (men’s ski), Mischa Thomas (women’s ski)

When the event was all said and done, it was Team Challengers emerging victorious. Despite the finals round being canceled due to high winds, the squad racked up overall semi-final victories in three of the four events, including men’s and women’s ski, as well as men’s snowboard. After finishing second in the women’s snowboard semi-finals, Team Challengers had earned 37 total points, securing the victory.

Team Europe finished in second place with 27 points, followed by Team Asia Pacific with 22 and Team North America with 14. 

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The event started (and ended) with the semi-finals round — and the League’s first-ever spin cap. The cap forced athletes to spin less than 720 degrees, and any trick with over two spins was scored as a fall. This led each rider to take unique approaches to their runs. For example, some athletes chose to use the halfpipe deck in their tricks, and others used cutbacks to hit the same halfpipe wall in back-to-back tricks. In general, the 720 spin cap made for an interesting round with lines not typically seen in halfpipe competition.

As expected from the result, Team Challengers dominated the semi-finals round. The event started with women’s skiing, and Team Challengers’ Mischa Thomas threw down on both of her runs. The New Zealand native earned scores of 83.0 and 91.0, easily taking down Team North America’s Amy Fraser, who earned a 65.0 and a 32.0 on her runs. Team Europe’s Kelly Sildaru also won her matchup, defeating Team Asia Pacific’s Indra Brown.

Team Challengers’ Fin Melville-Ives was the story of the men’s ski category. On his first run, he completed multiple high-level tricks, highlighted by his nose butter 540 to earn a score of 92.0. He carried the momentum into his second run, earning a 90.0 and besting opposing skier Hunter Hess of Team North America. On the other half of the bracket, it was Team Asia Pacific’s Luke Harrold taking down Team Europe’s Jon Sallinen.

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Japan’s Sara Shimizu continued Team Challenger’s success in the women’s snowboarding category. Her solid first run earned her a solid score of 84.0. Despite Shimizu nearly falling on her second run, Team North America’s Brooklyn D’Hondt could not find the amplitude to best the Challenger. In the other semi-final matchup, Team Challengers’ Queralt Castellet found her clutch gene. Despite being down to Team Asia Pacific’s Gaon Choi after one run, Castellet’s second run took a higher score and forced a single-hit playoff. Playoff scores were determined by a single trick, and Castellet’s frontside 720 emerged victorious after Choi’s fall.

The men’s snowboard semi-finals were filled with tight battles as well. Team Challenger’s Ryusei Yamada clawed back from a deficit to force a playoff round, as did Team Europe’s Jonas Hasler (whose second run beat Cam Melville-Ives’ second run by a single point). In the first playoff between Yamada and Team North America’s Jake Pates, it was Yamada’s McTwist that propelled the Team Challengers rider to a win. In the other matchup, it was the same winning trick: Hasler’s McTwist defeated Melville-Ives’ unsuccessful massive air to fakie.

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Despite the exciting semi-finals round suggesting an even more exciting finals with no spin cap, sustained high winds forced The Snow League to call off the finals round. Overall points were determined using scores and standings from the semis, and Team Challengers’ 37 would end up being the magic number. Solid performances from Yamada, Shimizu, Melville-Ives, and Thomas all helped Team Challengers take home the top prize at The Snow League’s inaugural World Challenge.

With the finals round canceled, this was the final score breakdown:

• Men’s snowboard: Yamada (Team Challengers, 10 points), Hasler (Team Europe, 7 points), Melville-Ives (Team Asia Pacific, 5 points), Pates (Team North America, 3 points)
• Women’s snowboard: Castellet (Team Europe, 10 points), Shimizu (Team Challengers, 7 points), Choi (Team Asia Pacific, 5 points), D’Hondt (Team North America, 3 points)
• Men’s Ski: Melville-Ives (Team Challengers, 10 points), Harrold (Team Asia Pacific, 7 points), Hess (Team North America, 3 points), Sallinen (Team Europe, 3 points)
• Women’s Ski: Thomas (Team Challengers, 10 points), Sildaru (Team Europe, 7 points), Brown (Team Asia Pacific, 5 points), Fraser (Team North America, 3 points)

The overall prize purse for the event was $100,000, with $20,000 awarded to be split equally among the winning team. All 16 of the athletes also received $5,000 for participating in the competition.

Despite the disappointment of the finals round being canceled, the World Challenge proved to be an exciting event with multiple skiing and snowboarding battles going down throughout the event. The playoff single-hit format made for intense moments, and the opportunity to watch elite halfpipe skiing and snowboarding in the middle of September is a rare offering. And, on the bright side, viewers who continued to tune into the live stream after the final was called off were treated to a high-level halfpipe session with the competitors throwing more unique tricks.

Now, The Snow League turns its attention to its next season two event: its Aspen Snowmass competition from January 7-9, 2026. The results from the World Challenge do not count towards the League’s regular season standings, but when the Aspen event comes in January, it’s the real deal: no spin cap, every hit matters, and results count towards becoming The Snow League World Champion.

Fans can catch The Snow League’s action this winter on NBC and Peacock in the U.S., and on EuroSport and HBO Max in Europe. Fans interested in watching the World Challenge can watch the full replay on The Snow League’s YouTube channel.