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Do professionals use different builds per map? For example, a map has long straightaways (favoring top speed) vs a map with more sharp turns (preferring acceleration)?

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For time trials, yes that is true. There are also other concerns such as that the speed stat is actually comprised of 4 different stats that have different values depending on the terrain: Ground, Air, Water, and Anti-Gravity. Some tracks that have a lot of water and so for that you would be better going for a kart that has high water speed. There are other less important statistics at play too that aren't mentioned here such as handling, traction, and also the hitbox of the vehicle is also important since it might change how tightly you can hug a turn against a wall or how wide you have to steer to collect coins.

In practice when playing online however, you won't know what track is about to be played, and so the meta right now prioritises mini-turbo stat much higher than speed. Having a high mini-turbo can also overcome the lack of speed by performing additional mini-turbos even on straight sections. Also when playing online you also will be hit by items a lot and need to try dodge other items being thrown at you, and for that having higher acceleration helps too.

> the speed stat is actually comprised of 4 different stats that have different values depending on the terrain: Ground, Air, Water, and Anti-Gravity

Weirdly, this has a huge impact on the game, and it's also not mentioned anywhere. To find it out, you have to go to mariowiki and look up the part statistics. The kart that looks like a boat has great water statistics. That makes sense, but without even documenting that water speed exists, it's mostly just an in-joke by the developers. Why did they do this?

If you look at the first place (after clear cheaters) time trials for different tracks, you'll see different choices but clear patterns. The main mode of the game has you race a set of four different tracks, and the online mode throws in all of the tracks; So in those modes the choices are going to be more constrained towards an average good.

For my part, I got the best rank in single player on all pre-DLC tracks with only toad and the default kart, so it's a part of the game you can entirely ignore if you're not competing against other humans.

The breakdown is actually bagging vs. front running tracks. Bagging favors speed and front running favors mini turbo.

Bagging means purposefully being far from first to get good items which allow you to come back hard.

to add to this, "bagging" tracks are determined by how many shortcuts they have (ones that require good items to take, such as mushrooms or stars).

Tends to just be yoshi on one of two karts for nearly all tracks on 150cc because miniturbo speed is the same as top speed of the fastest build in the game.

"professionals"? This is Mario Kart we are speaking about, not formula 1 or counter strike.

Mario Kart has a large and flourishing competitive scene[1][2], including numerous competitions with prize money. In 10 days, Nintendo is hosting the Mario Kart World Championships where they are flying in the best players across the world to Tokyo for it. Obviously, not on the same level as F1 or CS, but there absolutely is a competitive scene for this with dedicated players.

[1] https://www.mariokartcentral.com/ [2] https://www.mk8dx-lounge.com/

This is not the point.

How many players are making a living competing mario karts?

Taking part in competitions with prize money doesn't make you a professionnal player. When I was a road racing cyclist in the upper amateur echelon I was making a decent amount of money in finish prizes, was sponsored, was given a high end bike, clothing and enough tires to last a season, and the mechanic wouldn't charge me for his work, all non local travels were paid. Yet I wasn't a professionnal cyclist as I didn't have a salary nor would I have made enough yearly money to support a family and leave a job.

So what are the highest, median and average income of those so called 'Mario Kart pros"?

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