Sign-ups are now live over on the SHIRO! Discord in the #online_tournaments chat for the upcoming online Sega Worldwide Soccer ’98 For Sega Networks Tournament.
This time around, to speed things up and help with time zones and connections, we’re keeping the tournament in the United States (but if enough European players are interested we can open a separate bracket). There will be East and West Coast brackets, with 16 participants on each side, single-elimination with both champions facing off in the Grand Finals.
*10/24/25 Update: Enough European players are interested, so we’re adding a 8 seat EU bracket to the tournament. These seats will replace half of the West Coast bracket, since those seats are not filling up as fast as they are in the East. West and East champs will still go head to head, with the winner going against the EU champ in the finals.
Unlike the American release of Sega Worldwide Soccer ’98, the Japanese release (both normal and online) has 3D pad support. If you’re trying to practice offline with the 3D pad, pick the normal Japanese version.
Tournament will begin once all the seats are taken, so hurry up and join in before it’s too late!
This will be the eighth SHIRO! online tournament after finishing a Duke Nukem 3D tournament earlier this week. The fifth and sixth tournaments were in Puzzle Bobble 3 and Saturn Bomberman in 2024. Before those were a Virtual On tournament in 2024, Decathlete and Sega Rally Championship in 2023 and Virtua Fighter Remix in 2022.
The tournaments use the NetLink Tunnel, which got matchmaking servers over the summer to make it easier to connect to other players.
See you on the pitch!
I love the SWWS series on the Saturn, we played it a lot, since we’re Brazilian, it’s natural we enjoy soccer games, I still prefer playing these classics over modern, more realistic ones.
I’ll be checking this tournament, for fun!