Microsoft’s procrastination-enabling game is turning 25, and the company is marking the anniversary with a large global tournament — as strange as it sounds to have a Solitaire tournament — to find the best players.
The tournament begins Monday with a competition among all Microsoft employees. “Then, starting Monday, June 5, Microsoft winners will go head-to-head with public players in a 25th Anniversary Tournament hosted within the game,” Microsoft writes.
Players will be able to compete in five variations of the game, including FreeCell, Spider, TriPeaks, Pyramid and, of course, the classic version known as “Klondike Solitaire.” All five flavors of the game are available for Windows and Windows Phone.
Microsoft may also be using the tournament as a way to boost the game’s visibility ahead of the launch of Windows 10. While Windows 8.1 users need to download the apps from the Windows Store, Microsoft’s classic card game will once again be baked-in to the operating system when Windows 10 launches later this year.
The company hasn’t offered many other details about the tournament , like how the players will actually compete or how winners will be determined. It’s also not clear if there will be any prizes awarded to the winners — other than the chance to prove all those hours of procrastination were worth it after all.