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The inaugural Snow League World Challenge brought 16 of the world's top snowboard and freeski halfpipe athletes to Cardrona, competing across four teams: Team Challengers, Team North America, Team Europe and Team Asia-Pacific. The format was different from a traditional halfpipe competition, with athletes going head-to-head and a 720-degree spin cap in the semi-finals designed to encourage creativity, style, amplitude and trick variety rather than simply bigger rotations.
Two Kiwi freeskiers were part of the winning Team Challengers. Mischa Thomas won the women's freeski division, while Fin Melville Ives won the men's freeski division. Fin, competing in his first event since the Milano Cortina Olympics, beat USA's Hunter Hess and scored 92.0 on his opening run with a nose butter 540, followed by a 90.0 on his second run. Mischa also put together two strong runs, scoring 83.0 and 91.0 to beat Amy Fraser of the USA.
The other two Kiwis also featured strongly. Luke Harrold finished second in men's freeski, while Cam Melville Ives finished third in men's snowboard. Cam narrowly missed progressing from his semi-final after a head-to-head battle with Switzerland's Jonas Hasler. His backside air to fakie had the biggest amplitude of the day, although he wasn't able to land it.
The competition was ultimately cut short by incoming weather, meaning the finals couldn't take place. Instead, the semi-final results were used to determine the overall team standings, with Team Challengers crowned the inaugural Snow League World Challenge winners.