[alt text: a text post by @coolrich.bsky.social. The text is entirely in quotation marks, as if it is being quoted from an article, and it says: “but the most chilling aspect of the so-called game, which is already being described by some as ‘a training program for CEO-killers’, is the presence of a weapon that exclusively targets only the players that have experienced the most success. Using a ‘blue shell’, disgruntled players can…”(dot dot dot)]
This is not how it has been working for some time. Item distribution is not about rank, it’s about distance.
Blue shell is kinda mid-range, and you usually get one when you’re not so far that you can’t profit from it (and even though it targets first place it also often disturbs second or third place if they’re close, either with blast damage or by making them try to avoid it).
If you’re too far to care about sniping the head of the race, you won’t get a blue shell but something that is immediately useful to you. Commonly star, triple or golden mushroom, bullet bill. Lots of bullet bills actually. I’d say those can be a lot more annoying than blue shells on 8.