The 2014 Theme Park Insider Tournament: Blue Fire vs. Silver Star

Q1: Which park is the most popular theme park in Europe?

Q2: What are the characters of Silver Star?

Our goal with this year's Theme Park Insider Tournament is to show our many friends throughout the United States some of the cool attractions and theme parks elsewhere in the world. Most theme park fans in the U.S. know about the big Disney and Universal parks outside America, but there are some other great parks in Asia and Europe that should earn a place on fans' wish lists to visit.

Germany's Europa Park is one of those. The second-most popular theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris, Europa Park is owned by the Mack family and the park serves as a showcase for Mack Rides products. One of those is Blue Fire, a Mack mega coaster that debuted in 2009.

It's not the tallest or fastest coaster in the park, but it's a peppy launched coaster that features a vertical loop, twisted horseshoe roll and a heartline roll.

Blue Fire's opponent today is the park's tallest and fastest coaster, and one of the few non-Mack rides in the park. The Mercedes-Benz-sponsored Silver Star is another Bolliger & Mabillard hyper coaster, topping out at 240 feet and with a top speed of 79 miles per hour.