Article: Unlocking cups happens separately at each difficulty level. If you follow these instructions at 50cc difficulty level, you will unlock 50cc Leaf Cup. You will need to repeat them at 100cc and 150cc to unlock harder Leaf Cup modes. You can unlock Leaf Cup with any character and vehicle. The retro cups are the two cups on the lower row of the cup selection screen. You start out with two retro cups unlocked: Shell Cup and Banana Cup. Once you finish third place or better on both of these cups, Leaf Cup will unlock. Each cup has four tracks, which you race through in order. Your final standing is determined by how well you do in all four races. This means you can get fourth or fifth place on one or two tracks, and still succeed if you do very well on the others.  You get 15 points for winning a track, 12 points for second place, 10 points for third, and 8 points for fourth. After that, the points go down by 1 for each position. You'll usually need roughly 40 points to get 3rd place.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Select a Grand Prix difficulty mode. Pick your character. Get third place or better in the two retro cups. Know the points system.