Mario Kart Wii was released in April 2008, nearly 14 years ago, and has most likely been a part of the childhood of many Charles M. Russell students. 

This year, for an admission fee of $5, the library will host the 3rd annual Mario Kart tournament, where students can showcase their skills.

Senior Ashton Blake has organized and hosted CMR’s Mario Kart tournament for the last two years, and he is planning to host this year’s tournament.

“[It will be] March 24, after school in the media center, probably till 5:30 or 6:00. There should be pizza, cookies, and of course the bracket-style tournament,” he said.

Blake organizes the tournament with the help of other student government members, as well as the library staff.

“We all pitch in. Some of us go and get the pizza, some of us donate Wiis, we look for Wii U’s and consoles and games, and then we all just collaborate to make it happen,” he said.

The consoles and games used in the tournament are donated by students and organizers. 

“We just get it from people that volunteer to give them to us,” Blake said. “I’ll probably donate some, but then there’s also some seniors that have some, and we just kind of reach out. It doesn’t take too many — usually we only need three or four of each.”

The tournament has had many students participate in it the past two years, and several more are interested in this year’s event. Senior Alex Justman is one of many who has participated in the past. 

“I lost within the first round,” Justman said. “[I had] to go up against a better player. It was one of the longer courses, and he was using a mainly acceleration build. Whereas I was using a somewhat acceleration and somewhat speed build, and I ended up getting hit by a bunch of stuff.”

Justman took the time to play a few rounds in advance for practice, too.

“[We] played a little bit of Mario Kart [before the tournament],” he said.

Another potential participant this year is senior Raymond Luna, who hasn’t really played the Wii version of Mario Kart.

“[I started] last year [on the] Nintendo Switch version,” Luna said.

Luna said he has been interested in the tournament for a while, and he hopes to be competitive.

“I want to see what it would be like to win against other people, not a [computer],” Luna said.