Wii had a Game Night

On Saturday evening, December 4, 2010, we hosted our first Wii Tournament of Champions. Our student from Michigan Tech came over in the evening for amazing food and some major calorie-burning fun.

Srinu prepared for us an Indian feast and taught us how to prepare some yummy dishes. From rices to curry and even a home-made curd, we were well-fed and happy. Then we were ready to put on our game faces.

We began by creating a Mii for all of our participants: Alanna, Gabriel, Daniel JF, Srinu, and Robert. Israel and I already had ours made. After this, we hit up a beautiful Resort with unlimited free amenities! We round-robined in 3 activities: canoeing, archery, and wakeboarding. We were all pretty head-to-head with the most memorable moments coming from Daniel JF’s epic flop on the final archery round to lose to his greatest rival, yours truly. Alanna’s canoeing skills also shined as she took down Gabe with ease. And who could forget the first game in the tournament where Robert demolished Israel on the wakeboard. It was hard to believe that Robert never played before.

We duked it out. It got really intense after a couple hours and 2 of our competitors made an early exit, however, they didn’t leave empty-handed. They were awarded consolation prizes as we saw them out. Then without any further pause, the Wii sticks continued to flail and fly in all sorts of directions as sweat drops splashed on the on-lookers.

Then, the bona fide tournament ensued. The 3 round Sword Fighting competition. This was for all the marbles. And by “all the marbles”, I mean the coveted prizes which were brought to us by a generous donor in conjunction with Walmart’s always low prices. It was for the big-time. We played round-robin again to determine rank. I was undefeated against everyone so that got me a Bye and saved me a place in the championship bracket. The other guys fought through the semi-finals and one guy finally came out up top. Robert Gordon. In the intense finals, not only did we burn about 500 calories, it was so close that spectators who were intensely cheering, burned about 300 calories too. And finally in the third round, I plummeted to my defeat into the cold water.

Robert was deemed the Wii Champion for the night. He received a cute snowman mug with a hot cocoa kit. Daniel JF was awarded runner-up for his nearly pristine performance in archery. His prize was the classic Snowman Pez Dispenser with 3 multi-flavored packs of Pez. Gabe came in third place for his record-breaking wakeboarding run, (which Judy definitely did NOT beat). He was awarded Cool Mint Blistex to keep his lips nice and supple throughout the cold winter months.

The award ceremony was simple, yet elegant. Beautifully wrapped prizes were presented to the winners…and in fact, we were all winners. There are no losers when you play in the Ramos house. Everyone got a prize…just not as good as the top prizes. As we bid them farewell, they walked out in the dark night, the snowflakes silently and gently covering the ground. Before we knew it, they were gone. But they will be back, no doubt. Talk about an on-going olympic tournament throughout next semester is in the works. Wii will see them again and Wii will be ready.