The Mario Kart tournament has become a yearly event for the school, with it bringing joy to its participants.

When asked what made them want to participate, Cleo Horst stated, “I always really liked Mario Kart, I used to play it with and teach my sisters, and it seemed like a fun opportunity.”

Similarly, when asked the same question Tyler Hawley said, “I like playing Mario Kart.”

Most participants likely had similar motivations for joining the tournament.

There were differences in opinions on the best parts of the tournament, with Horst stating, “I think my favorite part is the other racers, we would be racing against each other but we would be joking the whole time and making fun of the situation, so it was fun,” and Hawley said his favorite part was “probably racing, playing the game you know.”

Hawley explained how he prepared for the tournament: “We have a Mario Kart Wii club, so I played that a lot to get some practice in for the tournament.”

Horst also explained how she prepared for the tournament: “I feel like I’ve kinda been practicing forever seeing as I always [played Mario Kart] with my family, but I got together with some other friends who were also [participating in the tournament], and we had a little hour session of just playing Mario Kart.”

Both Horst and Hawley said they would recommend participating in the tournament, with Horst saying: “absolutely, it’s really fun for both experienced and inexperienced, there’s a loser bracket if you lose, so if you get out the first round you can still play, so it’s really fun.”

However, both Horst and Hawley did have some gripes this year, with Hawley stating: “I got a broken controller, and it took about 5 seconds to drift and then it would just drift the wrong way, so it wasn’t that fun;” Hawley did say this isn’t usual for the tournament to have broken controllers though.

Horst said: “it would be nice if it were a little more even, because I know a lot of different people did different races so it felt a little uneven there,” for context Mario Kart has several different race speed options.