Wii Winners Surprise Themselves

They rented "Super Mario Bros." from Blockbuster for two days but didn't have a chance to practice much because of their camping trip to Yosemite National Park. But it all worked out in the end: Bonnie and Bill McAfee played well enough to win first place at the Nintendo's National Wii Games 2010 Sunday.

"We never expected to win," said Bill McAfee afterward while Bonnie nodded.

Besides their lack of dominating play in "Super Mario Bros.," the greatest challenge the McAfees and other finalists experienced was playing a video game on stage in front of hundreds of people instead of in their living room.

"I was just trying to block it all out," Bonnie McAfee said.

The McAfees, from Westlake Village, CA, won the Super Adult category, Nintendo-speak for the seniors' category.

Other winners were just as incredulous they had won.

The Crawfords of St. Louis, MO, won the Family category. Mother Amy said that she and her husband and their two children play Wii everyday but rarely play together as they did Sunday in competition.

"We didn't expect to be here," Amy Crawford said. "It was just to have fun. Somehow, we pulled it off."

Douglas Hutchison and his son Connor, 12, also from St. Louis, said they were going to have the $15 lobster special at the pier to celebrate their victory in the Parent-Child category. Well, Douglas was going for the lobster. Connor was going to order oysters.

 "I've been playing video games my entire life," said TJ Harris, 25, of St. John, IN, who, along with his friend Chris Mrozek, won the Adult category. "This is unbelievable."

Harris and Mrozek were excited about being named the best Wii players in the nation for their category, and also for the prizes. As winners, they receive a flatscreen TV with surround-sound speakers, a year of free Wii games, a new black Wii system, a year's subscription to Netflix, and a gold Wii controller trophy.

The key to winning was playing as partners.

"There's a lot of communication, a lot of teamwork," Harris said.

All finalists competed in five Wii games: "Wii Sports Bowling," the three-point shoot out in basketball, the "New Super Mario Bros.," "Mario Kart" and "Wii Fit Plus Hula-Hoop."

More than 200 finalists competed over the weekend after qualifying at various events over the summer throughout the country.

Even those who didn't win or didn't compete enjoyed the scene in the 260 x 100 foot Wii tent erected along Harbor Drive.

"I don't even own a Wii system," said Melvin Daye from Wichita, Texas, who was a finalist in the Super Adult category. "But it was an exciting experience."

Hisae Kasuga of Torrance watched the competition on stage and then watched as her 7-year-old son played with an actual hula-hoop, and not one on a video screen.

"We had fun," Kasuga said.

Most everyone did. There was some disappointment from those who didn't win, but the disappointment didn't last for too long. After all, Nintendo flew the finalists to Los Angeles, gave them $200 in spending money and put them up in hotel rooms across Harbor Drive.

"They took care of us," Harris said.

Other winners from Sunday included Mike and Sam Kulik of Winnetka, IL, in the Adult-Teen category, and Zach Hendrix and Frank Nguyen, of Belvidere and Wheeling, IL, respectively, both 16, in the Teen category.