Mercer's recently formed Wii Club is supplying nostalgia in spades to students with mainstream games like Mario Kart, Wii Sports and Just Dance. Even games like Crash Bandicoot may ring a bell for participants playing the on a Wii console for the first time in years.
President and founder of the club Lucas Scott '27 got the idea for a club after hosting a Wii tournament with 18 friends during his freshman year. The event was split into brackets, with the winner receiving a trophy at the end. Then, he said, he hosted a second tournament this year with twice as many participants as the first time. After he got positive feedback from the participants, Scott decided to turn events into a club, and this month, he did just that.
“There's nothing holding me accountable to make it happen more often. So this is kind of a way, one, to make me more accountable to doing this, but also to be able to share the Wii,” Scott said.
The club plans to host monthly tournaments, with members being able to play a variety of Wii games, ranging from the most recognized games to deeper cuts in the Wii universe, all sourced from Scott’s vast collection. Scott said he is in charge of setting up the consoles and TVs for each meeting, as well as planning and coordinating events with the executive board.
“It's a place where you can come play Wii games if you'd like to, and hang out with your friends. That's really what this is meant to be. It's just meant to be a fun place to hang out. And if you want to play Wii games, you can. If there's a game that you've been wanting to play that you normally don't have access to, you can come by and play it,” Scott said.
Scott, a secondary education major at Mercer with a focus in history, has a tattoo of the Wii remote’s fourth player icon because he’s the youngest of four brothers. For him, the tattoo symbolizes both his love for his family – and the Wii console.
“As a kid in high school, I'd make informative slideshows for my friends just to show them off cool things and stuff like that," Scott said. "I've always liked that, and I've always liked my history teachers, and history is my favorite class."
This semester, the Mercer Wii Club meets every Wednesday in Stetson 265 from 5-7 p.m. The meeting date will change next semester based on members’ availability.
The club also features an executive board of the vice president, treasurer, secretary and social media chair. The vice president is Bailey Hudson '27 and the social media chair is Charles Henry Fraley '27. Joseph Summers '27, who also serves as co-President of the University's club tennis team, is the treasurer while Danica Dillione '27 is the secretary and Mercer Players’ president.
