credits: Kainproductions

Steve Bryant (headband) & Lane Buschel (hat) talk on their baby at Barcade

Last June at Barcade, Wiimbledon, the world’s only Wii Tennis Tournament, came kicking and swinging into the world.

This year it’s going on tour. Like a band.

Leaving NYC the first week of June, Wiimbledon founders Steve Bryant and Lane Buschel, plan to cover 3000 miles of middle America in a Wiinnebago, throwing mini tennis tournaments along the way, and arrive in SF for the Wii finale on the Summer Solstice, June 21st, the weekend before the real Wimbledon.

credits: Kainproductions

Match Point

Wii Tennis is ALWAYS match point. Throw down.

Steve and Lane will pilot the Wiinnebago themselves, but they hope to grow their family on the road. “I imagine we’ll pick people up along the way,” says Steve. “Hobos, itinerant survivalists, mercenaries, Alaska-bound misanthropes and the like.”

Hear that, kids? Bugle call. Nothing says “America” better than road trips and video games, except perhaps this.

Ideally, the Wiinnebago will stop at pre-determined outposts en route to SF, prepped and staffed by fanboys who would organize laid-back afternoon tournaments, perhaps alongside The World’s Largest Ball of Yarn.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a corn field Wii tourney before,” says Steve. “We’ll need a generator…oh wait…we have a huge bus.”

credits: kansasliberal

A+B spill the beans on button mashing

Drumming up interest should not be a problem. Once word got out about last year’s “athletic spectacle” Wiimbledon burst at the seams with press. Steve and Lane worked out the competition largely on the fly with donated TVs, Wiis, and help from friends. Once the party got started at Barcade, TVs fritzed out, AV cables had to be jerry-rigged and the amount of camera people became a legitimate problem.

But to hear anyone tell it–or if you were at Barcade–none of that mattered. Wiimbledon was one of the most talked about, successful, engrossing, low-budget events last summer. LVHRD competed.

This year Steve wants to keep everything tight and compact, on the bus if possible. The Wiinnebago rolls through your tiny Kansas town, sets up shop outside the local watering hole, and you’ve got instant Heavy Wiimbledon Parking Lot (see video below).

“The trick,” Steve says, “will be getting the word out in SF, but we feel the demographic will receive the idea well. There was a pleasing symmetry to the idea: an East coast, West coast thing born of Wiimbledon’s natural affiliation with gangsta rap.”

Indeed, Steve. Call it what you will. Geekdom thrives. U

Updates galore at Wiinnebago.com.

Photos from last year at Wiimbledon.net

Watch the LVHRD VDO