It’s time to bring your A-game.
The Ohio University Extra Life team is calling all gamers to be part of the organization’s semiannual 24-hour gaming fundraiser Saturday.
Extra Life, an online gaming and livestreaming movement, helps benefit sick and injured children through the power of video games. With 24-hour tournaments and fundraisers happening year-round, gamers, also called heroes, raise money by collecting donations through the internet. Extra Life has raised more than $30 million to be donated to children’s hospitals around the country since its inception in 2008, according to its website.
OU’s team was created two years ago by JJ Burns, a junior studying games and animation. Burns heard of the cause in high school and always wanted to participate, so he brought it to campus. In the lobby of his freshman-year dorm, he and five friends gathered their consoles and games and raised $150.
“(We) pretty much just played video games for 24 hours,” Burns said. “That was fun.”
The event begins at 1 p.m. in Schoonover Center 450. Games that will be played include Call of Duty, Danganronpa, a Japanese murder mystery game, and Doom (2016), a reboot of the original 1993 game. A livestream will be available on Twitch, a popular video streaming platform for gamers.
Non-console games will be available to play as well, such as Jackbox, poker and a 20-person Uno tournament.
Donations can be made in-person for those who attend the event or online through OU Extra Life’s page. All fundraising will benefit children at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
For Conner Chaye, the event will be his first time in participating with Extra Life. After hearing about the team during orientation, Chaye was determined to join.
“I heard it was a thing and I was just like, ‘I'm definitely going to show up for that,’” Chaye, a freshman studying games and animation, said.
Like Burns, Chaye heard about the cause in high school through Rooster Teeth, a production company based out of Austin, Texas. The company participates in Extra Life’s yearly event and livestreams its fundraising. Currently, Rooster Teeth stands on Extra Life’s top leaderboard for its donation of $753,349.
Chaye is dedicated to the event because of the money that can be raised and the lasting impact it will have on the children who can benefit.
“If we do as much as we can to make sure (the children) can live their full life and reach their potential in the world, it feels good to know that you're helping out and doing something like that,” Chaye said.
Logan Phillips, a junior studying games and animation and an Extra Life veteran, participates not just for the game, but for the personal connection the cause has to his family.
“I'm donating to a hospital that saved the life of one of my family members,” Phillips said. “That's my reason.”
Along with being a part of OU Extra Life’s fundraising goal, Phillips sets his own goal to reach. Despite falling asleep mid-stream after 18 hours, he reached his personal goal last year of $100 while playing Destiny, a franchise where players take on the role of Guardians, the last protectors of the earth. This year, he hopes to reach a new goal of $250.
“The beautiful thing about streaming is you can go on Twitch right now and see how many people are watching,” Phillips said. If you told all of those people there was a cause they could contribute towards … even a small percentage (of people donating) is an impact.”
