I’ve finally recharged my batteries after participating in the Extra Life 24 hour gaming marathon for kids charity this weekend. Extra Life is a charity started by the Sarcastic Gamer podcast network in 2008 to raise money and awareness for cancer research for the Children’s Miracle Network. Money raised is donated to any of the hospitals that are part of the Children’s Miracle Network in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. I was part if team Big Geekend and our local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital is Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney.
Last year was crazy. We dared Antz to wear a dress, cracked an egg on Lab Mouse’s face and cut off his pony tail for donations, we were filmed by crew making a documentary on gaming while sleep deprived, live streamed, played with night vision goggles at 4am, battled Satan’s junk, gamed for 24 hours and raised over $700. Only four of us survived the night – Cuzza, Noodlez, Lab Mouse and myself – and won the game of staying awake. My key to survival was pixie sticks and Coke.
This year, team Big Geekend decided to raise the bar, we set our team goal at $1000 and I set my personal goal at $100. I’m happy to announce that we not only survived the 24 hour gaming marathon, but we beat our team goal of $1000 and I smashed my personal goal, raising over $430 for my team. Over $1,100,000 has been raised this year by Extra Life gaming teams worldwide!
Achievement unlocked: ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
I started off the gaming marathon playing Red Dead Redemption and Assassins Creed, then switched to GTA IV in an attempt to stay awake. It’s been so long since I’ve played GTA IV on Xbox, I kept shooting instead of running and accidentally shot a cop on the corner not once, but twice. I also played a lot of Glitch, Wipeout, Nyan Cat: Lost In Space and attempted to build rockets in the Kerbal Space Program while sleep deprived. That Jebediah guy is crazy. He seems to always be pretty happy about the fact that I forgot to add a parachute, smiling while he’s hurtling towards the earth, meanwhile Bill and Bob sit next to him wearing space nappies because they’re currently crapping their pants.
There were some silly moments, like when I thought I lost my glasses and they were on my face the whole time, ambulance joy rides on the beach or when I kept bending over to change Xbox games, forgetting that the live stream web camera was in front of me and flashing the internet my boobs. The lowlight for me was at 2am during a snacks and drinks run, I hoped out of a friends car and proceeded to walk into a tree branch, scrapping my head and creating a nice red bump. Walking into trees when you’re trying to stay awake for 24 hours is not recommended.
There are no 1UP’s in real life.
I want to thank all of you who stalked us on the live streams, shared and re-tweeted the donation links and a big warm cyber hug to those who donated. I’m proud to have been a part of this years event, thank you all so very much. Donations are still open, so if you have a few dollars to spare, please donate.
Can’t wait for next year, how does a goal of $3000 sound? Game on!
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