By Guilherme Name

Mizzou Esports took part in the Extra Life Charity Streams to raise money for MU Children’s Health. Six participants raised $690.20 and had a combined runtime of roughly 57 hours.

The event took place on March 10, and had streams from Mizzou Esports leads, premier players, and other Mizzou Staff. It was up to the streamers to determine their total runtime and activities within the stream. 

Besides playing games, some participants came up with other ways to interact with the public. Ethan Paladino, Broadcast Lead for Mizzou Esports, played chess and read the book “One Fish Two Fish” by Dr. Seuss. He streamed for 13 hours and raised $100.

Overwatch premier player Dylan Curtiss co-streamed a game from the Overwatch Championship Series and got hosted by former Overwatch pro players Charlie “Nero” Zwang, and Indy “SPACE” Halpern. His stream endured a false fire alarm that required him to leave the room for about 30 minutes. He streamed for about 12 hours and raised $136.

Yi Zheng, Mizzou Esports community lead, went so far as to give his viewers donation goals. For every dollar donated, he would do one pushup. Zheng capped his stream after 4h30 and $150.

“I did 150 pushups,” Zheng said. “It took me about an hour to, but I separated them up and grinded them out. I was at the premier facility so some of the Valorant players joined me as well.”

The event also included Jack Butchart, Mizzou Esports Broadcast Lead; Crew Gamble, Overwatch premier player; and Vincent Femia, Mizzou’s Director of Corporate Relations. Many of the players said it was a fun experience that they would be willing to repeat.

“I’ve seen on Twitch other people doing charity streams,” Zheng said. “But this was the first time that I’ve ever done one myself. It felt good knowing that the money was going to a good cause.”

Zheng also gave some ideas on how a possible next edition should look like. According to him, it should have more streamers and set a donating goal of at least $1000. Colin Graham, Mizzou Esports Coordinator and the mind behind the event, has been participating in Extra Life for the past 12 years. He also expressed his interest in continuing with the partnership, and for Mizzou Esports to join other events by Children’s Miracle Network.

“Every year they have their General Gaming Day when the clock goes back one hour because of daylight saving time,” Graham said. “Typically those that participate in Extra Life do a 24h marathon, where they play games for the entire day, and so it ends up becoming a 25h marathon because the clock goes back. I would love for students of ours to participate in that. I would love to participate in that whilst I’m here in the facility”

Schools and organizations participating in Extra Life get to choose which institution will receive the donations. For Mizzou Esports, that would be MU Children’s Health, part of MU Health Care. Graham described how much impact these funds have for kids and their parents at those hospitals.

“That money goes to offset the cost of life saving care for children who would be at those hospitals,” Graham said. “If you are a parent, and you have a child who is in a hospital, one of the worst things to do is having to worry about how those medical bills look like. This helps with that and allows the parents to worry about their kid instead of worrying about the bill.”

Another use for the money is the purchase of equipment. According to Graham, MU Children’s Health has a particular piece of equipment that was purchased with the Children’s Miracle Network Fund, which includes the money donated from Extra Life. A lot of children that rely on it might not even realize all the streams and games that made it possible.