The Player 2 Marathon for Starlight – The Aftermath
Yesterday, at 10:30am, I sat on the edge of my bed. I was feeling a strange mix of exhaustion and elation. My mind was spinning, my body barely functioning but at the same time I thought I could take on the world. My thoughts were floating through the past 24 hours, looking at the highs and pondering the lows. I spent time wondering if I could have done more and I took a moment to examine exactly what had been achieved.
At 10:31 I was fast asleep.
The first Player 2 charity event has now been and gone and I must say it exceeded all expectations. I quite often have these grand ideas, ideas of big events, filling a location with people and helping a good cause at the same time. But this time it was more than an idea, it was a goal. Player 2 had grown to the point that I could use its loyal readers and writers to achieve something more than simply being a community gaming site.
Achieving something is exactly what we did. $2310 worth of somethings. When I set the goal of $2000 I thought we would be very very fortunate to make it. I have no delusions about the reach of Player 2 so I thought it would be a miracle to get there. I didn’t take into account the generosity of the gaming community, my friends and family and most of all our readers. Not only did we reach our goal but we smashed by an extra 15%. To say I am overwhelmed is an understatement. I feel both privileged to be apart of this great community and immensely proud of what I managed to achieve on the night. To all of you who donated I say this, you have just made some very sick children just that little bit happier and that is something amazing. I am sure the Starlight Foundation joins me in thanking you all too.
It wasn’t all about the money though, it was about having a good bit of fun for a good cause. I am sick of hearing so many negative stories in the gaming community. Misogyny, Gamergate, racisim and general intolerance. It seems that these are the only stories I hear about the community as a whole and I know for a fact that this is not what gamers are. It is my hope that events such as the Player 2 Marathon become more and more common, and positivity begins to drown out those negative and abusive voices that associate with the label “gamer”.
Some highlights from the night include the epic 8 player Rocket League hour that featured not only Player 2 writers but some of the best the Australia games media has to offer, our resident Street Fighter Pro Adam being labelled a monster for defeating a 7 year old at Street Fighter V and Jenn (who is the only person who managed to do the whole 24 hours with me) discovering her gaming skills got better the more tired she got. We laughed, swore, joked and generally had a good time and I hope those who watched did too.
Of course, an event such as this cannot be run by one man. I had the help of some amazing people. I want to thank the following people from the bottom of my heart:
- Ubisoft Australia, Bandi Namco, QV Software, Disparity Games, Hammerspace Games and Devolver Digital for their donations of games and merch to be used as fundraising prizes.
- MPS Travel and Tours for covering the costs of our awesome Player 2 T-shirts
- My entire crew of writers for their constant support, for joining in and for letting me do this sort of crazy stuff
- For my wonderful wife for providing moral support, having infinite patience with my stressed out self in the lead-up and for feeding/watering the masses that took over our house for the stream
- Jenn Christodoulou and Adam Rorke for their support in logistics, PR and running the Twitch chat/twitter feed on the night
- Finally, everyone who donated. This editor will forever be grateful for your generosity.
The next item to talk about is the one I am sure you are all waiting for. The Prizes! Well fret not, I am working through the list and sorting those out as we speak. Over the next week or so I will get everything finalised and get the prizes out to winners. Watch your emails because I will be sending a message to the email address you used when you donated.
So with that out of the way, I am signing off from the first ever Player 2 24 Marathon. I can safely say it was a huge success and while it is too early to say for sure there is every possibility it will be back again next year. Once again, Thank you all.
*Note: The video above was recorded by one very tired editor
Matt Hewson
