As you may know, a group of enthusiastic gamers at KEEN participated in Extra Life. It’s a massive yearly event where individuals or teams gather donations towards a noble cause. In our case it was raising funds for the Stollery Children’s Hospital, and in return we had to stay up for 24 hours and play video games.
Part of the team getting down to business.
Squad Goals
Our goal was to raise $500 for the Stollery, by the end of our marathon we had almost quadrupled our total donations, coming in at just shy of $2000. For that we have to give a big thank you to everyone who donated and watched our live stream. We could not have done it without you.
We also want to thank Matt Aubin, President of KEEN, for lending us the office space to run the event, Nathan Winski for doing the team photos, the folks who lent us consoles for the event, and last but not least, our awesome graphic design team for creating the KEEN Gamers logo and other artwork for our site.
Lord Pancakes traversing Dark Souls 3. Nicole’s epic FFXIII journey.
The Small Hours
We successfully kept our team of seven awake for the entire 24 hours, though it got a little hairy around 3 in the morning. We left with some great memories and highlights from our first ever Extra Life marathon. Here are just a few of our team’s favourite moments.
Kris, Web Director
Kris played Greg, a barbarian in D&D. He kicked open many doors (and even a treasure chest) screaming “We’re here b*tches”. It became the team mantra.
D&D from Greg the Barbarian’s point of view. Not a door in sight.
Nicole, Art Director
Nicole started and finally finished Final Fantasy XIII. Pretty darn impressive.
Nicole’s epic FFXIII journey.
Renee, Senior Web Developer
There were so many for Renee, but to list a few:
- Eric, who wasn’t at the office, specifically borrowed a PS4 so he could play Diablo with Shereen.
- Janika, who played 15 hours of The Sims 3
- Everyone playing Jackbox and the constant references to our D&D game within it.
Nathan and Renee playing Rocket League
Shereen, Account Strategist
Shereen had a great time playing Diablo III with Peter, Tess, and Shereen’s boyfriend Eric, who played from home and had to borrow a neighbour’s PS4 to play because Shereen stole his console. She also learned that she quite enjoys D&D, and she loved watching the GTA5 group missions (because she would always die at the beginning of each mission).
Shereen’s Diablo Hunter looking fancy.
Janika, Account Executive
Janika managed to have 198 viewers tune into watch her play 15 hours of Sims where she created a world of vampire babies and celebrities with stalkers who leave carrots as gifts.
Janika, the streaming champ, and her massive Sims playthrough.
Nathan, Photographer
Nathan only died 42 times playing Dark Souls 3. He named his character Pancakes, Lord of Destruction. He also had an awesome time during the KEEN Rocket League tournament.
His most royal highness, Pancakes, Lord of Destruction.
Peter, Junior Web Developer
Peter led a super fun D&D campaign and got us all hooked. He also scored his very first goal in Rocket league.
Prepping for the late night D&D game.
What’s Next?
The seven us are going to get a few extra hours of sleep this week. We’re definitely going to play more video games as the holidays roll around. And next year? Well I have a feeling you will probably see the KEEN Gamers team again.
The KEEN Gamers team.