Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) is beating the heat on Twitch with over 100 passionate and skilled video game speedrunners, all to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. The continuous 160hour broadcast starts July 3rd at 12:00 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT), live at the Hilton Downtown Minneapolis Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Online spectators can catch the fastpaced stream live on the Games Done Quick Twitch Channel, or find archived Games Done Quick speedruns on the Games Done Quick YouTube Channel.
Summer Games Done Quick 2016’s schedule includes an eclectic array of games straight from the speedrunning community’s fastest. Classic speedruns such as Tetris: The Grandmaster, Super Metroid and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are joined by community favorites like Pepsiman, a licensed runner game featuring a cola crusader. It’s a speedrun cavalcade of indie, action, puzzle, adventure, and shooter games. There’s even a speedrun of the November released Fallout 4, a game shrunk down from 40 hours to just over 1. Of course this is only a small snippet of the full SGDQ schedule, which is available here.
Games Done Quick events in 2015 raised over $2.7 million for multiple charities, and $1.2 million has already been raised in 2016 by the winter marathon Awesome Games Done Quick. SGDQ 2016 is looking to push this year’s total even further and best the tremendous $1.2 million raised at SGDQ 2015.
These donations are extolled by the speedrun community, and is one of many examples of how gaming has grown to include more than just entertainment. SGDQ’s celebration of gaming feats is joined with the collective effort of speedrunners and their fans to make noticeable change.
Funds raised during SGDQ 2015 also went directly to Doctors Without Borders, an organization that has provided massive infrastructure and support in afflicted countries during the West African Ebola virus epidemic, and continues to provide care “…to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.” SGDQ 2016 is already a get together of talent, speed, and friendship, but it’s also a chance to show how much gamers care.
Donations to Doctors Without Borders can be made directly to the charity via the viewing page available at GamesDoneQuick.com. Donors are entered to win communitydonated prizes and a chance to have their comments read live on stream. For more updates, spectators are encouraged to follow the Games Done Quick Twitter feed: @GamesDoneQuick, or visit GamesDoneQuick.com
About the Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders supports people who cannot otherwise access health care by employing specialized medical and logistical help or running longerterm projects designed to tackle health crises. At any time, some 30,000 doctors, nurses, midwives, epidemiologists, water and sanitation experts, and many others representing dozens of nationalities can be found providing assistance to some of the world’s most vulnerable patients. They often work in remote locations, and are often the first international aid workers to arrive at the scene of an emergency
About Games Done Quick
Games Done Quick is a grassroots charity events planner focused on broadcasted speedrunning events. Since 2010, Games Done Quick has raised over four million dollars total for various charities including Doctors Without Borders, Prevent Cancer Foundation, Organization for Autism Research, and CARE. These inclusive events are community oriented and focus on providing aid through the skill of gamers and the generosity of the gaming community.
Twitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers where more than 60 million gather every month to broadcast, watch and talk about video games. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. In February 2014, Wall Street Journal ranked Twitch as the 4 fortifying the brand as an entertainment industry leader and the epicenter of social video for gamers. For more information visit: www.twitch.tv.
What is speedrunning?
Speedrunning is the art of beating a video game as quickly as possible. A speedrun relies on tricks, extensive planning, and the highest levels of play from the meticulous gamers that make up the speedrunning community. This results in an unique product of fandom that brings a new twist to traditional gaming. Speedruns are then optimized to a worldclass level through hundreds or thousands of hours of practice and perfection. An example of a speedrun would be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past at the largest website in terms of peak internet traffic in the U.S.,