Fellow gamers, every once in a while the efforts of a splinter group within our community deserve special recognition. Today, it’s the fighting game community. Thanks to the efforts of popular fighter tournament Evo 2013, and to everyone who donated, they managed to raise roughly $223k for breast cancer research.
The donations were also tied to a competition to see which fighting game would take the eighth and final slot in this year’s tournament. The rules were simply that the game whose community raised the most money to help find a cure for breast cancer would be the final game at this year’s EVO.
As of midnight, donations came to a close and the winner was Super Smash Bros. Melee with an incredible $92.5k in donations all by itself. Next down the line was the popular 2-D Skullgirls, which raised nearly $78.8K, followed by Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo which added another $39.5k to a grand total reaching well over $220k. Other games eligible to receive donations included Vampire Slayer, Super Smash Bros, Brawl and Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
This kind of community initiative really reminds me of what makes the gaming community as a whole great. For all the bickering and verbal abusiveness toward each other over Xbox Live, we still manage to come together when it counts and achieve something meaningful. I’d like to send a special shout out the James Chen, whom many may know for his activeness in the fighting game community and as a tournament commentator. His active live-commentating over Twitter throughout the donation period, especially in the final hour of donations, really helped crank things into overdrive and achieve a much higher donations total than anyone dreamed possible. Great work!
Are you guys happy with Melee taking home the coveted eighth place slot? Who actively watches the tournament scene? I personally use Twich for all my live-streaming needs, but if you guys use another method, feel free to share it in the comments. And also, make sure to give the fighting game community a special shout out during your social networking rounds today and help spread the word about this wonderful achievement.
