This past weekend professional competitive gamer, Milkfat, set the new world record for consecutive hours playing Heroes of Newerth. While Guinness is still verifying the figures, S2 Games, creators of HoN, is reporting that 69 of the 76 hours were spent actually playing, while the rest was reserved for breaks. Although he could have spent some of that break time sleeping, he chose to remain awake the entire time in order to, “prove his manliness.” That’s pretty bad-ass considering a South Korean man died in 2005 after a 50 hour Starcraft marathon, due to heart failure caused by exhaustion.
Milkfat managed to raise $3,700 in donations and all ad revenue will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. S2 Games has promised to match all donations made during the record breaking run.
This is an impressive achievement, especially considering the high-level competition and concentration that is needed to play Heroes of Newerth in the first place, especially at this level. Having seen him go mid lane as Pudge (Dota name sorry) on his stream before, the world record for most hooks landed in a 76 hour period was also probably broken.
Is this going to become a “thing” now? I hope so, as long as no one else dies. I think that the positive press from marathon/donation sessions will help alleviate some of the negative press that games seem to attract. I can’t seem to play more than 2 games of HoN consecutively without a sandwich and a nap, but i’m glad that there are those our there willing to use their very unique and specific skill set for a good cause.