Summer Games Done Quick raises nearly $1.3 million for charity

By Imad Khan Updated July 11, 2016

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The bi-annual video game speedrunning charity drive has done it again, raising a boat load of money for a great cause. Summer Games Done Quick, the sunnier variant to the Games Done Quick charity drive, has raised a whopping $1,298,544 in donations for Doctors Without Borders.

Twice every year, Games Done Quick comes together to stream speedrunners playing video games really fast for charity on Twitch. The stream goes on for eight days, with many of the top speedrunners in their respective games showing up in solidarity.

There, commentators along with the speedrunners themselves, discuss the glitches and game-breaking techniques that can be used to completely dominate video games in mere minutes. For the longer late-night sessions, there are also 100-percent runs in which the game, in all its entirety, must be completed. It’s also an opportunity for the audience to send donations and have their messages read live on air.

Stephen Colbert has also helped with the promotion, bringing Super Mario Bros. 3 speedrunner Mitch Fowler onto his show. In the clip, Fowler had to compete in a three-way race. He went up against Colbert himself, who was racing to heat up a hot pocket and eat it as fast as he could, and Columbia University’s men’s 4 x 400 relay team, who were to run a mile.

Last year Summer Games Done Quick raised $1,233,135 for Doctors Without Borders. That means this year the team maintained a blistering pace to beat last year’s goal by a solid $65,000.

Even the folks at Humble Bundle got in on the action. For $15 gamers could get VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy, Freedom Planet, Escape Goat 2, Dustforce DX, Guacamelee! Gold Edition, Serious Sam Double D XXL, and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. All proceeds went to charity.

For those that missed the stream, one of the most mind-boggling demonstrations was Tetris: The Grand Master. It showed off an insane Japan-only version of Tetris being played at crazy speeds.

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Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…

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