TheSpeedGamers

TheSpeedGamers

Genre	Gaming Marathon
Date(s)	2008-present
Frequency	Variable
Location(s)	Arlington, Texas
Years active	6
Inaugurated	March 14, 2008
Most recent	June 20, 2014
Participants	Britt LaRiviere, Chase LaRiviere
Website
http://www.tsg.tv/

TheSpeedGamers (also abbreviated as TSG) are a group of gamers based out of Arlington, Texas, who raise money for various charities. They accomplish this by streaming live marathons of video games played over Twitch.tv (formerly Justin.tv). The group was founded by Britt LaRiviere in early 2008 and still hosts marathons regularly. Viewers can interact with the commentators and other viewers via IRC chat on Justin.tv. The group has raised nearly $400,000.00 for at least 16 different charities. The next marathon will be a 72-hour Sonic the Hedgehog marathon on December 12, 2014.

History

Britt LaRiviere founded the group in March 2008. LaRiviere originally imagined the site as a source for gaming reviews, but over time, the idea evolved into forming a marathon group. Finally, they decided that if they ran marathons, then they should do it for a worthy cause. They adopted a Speedrun mentality and ran their first marathon, with a Zelda theme.^[1] Since then, the group has continued on for over six years, hosting 32 marathons with two more planned for the 2014.^[2]

24/7 Streams

Starting in February 2011, TheSpeedGamers started a 24/7 stream. Unlike marathons, no money was being raised. Also unlike marathons, games weren't continually being played. Instead, various music was played while the TheSpeedGamers' fans can chat in the chat room on Justin.tv. For a couple hours each day, Britt or Chase played games as part of an ongoing Let's Play. For the 7 days of the week, they usually played a different game each day. Then, the next week they picked up where they left off the previous week, thus making it a once a week Let's Play update. As of the end of the Metroid Marathon 2011, TheSpeedGamers stopped the 24/7 streams until further notice. On Labor Day 2011, TheSpeedGamers once again started TSG 24/7. In the fall of 2011 TSG 24/7 became TSG Presents!, a more occasional stream than the previous continuous efforts.

On January 24, 2014, TheSpeedGamers rebranded themselves as TSG.tv, with an ongoing overhaul of their website, forums, and other features. To mark the rebranding, the group did an unannounced 24-hour marathon of Sonic and Mario games, raising money for Mercy Corps. Donators had the option to apply their donation toward a total for Mario or a total for Sonic. At the end of the 24 hours, the respective totals were applied as a handicap system for a 40-minute computer-controlled Super Smash Brothers match between Mario and Sonic. The winner of that match would be the franchise for the December, 2014 72-hour marathon, that marathon to raise money for the Rocking H Ranch. Sonic won both the significant majority of the donations and the match.

Notable Marathons

The Legend of Zelda Marathon (March 14–17, 2008): This was TheSpeedGamers' first marathon, which lasted 72 hours. All the mainstream console Legend of Zelda games were played. They raised $1,090.00 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.^[3]

Pokémon Marathon (December 18–21, 2009): TheSpeedGamers played the Third and Fourth Generation Pokémon games (Excluding Emerald and Platinum) to catch all 493 Pokémon. They raised $18,395.96 for Ally's House.

Final Fantasy Marathon (July 17–24, 2009): TheSpeedGamers played a week-long marathon. During this time, they played 12 Final Fantasy titles and raised over $50,000 for ACT Today!, a charity for autism. At one point, the marathon had more than 19,000 simultaneous viewers thanks to advertisement on MMO-Champion.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Mario Marathon (June 11–19, 2010) TheSpeedGamers longest marathon. They played over 30 Mario games and raised $57,000 for ACT Today, they originally were only going to play for a week, but extended the marathon for an extra day because of donations. Thanks to a viewer embedding the stream on MMO-Champion, the views raised to over 30,000. Prizes given away included a Nintendo Wii, posters, hats, etc. At certain points, viewers who donated $100 could join a skype call with one of the commentators.

Star Wars Marathon (July 8–15, 2011) A week-long marathon, raised $11,254 for Direct Relief International (short of the $30,000 goal). At the conclusion of the marathon, announcements were made pushing the Zelda Marathon from the fall of 2011 to the Christmas marathon slot of 2011. The Pokémon Marathon scheduled for that slot was pushed to be made 2012's week-long event, later scheduled to start June 15, 2012.

Zelda Marathon 2011 (December 16–18, 2011, extended 24 hours to December 19, 2011 upon reaching their $15,000 goal) The charity for the marathon was The Rocking H Ranch (where this and a number of their previous marathons have been held). Thanks to a renewed push by the group, the marathon reached its $15,000 goal before the end of the initial 72 hours and was extended an additional 24 hours, the extra time highlighted by 2011 Zelda release The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. On December 29, 2011, on TheSpeedGamers' Twitter account, it was announced that the final grand total for the marathon was $20,016.00.^[7] Since the marathon reached its "new goal" of $20,000, as stated during the extenstion, TheSpeedGamers announced that their Christmas 2012 marathon would be a marathon of games within the Mario franchise.

Pokémon Marathon 2012 (June 15–22, 2012, 168 hours) The charity for the fourth-annual week-long marathon was ACT Today. The renewed push after 2011's week-long marathon continued, as a series of cutthroat auctions for various donated artwork aided TheSpeedGamers to reach their highest donation total in history, over $59,000, beating the record set in 2010's week-long Mario Marathon.^[8]

Past Marathons

Marathon/Charity list

Marathon	Date	Length	Charity	Money Raised
Zelda Marathon I	March 14–17, 2008	72 Hours	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	$1,090.00^[3]
Zelda Marathon II	June 13–16, 2008	72 Hours	Giggles Therapy	$1,450.75
Mario Marathon '08	July 11–13, 2008	48 Hours	None	N/A
Metroid Marathon '08	August 15–18, 2008	72 Hours	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	$6,123.79
Mother/Earthbound Marathon '08	August 28–31, 2008	55 Hours	None; support of American localization (PK Siege)	N/A
Halo Marathon '08	September 26–27, 2008	24 Hours	None	N/A
Halloween Marathon '08	October 31-November 2, 2008	48 Hours	Lupus Foundation of America	$1,060.00
Pokémon Marathon '08	December 19–22, 2008	72 Hours	ACT Today!	$5,923.69^[9]
Zelda Marathon '09	March 13–16, 2009	72 Hours	Ally's House	$6,235.39^[10]
Mother/Earthbound Marathon '09	May 15–18, 2009	72 Hours	Susan G. Komen for the Cure	$10,586.00^[11]
Metal Gear Marathon '09	June 19–22, 2009	72 Hours	None	N/A
Final Fantasy Marathon '09	July 17–24, 2009	168 Hours	ACT Today!	$50,734.63^[5]^[6]^[12]^[13]^[14]
Mega Man Marathon '09	August 14–17, 2009	72 Hours	Earth Day Network	$7,188.06^[15]
Resident Evil Marathon '09	October 30-Nov. 1, 2009	49 Hours (due to Daylight Saving Time)	Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation	$16,349.54^[16]^[17]
Pokémon Marathon '09	December 18–21, 2009	72 Hours	Ally's House	$18,395.96
Metroid Marathon '10	March 12–15, 2010	72 Hours	Halton Autistic Family Support Group (HAFS)	$11,616.50
Mother/Earthbound Marathon '10	May 7–10, 2010	48 Hours	Susan G. Komen for the Cure	$10,749.32
Mario Marathon '10	June 11–19, 2010	189 Hours (due to 21 hour extension)	ACT Today!	$57,399.00 ^[8]^[18]
The Summer of Zelda	July 1-Aug. 1, 2010	27 Nightly Streams	ACT Today!	$20,000.00 ^*
Assassin's Creed/Prince of Persia Marathon '10	August 20–23, 2010	72 Hours	Gulf Restoration Network	$10,550.04
Community Stream Month '10	October 2010	N/A	ACT Today!	$2,075.00
Castlevania Marathon '10	October 29–31, 2010	48 Hours	Rocking H Ranch	$6,926.50
Kingdom Hearts Marathon '10	December 17–20, 2010	72 Hours	BestFriends.org	$10,624.65
Pokémon Classics Marathon '11	March 11–14, 2011	72 Hours	ALS Association	$15,394.03
Metroid Marathon '11	May 6–9, 2011	72 Hours	Civic Force	$8,251.85
Star Wars Marathon '11	July 8–15, 2011	168 Hours	Direct Relief International	$11,254.09
Zelda Marathon '11	December 16–19, 2011^[19]	96 Hours (24 hour extension)	Rocking H Ranch	$20,016.00 ^[7]
Pokémon Marathon '12	June 15–22, 2012	168 Hours	ACT Today!^[8]	$59,322.36
Mario Marathon '12	December 14–17, 2012	72 Hours	Make-A-Wish Foundation! ^[8]	$11,903.80
Mega Man Marathon '13	March 8–12, 2013	96 Hours	Rocking H Ranch	$11,880.00
Final Fantasy Marathon '13	June 24-Jul. 1, 2013 ^[2]	168 Hours	ACT Today!^[8]	$32,689.50
Halloween Marathon '13	October 18–21, 2013 ^[2]	72 Hours	Heifer International	$14,538.50
Zelda Marathon '13	December 13–16, 2013 ^[2]	72 Hours	Mercy Corps	$17,852.00
Mario vs. Sonic Minithon	January 24–25, 2014	24 Hours	Mercy Corps	$1,257.00
Donkey Kong Minithon	March 7–8, 2014	24 hours	Heifer International	$1,128.00
Indie Games Marathon	April 25–28, 2014	72 Hours	Direct Relief International
Pokémon Marathon '14	June 20–27, 2014	168 Hours	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	$32,073.33
Minithon Series	July–November, 2014	Varies	ACT Today
Sonic Marathon '14	December 12–15, 2014	72 Hours	Rocking H Ranch	$4,321.00
Total				$492,639.28

^*: The Summer of Zelda, a month-long effort of nightly streams,^[20] was originally designed to raise money for ACT Today! through the Pepsi Refresh Project in place at the time. The second weekend of the month, a user notified TheSpeedGamers that ACT Today! was also in the running with Chase Community Giving on Facebook, a similar project by Chase Bank.^[21] With only three days to do it, the community was able to garner enough votes to gain the charity a $20,000 donation for placing in the top 200 charities at the event.

References