The stage is nearly set: Gamers for Giving 2016 is only a matter of hours away! Our team of volunteers is hard at work transforming Eastern Michigan’s Convocation Center into an arena for gaming!

Before the weekend begins, we have to give a huge shout out to the good people over at Twitch.tv. Thanks to their support, we’ve been able to bring out a wide array of special guests, streamers, and friends from the gaming community to help us reach this weekend’s $100K goal!

Throughout March 12th & 13th, you’ll be able to watch a wide variety of stream broadcasts live from the Gamers for Giving venue. And don’t forget, you can stream or set up a fundraiser of your own! Check out our new fundraising platform, or consider making a donation to the cause!

Here’s the rundown of everything we’ll be hosting onsite! Hope you’ll be joining us!

Main Broadcast: http://www.Twitch.tv/GamersOutreach

Stream start and end times are final, but please note the schedule of content may be subject to change…

Saturday:

• 12:00 PM | Stream goes live!
• 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM | Introductions
• 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | CastleVania Speedruns with Romscout & Mecha Richter
• 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM | Discussion with C.S. Mott Children’s Hospitals
• 2:45 PM – 3:00 PM | GamerSaloon
• 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Mr Monopoli Speedrun
• 7:00 PM – 11 PM | Rocket League Tournament / Oddshot.tv

Sunday:

• 10:00 AM | Stream goes live!
• 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM | Day 2 Introductions
• 10:30 AM – 5 PM | Streamer Hunger Games / Infiniscene
• 5 PM – 5:30 PM | Gamers Outeach Segment
• 5:30 PM – 8 PM | Halo Finals
• 8 PM – 10 PM | Rocket League Tournament #2
• 10 PM | End of show!

Tournament Streams

In addition to the Gamers Outreach main stream, the following tournaments will be streamed live from Gamers for Giving!

• Halo Tournament: https://www.twitch.tv/teambeyondnet
  • Saturday: Stream starts @ 12 PM
  • Sunday: Stream starts @ 10:30 AM
• StarCraft Tournament / Hearthstone (tentative): https://www.twitch.tv/sc2ctl
  • Saturday: Steam starts @ 12 PM
  • Sunday Stream starts @ 10:30 AM

Thanks to our friends at Twitch.tv and Astro Gaming, the following guests will be attending this year’s event in support of our cause!

Special Guests

• Jessica Brohard
• Lindsay Elyse
• Lady Devann
• ImCotyy
• Wintergaming
• LEGIQN
• MsVixen
• TheHaleyBaby
• MrMonopoli
• Drift0r
• Taylor Wood
• Dan Gheesling
• Flamesword
• Hotform
• Hiko
• Margaret Krohn

Event Hosts

• SirScoots
• StrongSide
• Walshy
• Goldenboy

Heads up, CS: GO competitors! Our tournament staff have made a few modifications to the CS: GO tournament to better align the event with GSL competitive standards. Ultimately, the changes mean teams will have more opportunity to play more matches, and will hopefully have a more enjoyable tournament experience!

The major update is in regards to the format of the tournament, which will now include a group play portion:

• The tournament will include a double elimination group stage portion that will ultimately feed into the tournament bracket stage.
• The tournament bracket stage will be seeded based on team’s performance within the previous group play phase.
• The bracket stage will follow a single elimination format and matches will be played in a best of 3 series. Teams will be seeded in such a way that teams that advanced from the same group will not play each other until absolutely necessary. The bracket will progress until there is only one remaining team – the champion.

You can read through all the settings by viewing the tournament PDF.

We’ll see you at Gamers for Giving this weekend! If you have any questions, feel free to join the CS:GO Discord server!

Partnered Twitch streamer “TheHaleyBaby” will be joining us this weekend as part of the Gamers for Giving stream team!

Specializing in Call of Duty and a variety of PC titles, Haley will be joining our other invited guests as we make our way towards raising $100K in support of GO Karts for hospitalized children across the country.

Be sure to give her some love on Twitter, and tune in this weekend as she streams live from her Twitch.tv channel!

We’ll see you March 12th & 13th at Gamers for Giving!

Public speaker, entrepreneur, author, coach, and winner of the CBS Reality TV show Big Brother – Dan Gheesling will be joining us at Gamers for Giving 2016 as a member of this year’s stream team!

Upon learning about our work and attending last year’s event, Dan became interested in rallying his community of Twitch viewers to construct GO Karts for a hospital close to his hometown. Thanks to a day-long streaming session and the support of the gaming community, Dan was able to raise more than $8,000 to build two GO Karts for Children’s Hospital of Michigan, located in Detroit.

An avid gamer, Dan uploads daily content to his YouTube channel, and can frequently be found streaming at Twitch.tv/DanGheesling.

Dan will be attending Gamers for Giving on Saturday, broadcasting in support of the cause.

If you see him at the event, be sure to say hello and give him some love on Facebook and Twitter!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Heads up, Smash competitors! We are slightly delaying the start time of this year’s Smash tournament until 2 PM on Sunday, March 13th.

You are still welcome to check-in to the event at your normally anticipated time. The Smash consoles will be available for friendlies all weekend.

See you at Gamers for Giving!

Everyone loves winning stuff. You know what else goes well with winning stuff? Helping to support a great cause. At Gamers for Giving this weekend, you’ll be able to do both!

Aside from accepting donations, we’ll be selling raffle tickets to help us reach the $100K fundraising goal at this year’s event! Our prize chest is the largest it’s ever been, and we can’t wait for you to see the line up of gear available to win!

Tickets will be sold for $5 each, or you can purchase a batch of five for $20. There is no limit to how many raffle tickets you can purchase, and attendees are allowed to win multiple prizes.

While we can’t spoil all the details, the grand prize of this year’s raffle will be a fully-built custom gaming PC. You’ll definitely want in on this year’s drawing!

There will be tons of other items given out, and aside from the grand prize (as well as a few DXRacer chairs), you will not need to be present to win. Tickets can be purchased throughout the weekend until 7 PM on Sunday, at which time the raffle drawing will take place.

Be sure to swing by the Gamers Outreach booth to learn more about our fundraising goal! We’ll see you on March 12th and 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Friendly reminder: for those of you participating in either the LAN party or console tournaments this weekend, be sure to bring your waiver, and if you’re under 18, the parental consent form!

The event waiver should have been emailed to your registered address after you completed purchasing your ticket.

In case the waiver didn’t go through or was misplaced, you can re-download the form here.

Be sure to bring this with you to help us speed up the check-in process during the event!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Founder of TeamVGaming, Lanai “MsVixen” Gara is no stranger to getting involved with charity causes.

As a frequent advocate for The National Breast Cancer Foundation, The American Red Cross, The Children’s Miracle Network, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, (takes a deep breath) MsVixen has already helped raise thousands of dollars for causes, and has made an incredible impact as a charity champion within the Twitch community!

During last year’s Gamers for Giving, MsVixen aided our online fundraising efforts, and managed to help build a GO Kart for St. Jude.

While she’ll only be present for Sunday’s festivities, MsVixen will be teaming up with our other broadcasters to help bring our big weekend to a close, and hopefully, break past the $100K fundraising goal in support of GO Karts for hospitalized children around the country!

Be sure to give her some love on Facebook and Twitter, and check out her stream on Sunday during Gamers for Giving!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Joining us as a member of the Gamers Outreach stream team, local StarCraft hero Evan “Winter” Ballnik will be broadcasting live to help raise funds at Gamers for Giving!

With over 35,000 games of StarCraft 2 logged, Winter is one of the few players in the world to reach Grandmaster Random (all 3 races) in StarCraft 2. Now a full-time streamer, Winter focus on producing entertaining, educational, and enjoyable StarCraft content on his Twitch and YouTube channels.

During last year’s Gamers for Giving, Winter streamed for 32 consecutive hours, (woa) and held down casting duties for both our StarCraft and Counter-Strike tournaments, along with some of our other crew members.

This year, Winter will be joining us in a designated stream lounge, broadcasting alongside other streamers to build GO Karts for hospitalized children around the country.

Be sure to show him some support on Twitter and Facebook, and say hello on March 12th & 13th!

Midwest native and super awesome cosplayer “Lady Devann” will be joining us as part of our stream team at Gamers for Giving 2016!

Aside from being one of coolest costume crafters around, Devann is a full-time partnered Twitch streamer who can regularly be found broadcasting over at http://www.twitch.tv/LadyDevann.

Devann will be making the trip up to Michigan to help aid our fundraising efforts and build GO Karts for kids in hospitals around the country! If you’re at the event, be sure to say hello, and give her a follow on Twitter and Twitch!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!