Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez joined the gaming scene years ago as a competitor when he experienced the same competitive sensations behind the controller as he had as an athlete throughout high school. His love for eSports led to pursuing tournament titles in Halo, Call of Duty, and even Asphalt 4 for the cell phone.

His lovable personality and positive reputation as a community mentor unexpectedly put him at the forefront of the industry when, in 2011 at the MLG National Championships for Black Ops, Alex was invited to cast an event. Since then, he has been invited to host and cast events for ReedPop, Microsoft, Square-Enix, Sony, Activision, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, MLG, IPL. WCG, UMG, ESL, Paradox Interactive… ok, basically everybody.

Most recently, he accepted a full time position with Twitch, where he gets to talk about video games for a living. Don’t feel bad, we’re jealous too.

Goldenboy will be bringing back his luscious voice and charm to Gamers for Giving for the third year in a row. You’ll be able to catch Goldenboy on various stream broadcasts during the event, and word has it he even plans to compete in the Halo tournament himself!

Be sure to show him some love on Twitter, and say hello during the event!

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

The people have spoken, and we have heard their voices! We are excited to announce we’ll be hosting TWO Rocket League tournaments during the weekend of Gamers for Giving thanks to our friends at Oddshot.tv! Additional prizing is being provided by Rated M Gaming Lounge. The full list of prizes will be available at the event.

The Rocket League tournaments will be played on the PC, and will be open to all participants in the BYOC LAN party.

Both tournaments will be open to a total of 32 teams. Teams must be comprised of three players. Registration will take place on site at the event. Please visit the NOC to register your team.

The first tournament will take place on Saturday evening, and will begin at 7:00 PM. The second tournament will take place on Sunday evening, and will begin at 5 PM.

Teams can compete on both days, but in the event the tournament fills up, priority on Sunday will be given to players who were unable to participate on Saturday. Champions from Saturday’s tournament cannot compete in Sunday’s event.

The tournament will follow the following format / settings:

• Best of 3 games (the team to win 2 of 3 games against their opponent will advance through the bracket)
• Single elimination (if a team loses their match, they will be eliminated from the tournament)
• Game type: Mutators
• Match Length: 5 Minutes
• Max Score: Unlimited
• Game Speed: Default
• Ball Max Speed: Default
• Ball Type: Default
• Ball Weight: Default
• Ball Size: Default
• Ball Bounciness: Default
• Boost Amount: Default
• Boost Strength: 1x
• Gravity: Default
• Demolish: Friendly Fire
• Respawn Time: 2 Seconds

The following information must be provided to tournament admins at the NOC:

• Team Name
• Team Captain
• First Name / Last Initial of all team members
• Discord IDs
• Steam IDs
• LAN Seat

All team members must join the Gamers for Giving Rocket_League_Tournament Discord Server.

Teams more than 10 minutes late for a match will forfeit and be eliminated from the tournament.

Good luck to all the competitors! We’ll see you this weekend at the EMU Convocation Center!

Former professional Halo player Michael “StrongSide” Cavanaugh will be joining us at Gamers for Giving 2016 as a special guest!

Attendees will be able to find StrongSide in the casting booth, commentating gameplay throughout the duration of the Gamers for Giving Halo tournament!

As a member of 343 Industries, StrongSide has been deeply involved with the development of the latest installment of the Halo franchise. His long and storied history as a professional competitor provides him with a unique insight into competitive Halo gameplay.

Aside from his professional career, StrongSide was able to deliver a GO Kart to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital last year. His donation supports patients on a daily basis. We’ve been incredibly thankful to have his support, and call him our friend.

Be sure to give StrongSide some love on Twitter! We’ll see you this weekend at the EMU Convocation Center!

We’re thrilled to announce Michael “Flamesword” Chaves (aka the Optic Beard) will be joining us as a guest at Gamers for Giving 2016!

One of today’s most recognized gaming personalities, Flamesword has found success across multiple genres, titles, and creative outlets within the gaming industry.  As captain of Optic Gaming’s Halo team, Flamesword continues to perform against some of the best competitive players in tournaments around the world. Versatile as he is talented, Flamesword has also coached some the world’s best Call of Duty teams, has worked with Bungie to propel competitive Destiny gameplay, and boasts a YouTube fanbase of more than 220,000 subscribers.

Last year, Flamesword was able to deliver two GO Karts to children’s hospitals in Chicago and Newark, respectively. Having raised nearly $10,000 in contributions through a 24 hour marathon, Flamesword has made an impact for hundreds of children in both facilities, who use his GO Karts on a daily basis.

Flamesword will be joining us as a streamer at this year’s Gamers for Giving, helping us chase after this year’s $100K fundraising goal. Who knows? You might even see him hop in the caster booth.

Be sure to give Flamesword a follow on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Say hello if you see him at the event!

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

Quick update, Halo players! We’ve modified the format of the Gamers for Giving Halo tournament to reflect recent changes made by the Halo Championship Series.

In short, Empire CTF, Empire TS, and Coliseum SH have all been removed.

We’ve also added the MES points structure that will be applied to our event, thanks to MES Events.

Team passes are available for purchase here.

We look forward to seeing you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Like many of us, Margaret “Luperza” Krohn has been gaming since she was a little kid. She started playing card and board games before eventually moving on to Atari, Nintendo and Sega. When her father started working at a local computer shop, her heart was easily swayed by the power and customization of the personal computer! DOS games became the new big thing.

Gaming didn’t end there. As technology progressed, games did too! Margaret has played various RPG, FPS and RTS games throughout her generation.

As a competitive and avid gamer, Margaret has become well known in various gaming communities. Her debut was on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes where she co-hosted a podcast called, Voyages of Vanguard. She was also the Blood Mage Class Leader member of the number one world wide guild,Brotherhoood of the Spider, and Tournament Champion, defeating all of the other Blood Mages on the Xeth server. Soon after, she began her work in Quality Assurance at Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).

After a short endeavour in Quality Assurance, her design theory and game knowledge was quickly picked up and brought on to the Free Realms World Design Team where she wrote lore, quests and helped shape the classes and world of Free Realms.

Well known amongst Sony Online for being a dedicated original PlanetSide player, MaggieAnne on Emerald with Ghost of the Revolution, Maggie was brought onto the PlanetSide 2 team where she helped launch the triple A, free to play, MMO FPS as a Game Designer. After the game released, she joined the SOE Community Team as the PlanetSide 2 Community Manager and then moved on to become the Community Manager on EverQuest 2, helping build and manage Sony Online Entertainment’s gaming communities.

After Miss Krohn helped form the foundation of livestreaming and video content for SOE with the debut of PlanetSide 2 Friday Night Ops, she took a turn in her career and became a Video Host for Curse, creating content and representing their brand as a multi-media personality.

Utilizing the skills and knowledge she’s learned over the years, Margaret now manages all online video and media content for NCSOFT, a South Korea-based game development company that has produced Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, GuildWars, Aion, MXM, and Blade & Soul.

Margaret will be joining us at this year’s Gamers for Giving as part of our stream team! Catch her broadcasting live during the event on her Twitch channel, and be sure to give her a follow / like on Twitter and Facebook!

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

Twitch streamer, YouTuber, and internet phenom Coty “ImCoty” Heim will be joining us at Gamers for Giving 2016 as part of our stream team!

A rising Twitch personality and member of the Astro stream team, Coty has been producing his own videos and internet content for the past 7 years. During last year’s Gamers for Giving, Coty attended our BYOC LAN party in support of our cause. We’re excited to welcome him to this year’s event as part of our stream team, and look forward to catching his broadcast!

Coty will be hosting his own 24 hour marathon stream in support of building GO Karts for children’s hospitals. You can catch his broadcast at http://www.twitch.tv/imcoty. Donations can be made to his campaign here.

Be sure to give Coty some love on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook!

Say hello on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

As gamers, we spend a pretty good amount of time sitting in chairs. That’s why we’re excited for our recent partnership with DXRacer, a company that creates high quality gaming and office chairs!

DXRacer chairs are known for their race car aesthetic, but are also ergonomically designed to ensure comfort and proper posture during late night gaming sessions.

As a company that is local to Ann Arbor, Michigan (we were surprised too!) we’re proud to welcome DXRacer as a sponsor of Gamers for Giving 2016. The company’s support will help us make an even larger difference in hospitals across the country, as well as those in our own backyard.

We’ll have a few DXRacer chairs to give away at the event in our raffle. Be sure to swing by the Gamers Outreach booth, donate to the cause, and pick up a raffle ticket for the chance to win!

Be sure to give DXRacer a follow on Twitter, and Like them on Facebook. We’ve got a special giveaway in store ;).

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

Joining us for his second appearance at Gamers for Giving, Kevin “Mr. Monopoli” Marnell is a world record holder for Halo speedruns. While Monopoli specializes in Halo 2 on both Easy and Legendary difficulties, he has held numerous world record times across all of the Halo shooters. Last year, his speed running accomplishments were immortalized by 343 Industries after the developer named an achievement after his records called “Monopolized.” The achievement can be unlocked by anyone who beats Halo 2 MCC in under three hours.

Monopoli will be joining us during the entirety of Gamers for Giving 2016, streaming in support of the cause! Those of you viewing the broadcast will be able to watch in awe as he speedruns through Halo campaigns, and catches some games with the rest of our stream team. He’s also set up a GO Kart fundraising page, which you can contribute to here.

We’ll be posting links to each of our stream broadcasts early next week. Be sure to tune in, catch the action, and say hello to Monopoli if you’re at the event! You can also find him on Twitter.

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

For more than 20 years, PC enthusiasts have relied on Corsair to push the boundaries of performance hardware. With a new branch dedicated to gamers, Corsair has recently begun expanding its focus to creating tools that elevate the PC gaming experience, but are also compatible with the needs of console gamers. Their recently released VOID Gaming Headset is universally compatible, and is one of the company’s first forays into console gaming.

Corsair has a reputation for creating some of the most high quality performance products that exist for gamers. Now, with a new division entirely dedicated to mice, keyboards, headsets, and mouse mats, the company is expanding its reputation as an arms dealer for gamers around the world.

This will be Corsair’s second year supporting our efforts, and we’re incredibly grateful for their support. As an anecdote: our founder actually worked at the company for a period of time. When Gamers Outreach started receiving large donations, and required a full time manager, Corsair’s response to his two-week notice was “How dare you leave us to help kids in the hospital.” They’ve been one of our supporters ever since.

Be sure to give Corsair some love on Facebook and Twitter, and thank them for their support!

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