Games Done Quick’s Corona Relief Done Quick managed to raise US$400,000 [AU$628,280] to support healthcare workers battling the Coronavirus outbreak across the globe.
Games Done Quick is a series of video game speedrunning marathons done in the United States to raise money for various charities.
Just last weekend, GDQ managed to raise just over $400,000 during their Corona Relief Done Quick special event which took place last weekend.
All of the donations will be going to Direct Relief, a humanitarian organization whose goal is to supply health workers fighting COVID-19 around the world with protective gear and vital medication.
A huge thank you to the community and crew of @GamesDoneQuick for raising over $400,000 to benefit #COVID19 response efforts! pic.twitter.com/SrHkuLFNAV
— Direct Relief (@DirectRelief) April 22, 2020
Corona Relief Done Quick
GDQ’s special event Corona Relief Done Quick took place from April 17-19, 2020 with the marathon runners streaming their runs from their respective homes.
The side event did not raise as much as their flagship marathons— Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick, which previously raised an excess of $3,000,000 altogether.
The Corona Relief Done Quick still managed to be the most successful special event in GDQ history.
Donations hit the $400,000 mark during the last couple of minutes of the marathon as speedrunner Ninten866 was finishing off a stellar Kingdom Hearts 2 run.
Do you want to see Sora fight an overly-long sword wielding pretty boy that can one-shot him like it was nothing? Then get those donations in for the Level 1 Critical fight against Sephiroth! We're about half way done, and half way to our goal! Lets do this, donors! #CRDQ pic.twitter.com/gqz78gqSrQ
— Games Done Quick 🔜 #SGDQ2024 (@GamesDoneQuick) April 20, 2020
Viewers were making a huge push to meet an incentive that would require Ninten866 to fight the infamous Sephiroth— a guest character from Final Fantasy 7 known for his absurd difficulty in the Kingdom Hearts series.
As if that wasn’t hard enough, Ninten866 would have to face him on the hardest difficulty using just a level one Kingdom key which is basically the weakest possible weapon in the game.
Needless to say, Ninten866 made the whole boss fight look easy as he completely obliterated Sephiroth on his first try without taking so much as a single point of damage.
History of Games Done Quick
GDQ held its first marathon from January 1-3, 2010 where it raised more than $10,000 for Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, also known as “CARE”.
Since then it has hosted 24 marathons and raised a grand total of more than $25 million for charity with their physical events averaging over 2500 people in attendance.
Reminder: #SGDQ2020 submissions will be opening April 29th! In advance of that, we will be wiping submissions from the old submission period. You have until the end of April 25th to retrieve your submission information before it's gone!
— Games Done Quick 🔜 #SGDQ2024 (@GamesDoneQuick) April 23, 2020
Their upcoming Summer Games Done Quick marathon is slated to run from August 16-23, so for all the speedrunners out there looking to join the event, GDQ will be open for video game speedrun submissions from April 29 to May 9.
The same goes for any volunteers looking to be part of Games Done Quick’s crew. For those looking to attend the marathon as a spectator, registration runs from June 7 to July 20.
Image courtesy of Games Done Quick/Twitter