Extra Life 2021 Game Day Reflection
Game Day has come and gone. As we usually do, it's time to reflect.
And boy what a stream that was. I've been streaming Extra Life party streams for 6 years now, easily over 20 events, and I've never faced the kind of adversity we've seen this weekend. To give you an idea...our ISP was having major hiccups in their network in the local area, causing us to have major internet outages. Not once. Not twice. SEVEN TIMES we lost our internet connection, including while on air with Rooster Teeth. We had even more hiccups getting our discord party chat into our audio. Our final game wouldn't load (turns out the new Animal Crossing update took up too much room on the Switch for us to load Smash Bros), so we had to change games. Even getting dinner was ridiculous! All three of the big 3 pizza places in town either weren't delivering or their order system was down...so I said screw it and drove to Little Caesars...which was closed. Ended up going to Taco Bell. Who knew it would be so hard to find pizza in a college town/suburb to a major city? We couldn't even draw winners for our sponsored gift card giveaway, because Gleam was down at the end of the stream! All of this with half the in-studio cast having never done anything like this before!
Now I don't say all of that for your pity, or as an excuse. Quite the contrary, actually. I say that because I want to celebrate all that we accomplished in the face of adversity. We managed to surpass all set stretch goals...even ones we never thought we'd hit! We ended up raising $2,311, which was good for nearly 4% of the total funds raised for both St. Louis Children's Miracle Network hospitals (yes, we have two of them here!), and roughly 2% of the Rooster Teeth Super Team's total (both numbers as of EoD on 11/6/21).
We had a lot of fun, got a bunch of new faces involved, and ate way too many hot wings soaked in 1 Million Scoville wing sauce. Seriously. The full video will be coming to our youtube in the coming weeks, but here's a teaser from our TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8Qc7PgG/
I can't finish this post without saying a few things first.
First and foremost, thank you to everyone for the support. Special shoutouts to #TeamBIGBITE and RTSTL for their tireless work to support this effort over the last 6 years. I'd also like to thank our friends at N3 eSports and the Pi Zeta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia for all their help and support during this event. Thanks to our event sponsors (Easy Roller Dice Co., Ish and Co., and The Noname Nerd). Thanks to all of our donors, and thanks to our contest winners (Morgan, Damian, Jacob, and Hans)!
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, our work to #ChangeKidsHealth at St Louis Children's Hospital never stops. We will be fundraising through the end of the year (and will start a new page next year....kinda gotta do that anually). You can still donate at extra-life.org/team/bigbite !
Finally, I have to say that I am so proud of every single person who had a hand in our success this year. Your unparalleled efforts in the face of adversity were key to making a difference in the lives of the kids at St Louis Children's Hospital. The doctors, nurses, and staff there don't give up when things go wrong, and neither did you. I hope you feel proud of what you did here.
So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I love you all.
-Joe
Team Captain, #TeamBIGBITE
