On the 5th of March from 11am the Newcastle University Computing and Technology Society (NUCATS) will host a 24-hour charity gameathon to raise money for the Willow Burn Hospice.
The society has teamed up with local businesses such as the bespoke software development consultancy Scott Logic who are co-sponsoring the event.
Chris McQueen of NUCATS told The Courier: “We’re expecting around 120 gamers to come along and we’ll be keeping them entertained with dozens of consoles, hundreds of games and a load of giveaways, competitions, intra-event tournaments, a raffle, a games quiz and even a bake sale to keep their energy up over the 24 hours.”
He also added that: “Support from businesses such as Scott Logic, who are providing prizes including a smartwatch, a Steam gaming controller and Amazon vouchers, is absolutely incredible and helps elevate the event.”
According to McQueen, this support also allows the organizers to concentrate their efforts on fundraising as much as possible on the day, and hosting one of the biggest events on campus.
“You could always keep yourself busy by either playing games or watching other people play games”
Hemmy Ogilvie is a 2nd year Computer Science student who will be attending the event for the second year running.
Ogilvie said that “It was really fun last year, the wide variety of games was quite appealing and we had people bringing in their own consoles (both normal and handheld) and laptops.
“There were competitions for lots of different types of games ranging from Wii sports to Halo and you could always keep yourself busy by either playing games or watching other people play games”, he added.
Ogilvie also explained that potential participants shouldn’t be worried about getting too tired or bored over the length of the event.
“The atmosphere was really good, even at 4am! Sometimes we focused playing our own games and other times we wondered around to see what other people were playing”.
McQueen said that the charity of Willow Burn Hospice was chosen because “the volunteers there pour their souls into looking after terminally ill patients through thick and thin, which is why we’re fundraising for them through this event”.
Organisers (Chris McQueen, Danwen Huang, Eva Theodoridou and Harry Large) say they expect the event to raise at least £1500 for the Derwentside-based hospice, but they are also encouraging other participants to fundraise too.
Ogilvie said that he was most looking forward to the Hearthstone tournament, as “I’ve been playing that game for quite a while now”.
McQueen, on the other hand, will mostly fancy the Mario Kart tournament.
The event booked out within the first few days. Anyone who would like to get involved by sponsoring the event can donate on the JustGiving page which can be found on the event’s Facebook page.
