Students filled Champlain’s esports facility Nov. 11 through Nov. 13 to participate in the center’s Extra Life charity event. During the course of the weekend, donations were collected to support the UVM Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. In addition to in-person events, the esports team also streamed several events on the center’s Twitch channel. The donation goal for Extra Life was originally $3,000, but the event surpassed its fundraising goal, raising $3,622 over the course of the three-day event.

Isabelle Booth (‘26), a Game Design major, helped organize the event and was part of an about 20 person team that helped to make Extra Life happen. When deciding what was going to be a part of the event, Booth said “we were thinking what’s going to drive engagement, leading into what’s going to drive donations.” 

As a result, the event organizers reached out to several gaming clubs on campus, like the Splatoon Club, to see if they wanted to host a tournament as a part of the event. Other events featured on the Twitch stream included speedruns, where players try to beat a video game as quickly as possible, and panels with game industry professionals.

Spicy Mario Party, where during a game of Mario Party participants were subjected to increasingly more spicy items as the stream continued, was one of the most popular events of the weekend. Overall, that event alone brought in about $600 worth of donations, making up roughly 20% of the fundraising from the weekend. 

“I guess people wanted to watch us suffer,” Booth said, laughing when speaking about the popular event. 

However, not all events a part of extra life made it on stream. Off-stream, there were board games, Dungeons and Dragons sessions, VR headsets, and many more activities set up to draw students to visit the event in person. There was also a raffle taking place that included items such as a Steam deck, board games, and computer accessories.

Game Programming major Madeline Daughtry (‘26) not only attended Extra Life, but participated in several on-stream events like a speedrun of the game “Celeste” on behalf of Champlain’s Women and Gender Center. She commentated, known as couching, several other speedruns that happened on stream, and participated in the first of two overnight streams that occurred during the event. Overall, her experience was positive throughout the weekend. 

“It was awesome seeing the amount of people watching as well as all of the donations…it was just a really good time,” said Daughtry.

Although Booth was unsure about how much she could mention about next year’s Extra Life event, she said she “wants to go bigger” and include some more structured events in addition to some more casual events. Booth also looks forward to “highlighting more diverse perspectives” within the game industry. 

In September, Champlain’s esports team opened their new facility. In an article for Champlain College’s The View, Esports Director Christian Konczal said “This is a space where our student community can come together to prepare for the highest levels of competitive play and a variety of game-related careers.”