One of the unique opportunities the gaming world offers is the chance for any individual to share their gameplay with a live audience.
Twitch, a live video streaming service, has somewhere around 3.8 million monthly broadcasters and partnerships with over 41,100 streamers, according to a Business of Apps article. The app allows individuals to stream their gameplay and receive donations from their viewers.
Miguel Melchor, a junior in the College of Engineering and Esports team manager, hosted his own live stream this summer. He hosted a match of Marquette Esports Counterstrike: Global Offensive on Twitch and included an option for players to donate their money for a good cause.
Melchor donated the balance of the stream to Gianna Floyd, the daughter of the late George Floyd. The charity stream raised $145 that was directly donated on stream to “OFFICIAL Gianna Floyd Fund (George Floyd’s child).”
George Floyd was the victim of a police brutality incident this past summer in which Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, sparking protests worldwide.
“The stream was shortly after the George Floyd incident happened and as a club, me and the rest of the officers decided, we’re a club that’s very diverse with the amount of people we have and we stand behind the entire movement that’s going on,” Melchor said.
The stream took place June 8, two weeks after George Floyd’s death.
“It’s really important that we as a club and as individuals on campus are united. People need to be together so in my opinion, it was an amazing thing for him to do. A lot of respect,” Nati Monosov, president of the esports team and sophomore in the College of Engineering, said.
Charity streams are not unheard of in the gaming world as many individuals have hosted streams to help raise funds for specific groups or individuals.
“At Twitch, community is at the center of everything we do. Whether in support of current cultural events, in relief for national emergencies, or to provide funds to ongoing community needs, the Twitch community has shown to be a powerful force for good to provide financial support to non-profit organizations, according to Twitch’s website.
Melchor mentioned his decision to send the raised funds to Gianna Floyd was related to his family. In total, Gianna Floyd has received around 2.3 million dollars in a GoFundMe.
“I have two younger sisters and the youngest of two is around Gianna Floyd’s age. I love my sisters to death and with how close of a relationship we all have with my dad, how that would feel for somebody like Gianna to not have her dad there for her anymore?” Melchor said. “Just the idea of losing a parent and not having that backup as you grow up is something that really stuck out to me.”
“Of course, it’s not as much because it was a last-minute thing but anything to help was enough for me. It was something positive for awareness and raising money for Gianna Floyd,” Melchor said.
Melchor said he received lots of positive feedback from Marquette Gaming & Esports and his friends.
“For the Counterstrike guys, as soon as I pitched the idea to them, ‘would you guys be down for that’ and of course, all of them agreed immediately. Just all of the positivity from whether it was MGE, my friends back home, my family; all that just seeing I was doing something positive for the community. A lot of people had texted me and were proud of me, but they really thought it was a positive thing like that,” Melchor said.
The club board was overwhelmed by his positive impact on the community. The club is thinking about doing something in the future pertaining to an event were money can be raised and donated to charity.
“We would like to sponsor any sort of streams in that manner, especially donation streams, so anyone in our community who wants to do something like that, we would promote,” Michael Hendrickson, a senior in the College of Health Sciences and esports vice president, said.
Melchor said that there was something that felt different about this stream compared to the usual ones.
“Throughout the stream, it was a mix of emotions. At the start, I was just choked up because I had this monologue where I was just talking the awareness and I was just moved throughout the entire night. It was not breathtaking, but I just sat there after the stream and even though it wasn’t a ton of money, it was something that felt like we could have a positive impact,” Melchor said.
This story was written by Bryan Geenen. He can be reached @[email protected].
