Power Up With Pride, an Un-BEE-lievable Hit
Power Up With Pride 2021 was a success with plenty of entertaining speedruns, including new World Records, and an incredibly wholesome Community Segment.
This past weekend, Power Up With Pride wrapped up an incredible marathon and raised $21,526.27 for The Trevor Project. The donation total marks a new record for the event, which is in its fifth year.
As is customary at charity marathons, Power Up featured donation incentives of both the exciting and silly variety.
During the Hades -3 Weapons RTA run on Friday, runner Moonblazewolf got to pet Cerberus for every 100 dollars donated. Of course, the audience made sure that incentive was maxed out to give that three-headed pup some well-deserved attention.
Along with plenty of speedrunning classics, the marathon featured games that don’t always get as much attention including a Turbographic-16 block with Neutopia, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and Legend of Hero Tonma.
On Saturday, the event saw two WRs set. The first by Crrool in his run of Finding Paradise - Full Game and the second by SkullsAndCupcakes in her run of SEGA AGES Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Knuckles All Emeralds NMG.
Repeatedly throughout the marathon RNG and runner skill combined to finish scheduled runs with plenty of extra time, but event staff and runners kept everything going smoothly with improvised bonus runs and other entertaining segments.
On Sunday, Power Up’s Community Segment was hosted by TokyoScarab who used Mario Paint to follow along with an episode of Bob Ross. The audience was encouraged to join in with whatever art tools they had handy and the full segment served as a relaxing break from the excitement and an opportunity for community bonding and engagement.
When Power Up eclipsed its previous all-time donation record of a little over $17,000 later that day, the event staff came up with another donation incentive on the fly to carry the event to the end. They announced that if the marathon breached $20,000, the event staff would perform a dramatic reading of The Bee Movie in the near future. Additionally, at $21,500, runner Jaxler would speedrun Bee Movie Game alongside the reading.
At the time, the goal seemed impossible anyways, so they figured it couldn’t hurt to have fun, but by the end of the night, they had reached the incentive, so look forward to a silly Bee Movie themed broadcast from Power Up in the next few weeks.
Power Up co-founder Celyying says the event was a success. “I've definitely poured my heart into this event over the years and I'm glad that people connect with and enjoy it so much,” she said. “...I'm so proud of everyone, from staff, to volunteers, the runners, and everyone watching and supporting.”
Check out videos from Power Up With Pride over on their Twitch channel and follow them on Twitter to find out more about the upcoming events from their team.
Header image used with permission from TokyoScarab.
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