ZEvent 2019: gamers break their record with more than 3.5 million euros of donations for Institut Pasteur

"Get the jackpot up!" It is one o'clock in the morning on Monday, September 23: the meter displays € 3,508,338 on the Twitch platform. The room explodes with joy !!! It's a record. A world record that gamers beat in Montpellier. Never had a video game charity event raised so much in the world on twitch. Americans are beaten, pulverized!

"We know that we are capped at the French audience.There are American events that also affect English audiences that last five days and that make 2.5 million dollars.Go, for us, hang two million euros it would be incredible, "ZeratoR, the organizer of ZEvent, was hoping for earlier this week.

Headset microphone and energy drinks reserves to hold two days and three nights, 54 French stars eSport had embarked on the marathon "Z Event" from Montpellier to raise funds for the benefit of the Pasteur Institute.

On the other side of the screens, hundreds of thousands of spectators watch them until Sunday night on their Twitch channels playing at Fortnite, Minecraft or League of Legends. They also click to send donations.

Everyone pushes their communities and launch pledges to induce everyone to give: cut their beards, get back to sports, stop smoking, dye their hair, run the Paris Marathon …

• 2016: 170,000 euros
• 2017: 450,000 euros
• 2018: EUR 1,094,731
• 2019: EUR 3,508,338

In 2016, for the first edition, 170,000 euros were raised for the NGO Save The Children and more than 450,000 euros for the Red Cross the following year. The President of the Republic congratulated the organizers. In 2018, Médecins sans frontières received more than one million euros. "We were able to finance the setting up of a hospital in northern Yemen, "says Anne-Lise Sirvain, the collection manager at MSF.

500,000 euros in 20 hours

This year, the first 500,000 euros were reached in 20 hours. The big stars like Squeezie (13.5 of Youtube subscribers) and Gotaga (1.8 million followers on Twitch) play together for the occasion at the famous war game Call of Duty. Donations rain by the hundreds and hundreds at breakneck speed. Small donations: one euro, two euros but also the most important.

IT'S A LOT OF EMOTIONS. I SAW PEOPLE CRYING

Behind ZEvent, lies Adrien Nougaret, known as "ZeratoR" in the video game industry. A reference of the discipline in France.

In 53 hours of non-stop video games, ZEvent collected more donations in 2019 than in the first three editions combined. An incredible result: "It's a lot of emotions. I saw people crying. I gave everything, I washed but it's thanks to you and only to you. I'm very emotive. We think we get used but no. You just wrote the story, "confesses ZeratoR live.

Congratulations from the President of the Republic

The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron thanked the organizers "55 French gamers have just raised over a weekend more than 3 million euros for the benefit of the Pasteur Institute. You are inspiring and you show us that anything is possible to support a cause for which we believe. well done".

A "considerable" sum for the Institut Pasteur

Dr. Jean-François Chambon, director of communication and patronage at the Pasteur Institute spent a good part of the weekend in Montpellier with gamers: "I met people very enthusiastic and incredible commitment. I'm very impressed."

FUNDING THREE RESEARCH CENTERS WITH A DOZEN RESEARCHERS FOR ONE YEAR

"More than three million euros is a considerable sum for the Institut Pasteur, and it will be able to finance three research centers with a dozen researchers for a year," says Dr. Chambon. "This community impresses me.Many people think that these people spend their time in their rooms, shut up, without communicating.They showed that they knew how to get together for an extraordinary collection operation."

THIS COMMUNITY IMPRESSES ME

The Institut Pasteur will now contact all donors to explain their actions. Saturday night already, the website of the organization fell because of too many connections.

The organizers of ZEvent are already thinking about next year. "But there is no question of becoming a gamer factory," warns ZeratoR. The first year, they had started in a garage.