The Smash Bros. community held their third consecutive Smash the Record event this past weekend in Kissimmee, Florida. The main goal of the event is to smash the previous year’s donation record for St. Jude Children’s Hospital through various donation incentives. This year, both the Melee and Smash 4 communities wanted to raise a total of over $50,000 for St. Jude. Smash Bros. players from different parts of the world flew in to participate in the event. Aside from the main singles and doubles brackets, fun and unique side events, like the Poke Ball tournament and the Bowser challenge, managed to bring in thousands of dollars in donations.

Instead of a weekend of intense competition, this event is supposed to be more of a fun getaway for the Smash community to relax and enjoy the games they love in a different way. However, as the end of the weekend was drawing near, looks of disappointment were broadcast on the VGBootCamp livestream. It wasn’t looking promising that last year’s donation total would be broken. Despite it being past 3 AM local time, some people still stayed at the venue and helped do what they could to keep bringing in donations. Longtime and well-known figures in the Smash community, such as The Crimson Blur, WFX Shroomed, and the VGBC crew offered new donation incentives into the mix in order to reach a new donation record for the event.

At the start of the weekend, a second Smash the Record event was promised if more than $100,000 were to be raised through donations. However, due to the unexpected thought of not breaking last year’s record, the event organizers agreed to host a second Smash the Record charity event in Los Angeles if the $50,000 mark was reached. This would mean more top pros from the west coast could fly in for the event, there would be more events to help the Smash community grow, and, most importantly, more money could be raised for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Despite the new incentive of a second Smash the Record event in LA, donations still weren’t coming in quickly enough. The total amount raised was sitting around the $45,000 area, but that wasn’t good enough for the Smash community or the event organizers. The moment the donations started pouring in was when accordionist Jackson Parodi sat down at the commentator’s setup and began taking song requests in exchange for $20 donations for charity. Parodi amazed everyone with his beautiful playing style and his extensive library of songs that he could play off the top of his head. Thanks to the efforts of Jackson Parodi, The Crimson Blur, RagingCherry, VGBC, and everyone who helped or contributed to the event, over $51,000 was raised for St. Jude Children’s Hospital this past weekend.

Thanks to everyone involved with #StR! If you were a player, spectator, staff, viewer or streamer, thank you $115,742 total after 3 years!! — #SmashTheRecord (@SmashForCharity) November 14, 2016

Details for Smash the Record – Los Angeles have yet to be announced, but you can bet that they will once again be looking to break new donation goal records. Follow the Smash the Record Twitter to stay up to date as they release information regarding future events.

Photo Sources/Credits: VGBootCamp