u/sodypop

Howdy Redditors! It’s our favorite time of year where we stay up all night playing games to help support one of our favorite charity events, Extra Life! What’s Extra Life, you ask? Thanks to Daylight Savings, it’s a 25-hour gaming marathon where we channel our inner insomniacs and play games all day and night to help raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

How does it work?

Extra Life is similar to any other marathon, except you get to stay indoors and play video games just like you would any other weekend. Unlike traditional marathons, no physical exertion is required (unless you count snack and bathroom breaks as exercise, and we do). As a participant you’ll create a fundraising page on Extra-Life.org, join Team Reddit or a subreddit team of your choice, then ask your friends and family to donate via your fundraising page.

On November 3rd, join the horde of other gamers and fire up your gaming rig––or console, or board games––for 25 hours of non-stop gaming. You even get to choose which hospital will benefit from the funds you raise, which means you can pick one close to your home! We’ll have some prizes for the top fundraisers in our Super Team (including all subreddit teams), and there’s also some spiffy content to unlock on the Extra Life site for hitting certain donation milestones.

I’m so in! How do I join?

You can join Team Reddit by visiting our Super Team page and choosing a subreddit team from your favorite participating community, or by joining the more general Team Reddit. When signing up, you also get to choose which network hospital will receive any funds you raise, so you can pick somewhere close to home.

Once you have joined a team be sure to spread the word! One of the most effective ways to raise cash for kids is to reach out to friends and family and encourage them to donate. Send them a link to your fundraising page, and be sure to spread the word across your social networks as well. If you need more advice swing over to r/ExtraLife to find people to play with during the event and discuss fundraising strategies.

My favorite subreddit doesn’t have a team. What do? If you build it, they will come. If you’re a mod of a subreddit, create a sub-team as a part of the Super Team Reddit! If you’re not, talk to the mods of your favorite subreddit about creating one! Mods: please see this post for more details about creating a sub-team.

Get ready for Game Day: November 3rd

Get your game face on! Game day is November 3rd and we’ll be streaming live on our twitch channel from Reddit HQ for the full 25 hours. We’ll be playing all the hits such as LeagueOfLegends, Fortnite, Mario Kart, and many many others. If you’re lucky, you might even get a chance to play some video games against a Reddit admin or two. There will also be a ton of subreddits running their own fundraising efforts, so be sure to check your favorite gaming subreddit to see if they are participating.

Dude, I can’t play for 24 hours straight! We know you’re busy and can’t dedicate an entire weekend to playing games, but don’t let that stop you from contributing! It’s totally fine to play at your own pace, or even split your fundraising efforts across multiple days. Extra Life is open to fundraising year-round, November 3rd is just the big day where the majority of people will be playing.

I won’t be able to play games at all, can I still help? Absolutely! Visit our Super Team Page and pick someone to support. Even just giving $5 can go a long way to helping the cause. It all adds up!

What does Reddit have planned? We’ll be live on our Twitch stream for 25 hours on November 3rd, with Reddit admins facing off in your favorite games. Stay tuned for another upcoming blog post with more info on prizes for fundraisers and our gameday schedule, we’ll have more on that soon!