A special write up - provided by Eve Valkyrie Pilot & Eve Online player - Fendisteel
On December 20th, the Valkyrie community teamed up with EVE Online's Streamfleet to put on the first ever Custom cup. A friendly competition where teams of three duke it out for bragging rights. In between matches viewers got to play around with the streamers and make wacky requests for their entertainment. Later in the evening we got to witness the creation of a new world record for the fastest carrier takedown in carrier assault.
All of this happened to raise funds to support the noble cause of SpecialEffect. A charity that specializes in creating custom made controllers to be compatible with those with physical disabilities. Were our heroes successful in raising funds?
No, because simply calling this a ‘success’ would be an understatement. As the Custom Cup as a whole was a overwhelming accomplishment. With a modest starting goal of £500, the community managed to meet that magic number before the event even went live! I myself witnessed it while refreshing the donation page. I could only imagine the number they would reach once the festivities actually began.
The final number? £1756! Three times the initial goal, then some. That's a number very few would dare scoff at. Every pound of it is gonna go to straight to SpecialEffect to aid in their efforts.
This amount of money was no doubt brought in through the wonderful show put on by the teams competing and the personalities brought on to make the downtime between matches just as joyful.
As 2017 comes to its end and the start of 2018 here. We can take comfort in knowing we have talented and dedicated content creators already planning ahead to bring forth more events.
The ability to create Custom matches and be a spectator in said match was brought to us via the most recent ‘Winter update’. Such simple and basic features in the hands of innovative and skilled hands can truly create inspiring things.
The Custom Cup wasn't just some competition in a game. It was a community driven effort to aid those who were dealt a bad hand by fate. Not many games come close to being able to accomplish something like this.
It's only the start. 2018, we look forward to you.