In the early hours of this morning, Awesome Games Done Quick 2017 came to a close. The final speedrun was for Undertale with the challenge to get the true pacifist ending. It was right before TGH's peaceful 1:28:27 run (to become a Flowey master) that AGDQ reached their 2 million dollar goal. 

The last count they publicly shared had the donation ticker at over $2,200,000 USD and rising. In comparison, the year previous the speedrunning based charity topped out at $1,216,309.02 USD. It's amazing to see this organization continue to grow exponentially with viewers, contributors, and participants.

AGDQ was started in 2010 and has continued to raise funds for charities like Doctors Without Borders and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The event runs twice a year with a July based week long run-a-thon aptly named Summer Games Done Quick.

While I wasn't able to catch a lot of the festivities this year, I saw some amazing feats such as the recent Super Metroid race and Blood_Thunder's conquering of Doom (2016).

I'm definitely going to go back and catch up on a lot of the games I missed on GDQ's YouTube channel (which I highly recommend you folks check out). I love watching RPGs being completely broken and there's a Super Castlevania IV race that I need to watch.

Even though the fest is over, SGDQ is not that far off happening from July 2nd to the 9th. It's even possible that they might raise even more than the 2 and (near) a quarter million that they did last week. Now to figure out how to make it down to Minneapolis for it.

It's hard not to feel all giddy about gaming culture and the good it can do when watching/reporting on events like this. I think this AGDQ post sums it up perfectly: