It's not all misery for the Misericordia eSports program. Their season may have been canceled with the rest of the NCAA sports, but the Cougars are still playing – for a good cause.
While stuck at home, over a half-dozen players are taking part in the Gamers vs Cancer College Streaming Tournament – raising money for the American Cancer Society.
"It does warm my heart that these guys even in these scenarios want to stay involved and that's probably the quickest email I sent out since all of this started," Misericordia Director of eSports Greg Lewis said.
"I saw the email from Greg and I was like, 'I'm going to get this going. I really want to support this,'" junior eSports athlete and volleyball player Matthew Churchill added. "I'm not just playing video games just to entertain myself. I'm playing video games to help out a cause."
Think of it as the March Madness of video game fundraisers. Misericordia is one of 64 teams in this bracket. Their game of choice is live-streamed on Twitch – where there's a link to Tiltify, and there, viewers can donate. It doesn't matter what or even how well they play. The school that raises more money during the week advances to the next round. Talk about doing something good during a bad situation.
"For us, it's a way to get our minds away from it," Sugar Notch-native and Misericordia senior eSports athlete Jacob Viti said. "If people start joining and start watching, maybe first for like an hour or so, they can get their minds off of this whole situation. So I'm just happy to be – at least a little bit – just helping someone out."
"This offers a new window of entertainment for a lot of people that never expected it," Churchill added. "So with us being able to help out, keep people entertained, this is one way where we're able to impact at a very large scale, with a very small group."
A very small group that's doing very well. So far, they're one of the best fundraising schools in the tournament. Money that will count towards the Relay for Life total.
"The Florida State's, the LSU's, the UNC's of the world and little Misericordia University is competing with them, beating them so far," Lewis said. "These kids are able to raise the money to make the world a better place."
"It shows that it doesn't matter your size or how much of a global impact your school really has," Churchill said. "We are able to make our stand and do what we think is right and get other people to help us out."
The Gamers vs Cancer College Streaming Tournament runs through May 13th.