Focus Attack Donate Cans – Event Highlight

Denver's local that supports a great charity!
By on September 5, 2019

Focus Attack Donate Cans combines food and fight and makes it into a beautiful act of charity. David Watt (@MHBFem) shares about his local Fighting Game Community (FGC) meetup that supports a local food drive in Denver, Colorado.

 

What’s the story behind this event? Any particular reason you started it?

Growing up, my mom’s favorite holiday was Thanksgiving. She believed in the importance of friends and family coming together. This belief extended beyond our Thanksgiving table.

During the season, our family volunteered for the Denver Rescue Mission. The very same charity Focus Attack Donate Cans supports today. From donating turkeys to Denver Rescue Mission’s annual drive to personally waiting tables during the Thanksgiving feast for the distressed, my mom taught me the importance of family, friends, and a full dinner table.

Fast-forward to 2012, the Colorado FGC lacked a proper regional event. As the FGC grew and I became more involved, I began to realize these nerds were like a second family to me. Then it hit me: A way to bring together my love for Thanksgiving and my “family”, the FGC. To have fun and come together for a great cause. From there, FADC was born.

 

What makes your local stand out?

Despite being one of our more popular events, it’s not a competitive one! The comradery in coming together creates a low-stress, relaxed event where attendees are looking to do good, rather than BE GOOD.

We help those in need by requesting canned goods for entry fees, instead of cash. Any cash that is donated, either by opting $1 to replace a canned good or anyone viewing the stream, goes to buying turkeys. Those turkeys are then donated to the Denver Rescue Mission. Prizes are all out-of-pocket; 0% of the event operations are recouped and every bit earned goes to charity.

Prizes are provided by generous members of community, sponsors, and the FADC TO’s. Community members are now supporting the event in their own ways, with bake and snack sales, photography, art assets, and providing venues for FADC.

 

Can you share some of your favorite moments?

  • In 2018 a local member, Nar, rolled up to the event with a dolly of over 200 canned goods to donate. He absolutely won the yearly highest-donation prize.
  • In 2015, donation increased massively.  We were so unprepared! A resident Tekken player, Isaak303, had to fetch is F350 to supplement our usual three SUV’s we used to carry the donations! It also meant in 2016, we had to rent a U-Haul to be prepared.
  • Classically, at least one of our Mystery Game Tournament prizes is a Dakimakura (body pillows). A once-Colorado-but-now-New-Jersey player, Dbus, has won the Mystery Game Tournament three times now. So, on three separate occasions, he’s had to travel through an airport with a Dakimakura.
  • In 2016, we had so many cash donations! So much so that we were cut off from buying turkeys from the nearby local Wal-Marts. Still needing to donate the remaining money, I and about 12 FGC folks went to Toys ‘R Us, I gave them each a budget and we went around the store buying toys to donate to Toys For Tots.
  • Last year in 2018, one of our commentators, MiniMatt who’s known for wearing ties, came up with a genius stream donation incentive: To put another tie on if a certain amount was donated. An FADC organizer, Ryyudo, half-jokingly suggested that Minimatt should tie his ties to TieTuesday, Minimatt’s co-commentator, if he ran out of ties. The donation incentive was met INSANELY fast once prompted. TieTuesday was tied by the arm with one of Minimatt’s many ties for most of their commentary block.

Who are people at your event that isn’t getting enough attention?

  • Our local streamers: KCOPedro (ttv: KingsOfCO), Onibakuman (ttv: Onibakuman), and Minimatt (ttv: Minimattt)
  • The owner of Akihabara Arcade: Brandon Osha and his seriously amazing staff.
  • The owner Safe House: Samuel Garza. Without him, we wouldn’t have had anywhere to host us in the beginning years.
  • Local FGC member Recon. With so few major events to learn from, he was one of the few who were able to sit down and teach me from experience.
  • All the TOs that have donated prizes: Alex Jebailey (CEO, CEOTAKU), Johnson Jew (Northwest Majors), Mia Martin (Michigan Masters), Mike Boczar (Frosty Faustings), and Richard Thiher (Combo Breaker)
  • Everyone who travels to FADC, a tournament that offers no prizes and supports a local charity!
  • And the entire FADC community staff who donates their time

 

Where can we find out more about your scene?

On Twitter: @MileHighBurst

 

Colorado FGC Streams:

Twitch.tv/KingsOfCO

Twitch.tv/Onibakuman

Twitch.tv/AkihabaraArcade

Twitch.tv/Minimattt

 

Check out more info about Focus Attack Donate Cans here.



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