THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Well, they did it!!! They managed to wake me up in the process by blaring “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. Jose says it wasn’t intended to wake me up, but rather keep them awake. Likely story. No matter, I’m here now. They counted down the last fifteen minutes until sleep while still playing Team Fortress 2. The bots are gone, and they have real people to play with again. One person has even been playing with them for the last ten hours.

After the “WOOO!” picture, they realized that there was only a 1:30 left in the round and stayed to finish that. Sadly, over time doesn’t count extra with this.

Thank you to everyone who donated to the charity, and those who kept them company during the trek.

Last Hour!

I feel like I'm not really typing this. I'm really tired and it's almost like an out of body experience. Soo tired, but we will trek on, or pass out on the keybaord.

It's been a great day and I'll be glad to get some sleep. Pancho seems to be holding up a little better.

Only 3 more hours

We're down to the last three hours and as expected these are the toughest. I have had to switch to glasses because my contacts were too dry. We are both feeling a bit wobbly and tired.

At this point the server seems to be populated with mostly bots so we are thinking of maybe changing games. I'll update if we decide to change.

Six Hours Left

With only six hours left, I am taking my leave from the wonderful world of blogging. The guys are still going strong, cracking jokes and swearing like sailors. I don’t know how they are doing it, I’m half asleep struggling to make coherent sentences. Jose’s eyes are hurting, but the eye drops are keeping him going.

Thank you to everyone who donated and everyone who kept the guys company during this long day. I know it’s not over yet, but on that note.. I’M OUT OF HERE!

Eight Hours to Go

It is now the home stretch, only eight hours to go!! I must say the last ten hours have flown by; two friends came over and started playing TF2 with them at 2:00 pm and stayed until midnight. That’s ten hours of video gaming gone in a blur. While my computer was being used for gaming, I played my own video game on the Xbox. I cannot believe that I spent that long on the couch.

We had to turn the air down because it was so hot in here; too many mosquitoes were coming in the open door & windows to keep them open. Presently, it is tolerable in here and really cold in the rest of the house.

The Mountain Dew count is only at nine, but we’re currently working on water.

I think the cursing hit it's high a few hours ago, it's actually quite calm at the moment. We will have to wait and see if it stays this quiet.

Made it half way

We are just over the half way mark. Still going strong but my eyes are a little dy. Luckily I have some eye drops.

Tons of people have been coming into the game server and wishing us luck and supporting us. It's been really awesome. Thanks guys, it's a lot more fun playing with people who support us. Sorry we aren't going easy on you =P

Remember we are doing all of this for charity and you can continue to donate at any time. Just follow the links to the right.

Time for Dinner

Trying to get five people, who are all busy playing video games, to decide on dinner is horrible. I finally decided that we were going to have pizza for dinner, then we had to decide what toppings. I eventually ordered two large pizzas and wings, one pepperroni ,one half hamburger half Hawaiian, buffalo wings and garlic parmesan wings. The Mountain Dew count is now at seven, with fourteen hours to go.

They are having a lot of fun playing together, but this room is really warm now.

9 hours in!

Sorry for the lack of blogging. We have had two friends join us and one of them is using our extra computer. We have 4 people in a 12x12 room all playing TF2 =).

It's been good times so far. Gone through 3 Mt. Dew each and the game has surprisngly not gotten boring. There have been tons of great moments. I hope those that have been watching have been enjoying it. here are a couple highlights since last blogged:

Double Uber Medics: We finsihed 1st and 2nd on the team with 129/112 pts. Franky had more points.

All Soldier: Turned out the whole team was into it. We did one round where the entire team was soldier. We won really fast. Lots of rockets

Okay they are complaining about lag so I'm off for now.

Remember, you can donate all day long, just visit out links on the side. Thanks everyone for the support.

The Headshot Contest

Four hours down, twenty to go! I just made the first food run of the day, Chick-fil-A, while the guys were finishing up their headshot contest. They played four rounds as snipers on the PL_Badwater map. For the first two rounds it was a close contest, but in the third round Pancho took off with the lead. In the fourth and final round, Jose started working his way toward the lead, but never quite made it. The final score was 47-38 Pancho, better luck next time Jose.

Before they started I cleaned off my desk to see just how much stuff they can gather on it in one day. It went from nice and organized, to the mess shown above in only 4 hours. I'm intrigued to see how that turns out.

Favorite quote so far-

Jose- “I’m not playing with you anymore!”

Francisco- “Dude, it’s for charity. You’re stuck with me for 22 more hours.”

Swearing- Getting a bit more intense, but still only when they die.

Drinks-

Mountain Dew- 2

Dr. Pepper- 1

Lemonade- 1

Hour One

Well, here goes. This is my first ever blog, something I thought I would never do. Honestly, who wants to hear about the mundane events in a regular, ordinary life. But today, however, I am reporting on the 24 hour gaming marathon.

With the first hour down and the Mountain Dew count at two, I can honestly say this is going to be a very long day. But it’s for a good cause! So far they are both still competent and the swearing is at a minimum. It was getting a bit stuffy in the computer room with three computers running, so I opened the door to the outside world. Even if they can’t go outside, at least they can have a bit of fresh air.

They haven’t started any of their competitions yet, but I will be sure to fill you in when I get a chance. They are "warming up" presently, and apparently it's going well.

Until next hour. Cheers!

The day begins!

We woke up early this morning in order to get a good break fast in us. Just like with any marathon, energy is important. We walked out of the restaurant just as sun rise was peaking over the horizon.

Pancho has already started his gaming with some early morning MineCraft. 

We'll both soon be started in TF2. If you have friend and family that might be interested in donating to Children's Medical Center of Dallas, share our blog with them or share our donation links with them.

Thank you everyone and have a great day!

WE DID IT!

Thanks to all of our friends and family, we were all able to meet our goals for donations received. Together we have managed to raise $1064 for Children's Medical Center. AMAZING! However, there is no reason to stop now. You can continue to donate and share our donation page with friends and family throughout the day. Let's see if we can raise more money for the Children's Medical Center of Dallas.

In less than 13 hours we will be starting our 24-hour marathon. It will being at 8:00AM Central Time. There are live video feeds for your entertainment. Thanks everyone for all the help and support. See you all tomorrow morning.

Two more days!

Only two days until we begin our 24-hour Team Fortress 2 Marathon! Remember we are doing all of  this to raise money for Children's Medical Center of Dallas. We are still a little short of our goals so please click on either of our links to the right to donate. If you have donated or can't donate, then please pass this along to friends and family.

We've decided to toss in a little themed variation throughout our big day to try to make things interesting. The following is a list and a small description of things we have come up with that we want to try:

1) Spy vs. Spy: Both of us will play as spy and we'll settle who's the best.

2) We are Bulletproof!: We will both play as dual Uber-saw medics annoying to the opposing team

3) There can only be one: An Eyelander competition between two Demomen

4) Screamin' Eagles': Two Soldiers, tons of rockets.

5) You are so small: We'll be running around as dual heavy's

6) Boom! Head shot: Sniper head shot contest.

7) Burninators: What's worse than one flamethrower coming at you? Two!


That's all we have for now. if you have any interesting ideas/combos that you would like to see us try out, then go ahead and suggest them by leaving a comment. We'll be publishing results of all our little themed matches throughout the day for everyone's enjoyment. So make sure to check the bog throughout the day.

An Unusual Charity

It was about a week ago that I overheard a friend talking about Extra Life. I was in the middle of playing Final Fantasy XIV with a friend and he mentioned it over Ventrillo while talking to someone on the phone; he forgets that he does not use push-to-talk. When he returned to the game I asked him about it and he gave minimal details.

"Yeah, you try to raise money for charity and play video games for 24-hours" said Zachary. 

I was immediately interested. Every Fall I start to want to do something charitable. This sounded like an opportunity to do something I love for charity. I didn't think twice about it, I wanted to do it. I shared info with my brother and he too was immediately interested. 

Extra Life is an annual 24-hour video game marathon that raises money to help heal sick kids at your local children's hospital. This year's event begins at 8:00am in your local time zone on October 16th, 2010. The idea is simple and brilliant. There are minimal costs associated with setting everything up so 100% of donations go directly to the hospital of your choosing. 

My brother and I have recently been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2, so we decided we would team up and try 24-hours of Team Fortress 2. In return for people's support and donations, we will spend a full 24-hours playing. We chose to support Children's Medical Center of Dallas since we have had a sister and a cousin treated there when they were younger. 

My wife turned out to also be incredibly enthusiastic about the idea so she has offered to help by maintaining this blog during event. So not only do people get a great feeling for supporting and donating to a great cause, we will also be providing them with live updates of our 24-hours. 

Overall, our hope is to bring friends and family together to help us support our local children's hospital. Everyone deserves a chance to live a healthy life and we feel it's important that all kids have a great facility to help them. So please help us  reach our goal or go beyond it.

 If you have donated, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If you wish to donate, links are provided on the right, either of our pages is fine (both is great!). If you are unable to donate but support our cause, then please leave comments and let us know. Furthermore, everyone please feel free to share this with friends and family. 

Once again, welcome to our page and thank you for your time and support.