2021 Holiday Fundraising Event Announcement

On December 4, the Seattle Online Broadcasters Association is producing a charity stream to support Child’s Play, a non-profit charitable organization operating out of Redmond, WA, dedicated to improving the lives of children and teens in children’s hospitals..

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Child’s Play?

Child’s Play is a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children and teens in children’s hospitals around the world. Child’s Play currently has a network of over 180 children’s hospitals worldwide as well as nearly 200 domestic violence shelters across the United States. Over the years, the community has answered the call and came together raising over 46 million dollars.

Child’s Play was born in 2003 after Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, in response to how video games were portrayed negatively by the media, challenged their fans to help support Seattle Children’s Hospital. An Amazon Wishlist was set up and in less than one month, the charity raised over $250,000 in cash and toys for Seattle Children’s hospital.

More information about Child’s Play is available on their website.

What is the Seattle Online Broadcasters Association?

The Seattle Online Broadcasters Association (SOBA) is a registered non-profit organization in Washington state and is currently seeking recognition as a non-profit trade association under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.

SOBA represents the content creator community in the Seattle area and beyond. SOBA organizes social and professional networking events for content creators, provides personal and professional development opportunities tailored towards creators, and relentlessly advocates for the interests of content creators at a community, local, and national level.

SOBA is responsible for the monthly Seattle Community MeetUp, Powered by Twitch, BroadcasterU educational workshops, and organizing community fundraisers for various charitable organizations.

Who is sponsoring this event?

Twitch is providing direct support in the form of time on the Twitch Front Page and direct financial support of production costs. We would like to thank the community meetup and creator social impact teams at Twitch for their support.

If you would like to sponsor the event, please reach out to the SOBA leadership team at info@seattleoba.org.

What does the schedule look like?

We will be streaming on Twitch for 6 hours from 10AM to 4PM Pacific Time live from an on-site location in Seattle and we will be featuring broadcasters and musicians from the Seattle area.

  • 10AM - Introduction and Twitch Tac Toe

  • 11AM - Musical Performance with Hansolo1390

  • 12:20PM - Twitch Tac Toe

  • 1PM - Tabletop Oneshot

  • 2PM - Musical Performance with seiichi

  • 3PM - Twitch Tac Toe

  • 4PM - Conclusion

How do I get involved as a content creator?

We are looking for broadcasters for the following roles for the stream:

  • Hosting - We are looking for hosts to join our hosting and broadcast team on-site throughout the show.

  • Tabletop Participants - We are looking for local participants for the 1PM tabletop oneshot segment. In-person participation is required.

  • Game Show Participants - We are looking for participants for the “Twitch Tac Toe” game show segment at 10AM, 12:20PM and 3PM. In-person participation is preferred, but we are able to support remote participants.

If you are interested in participating, please complete this form.

I am unable to participate on December 4. How do I still fundraise to support Child’s Play?

You can still fundraise for Child’s Play on your own Twitch channel in support of our fundraising efforts by creating a supporting campaign under our team fundraising campaign on Tiltify.

How do I get involved as a business or brand?

We are looking for items for raffle prizes and fundraising incentives. If you are interested in supporting, please email the leadership team at info@seattleoba.org.


Update on Events for the Remainder of 2021

We are pausing our monthly Raid Train and Virtual MeetUp events for the rest of the year after consultation with our volunteers.

This will allow our teams to focus on holding the upcoming fundraising event for Child’s Play on December 4th and developing our events and content slate for 2022.

If you would like to participate in our upcoming activities, feel free to reach out to the SOBA leadership team via email.

2021 St. Jude PLAY LIVE Fundraising Season

On Twitch, you'll find many of our community members participating in St. Jude PLAY LIVE fundraising season this month. For many of them, St. Jude's mission and goals is something that resonates with them. St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate for childhood cancer from 20% to 80% and this would not be possible without the generosity of donors and the work of fundraisers in the broadcasting community. Here are some of their stories.

Saiphe is a Just Dance and variety streamer in the Seattle area and a newcomer to SOBA. She is only hundreds of dollars away from her $2500 fundraising goal.

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Hi, friends! I'm Saiphe, a horror-focused, variety streamer on Twitch. In my community, we focus on keeping a comedic atmosphere while being an accepting and caring group of friends! My stream team Center Stage fund raises for St. Jude every year during their PLAY LIVE even, which is how I was introduced to St. Jude. As someone who has had multiple family members fight cancer, I can imagine how relieving it is for these families to know that they won't receive a single bill for their child's treatment. ST. JUDE FRIGGIN' ROCKS. Come join us while we play horror games and Just Dance to raise money for these families and the furthering of cancer treatment technology!!!

NinjaFalcon is a long-time community member and volunteer on SOBA’s broadcast production team. This is his fourth year of fundraising for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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Aye folks, I go by the Tag NinjaFalcon (Ninjafalcon_2 on Twitch) and I am a variety competitive/casual gamer and Twitch affiliate. Outside of the field I study sociology, Multimedia and watch a lot of films.

I have taken part in St Jude Play live since 2018, doing long playthroughs of either JRPGs like XenoBlade or just 100%ing games like Yoshi's Crafted World and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (the one game I'm currently working on). I was inspired to help out and join the annual tradition of gaming for a great cause! Hearing some of my friend's stories of attending Memphis and interacting with the staff and kids! Helping people is something I want to take part in assisting.

This year I am attempting to break the 200$ barrier for this year and possibly raise more for the kids!

Dezsaras is a regular at SOBA’s monthly in-person meetups and can often be found talking about his passion for supporting children’s hospitals as it is something that has an extremely personal meaning to him. He reached his $3000 fundraising goal last year and we look forward to his sustained advocacy for helping children in need.

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Hi, I’m Dezsaras, a husband, father, life-long gamer (Atari was my first console) and a late night interactive caster focused on looter shooters: Warframe Content Creator, Outriders Ambassador, former Destiny Raid Sherpa, as well as MMOs: Final Fantasy, Guild Wars 2 and New World (alpha).

I play for charity all year round, proudly supporting local Children's Hospitals (St Jude and Children’s Miracle Research Hospitals via ExtraLife) as my kiddos would not be here today if it was not for hospitals like them! In last 3 years, raised over $15,000 for the kids!

Deusjz is a video editor and variety streamer in Seattle. He’s been streaming on Twitch since 2019 and this year’s St. Jude PLAY LIVE fundraising season is his first charity stream. He’s set some high goals and amazing incentives that we look forward to seeing them get smashed this month.

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Hi! I'm deusjz, Video Editor, Professional Button Masher, and Affiliate Variety streamer extrodinare! I've been streaming regularly since 2019, with a staple of my stream focusing on fitness based on how I do in games.

After seeing the way that so many streamers I admired accomplish amazing things in their campaigns, and reading into the mission of St Jude's Children Research Hospital to make sure no family ever recieves a bill for treatment, I felt confident in making them the subject of my first foray into charity streaming.

Drop in, say hello, help us have a laugh doing ridiculous things as we work together to support an amazing cause!

Longttran is a monthly in-person meetup regular and familiar figure in the SOBA community. He’s often found streaming Just Dance and this is not his first time participating in St. Jude PLAY LIVE.

20210510-Longttran.png

Hello! My name is Long and I love to dance, cook, and play video games (not necessarily in that order, haha). When I say "dance", I mean the video game "Just Dance." On occasional weekends, I love to cook different foods and socialize with my community. There are few limits on what games I will venture into.

I was attracted to the idea of fundraising for amazing causes like St. Jude. I really like the mission that St. Jude wishes to accomplish, which is to end childhood cancer all over the world. It's really assuring to know that St. Jude will treat children without billing their loved ones. I have streamed for St. Jude for several years and still love every bit of it!

I stream again this year to help raise awareness of St. Jude's mission. There are many who may not necessarily know about this cause. I'm really happy to keep being awesome for the kids!!!

Stagger is a seasoned charity streamer and a newcomer to the SOBA community. He’s set a lofty $2500 fundraising goal this year and we hope you can help him reach it.

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Hello, I am Stagger and welcome to the Nerd Herd, I play a wide variety of games, do builds, love doing charity streams for various causes and helping people wherever I can. I connect with the communities that decide to watch/interact with my streams, and socials on a deeper level, I do my best to find a connection, make them more than a number because they are. I love doing charity streams to help anywhere I can because so many people and orgs need our help and support. I give cause I can and hope more do the same. I hope to spread positive energy and get to know more people this way.

I am raising for St Jude because of the relief it gives to children/families in a time when they shouldn’t have to worry about how things will get paid.

The Famous is a well-known regular at SOBA’s monthly meetup and it’s not his first year fundraising for St. Jude. He’s almost halfway to his $500 fundraising goal this year and we hope you can make him…extremely famous this May.

20210510-Famous.png

Last, but not least, Twecker is another regular at SOBA’s monthly meetup with a penchant for performing good-natured pranks in front of the camera while we’re on the Twitch Front Page. He’s raised over $1000 so far this season for St. Jude PLAY LIVE and has set an extremely lofty goal of $5000 this year. If he smashes that goal, we’ll get our payback when in-person meetups make a return.

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Collectively, SOBA has raised over $2400 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital over the past several years as part of our team as part of our social impact and charitable fundraising efforts. We look forward to seeing what the community accomplishes this year.

2020 - Year in Review

2020 has been an unusual and challenging year for broadcasters and the community, but we are proud of what the community has accomplished during these difficult times.

Community Engagement

Seattle Community Meetup

AlchemistJoker, MacNCheeseP1z, and Stephazoid interview Aelflaed from Soaring Pixels Games and talk about their upcoming game Breakwaters.

AlchemistJoker, MacNCheeseP1z, and Stephazoid interview Aelflaed from Soaring Pixels Games and talk about their upcoming game Breakwaters.

In January and February, SOBA held the last in-person Seattle Community MeetUp events at GameWorks. After that, we transitioned to an online-only format that the community can watch from the safety of home. Our production and meetup teams worked together to showcase and elevate local creators, non-profit organizations, and independent game developers here in Seattle.

Raid Train

Kisaka Toriama and Archaic_Visonary started a community-driven effort to elevate, showcase, and support the variety of different creators in our community and their content. The SOBA Raid Train provides community members with an opportunity to discover the different kinds of content our community members are making. Raid Train is a monthly activity where broadcasters are featured for an block of time and raid the next participating broadcaster. Often, this is combined with a team-wide charitable fundraising component to encourage collaboration and social responsibility. In the spring, the community raised $1481 for The Bail Project as part of the first Raid Train.

Professional Development

BroadcasterU

In June, two of our volunteers, Joe “BizSnes” Vella and Gabby “SimplyGabby” Snyder, hosted a new BroadcasterU workshop focused on interviewing and hosting. Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham made a guest appearance to share his experiences as a veteran host and answered questions from workshop attendees. Several of these workshop participants were able to put their skills to use later this year for paid opportunities.

Broadcast Team Growth

We welcomed six new volunteers to our in-house broadcast production team this year. AlchemistJoker, Geekosaurusrex, MacNCheeseP1z, snowdn, SpaceCaptainZemo, and Stephazoid joined our roster of hosts and crew to produce both in-person and online-only live-streams of the monthly Seattle Community Meetup. SOBA transitioned to an online-only format in March 2020, providing a space where we elevate local broadcasters, non-profit organizations, and independent game developers every month on the Twitch Front Page

Industry Collaboration

Community engagement and industry collaboration has never been stronger. We worked with other community organizations to influence legislation, host an online convention elevating the local indie game community, and secure paid work for our community.

Anti-Defamation League

James Feore, SOBA’s Director of Partner Relations, spoke in front of the Washington State Legislature to discuss the impact that swatting has for members of our community.

James Feore, SOBA’s Director of Partner Relations, spoke in front of the Washington State Legislature to discuss the impact that swatting has for members of our community.

Earlier this year, the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Anti-Defamation League reached out to SOBA leadership in supporting proposed legislation increasing the penalties associated with swatting. SOBA provided support for passing the bill by bringing awareness of it to our community, working with broadcasters to contact their elected representatives in Washington State, and even making a trip to the Washington State Legislature in Olympia.

Seattle Indies

Negaoryx, Stephazoid, and AlchemistJoker talk to Kells Tate about her video game, Calico.

Negaoryx, Stephazoid, and AlchemistJoker talk to Kells Tate about her video game, Calico.

As part of our partnership with Seattle Indies, a local non-profit group supporting independent game developers, we showcase video games made by independent developers here in Seattle. Seattle Indies Expo transitioned to an online-only format this year and SOBA provided support to help make their event a success. We worked to build a show format and hosting team that allows viewers to learn more about the games being showcased and ask questions directly to the hosts and developers.

We worked to bring in additional talent to support our hosting team. Broadcasters such as Negaoryx, Meg_Kaylee, and GOOBERS515 joined our hosts in discussing the game development process and the creative process involved in making games that are enjoyable and unique. These broadcasters were paid for their work and the success of this event led to additional opportunities for our hosts.

Social Impact

Supporting Community Non-Profits

The community was able to fundraise for several charitable causes in 2020 as a team. Community members raised $626 for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to support their COVID-19 research efforts. In the months of November and December, the community raised $3775 for Seattle Children’s Hospital through Extra Life. Activities such as the Raid Train and Seattle Community Meetup served as spaces to elevate these fundraising efforts.

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