The recently concluded speedrunning extravaganza, Corona Relief Done Quick, was a huge success, raising $400,000 to support Direct Relief, a charity dedicated to providing personal protective equipment and other medical supplies to healthcare professionals fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. Donations were raised. While this figure falls short of the millions of dollars raised by the Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick long-distance events (each of which lasted a week, whereas the CRDQ was held over a 60-hour weekend), the GDQ team believes that this total as "the highest ever recorded for a side event effort."

Achieving that nice, round number was kind of "down to the wire":

"As always, 100% of the donations go directly to charity. Direct Relief is working with public health officials, non-profit organizations, and businesses in the U.S. and around the world to provide personal protective equipment and essential medical supplies to healthcare workers responding to the coronavirus (COVID-19)," GDQ said.

"We thank all of the sponsors, donors, runners, and volunteers who helped make this event a success! Although the event has ended, we hope you will continue to support us in our fight against COVID-19 in any way you can. Thank you for your support.

If you have a few days to spare, you can watch the entire show on GDQ's Twitch channel, and individual runs have been uploaded to GDQ's YouTube channel. It also appears that individual runs are being uploaded to GDQ's YouTube channel as well. That will take some time, but so far we have just under an hour and a half of Halo: Combat Evolved and 34 minutes of Shovel Knight: with commentary on why the speedrunners are doing what they are doing, which to me is the most interesting part of this process.

The next big speedrunning extravaganza, Summer Games Done Quick, is scheduled for August 16-23. Games applications and on-site volunteer opportunities will be available from April 29 to May 9, and registration will run from June 7 to July 20 (passes will not be sold on-site).