Okaaaay, so I haven't sat here writing words of (apparent) wisdom for you lot since February! As always, what started off as a fun idea got shoved to the sidelines in favour of other things(improvements to my channel, pandemics, etc) but it's all good, we're back here now.
Since the last update, my Discord server is running and active! Plenty of good chatter with friends new and old alike, and it's serving as a hub for all things MoD related(I let Team Tuxedo tag along for the ride, whether they like it or not haha) be it sharing updates for the channel, managing the playlist that accompanies ETS2(thanks DF for looking after this!), posting VODs, planning gaming sessions... Honestly, it's been a godsend for building a great community.
Community has been the biggest strength behind my biggest challenge ever; my first ever 24 hour livestream. Back in the YouTube days, whenever I wanted to have a big event for charity I'd jump onto Twitch and we'd have a party. Lovestream, Race Across Europe, Hopeathlon to name just three such events. However, since I switched over to Twitch permanently(the 1 year anniversary of which is coming up!) there's been a problem. I regularly stream for 3 hours at a time, but the older charity streams were 3 hours by themselves. So how on earth do I hold a special celebratory event to the same standard as the previous ones?
Simple. Let's go for twenty-four hours. In one go.
Oh boy. What started off as a simple idea rapidly snowballed into a combination of epic support from friends and a descent into madness because who in the hell decided to go for 24 hours in one go??
It gets better than that. I'd be playing Euro Truck once again - my go to for charity events, as I strive to add ever more miles to Matilda(at the time of writing, she's on 146,938 miles and I'm on course to finish the Million Mile Challenge in 8 freaking years) but this wasn't the issue. Nope, I'd be using the Logitech G29 wheel setup - wheel, 3 pedal box and H-pattern shifter - that I'd borrowed from Watson before lockdown happened - so for 24 hours I wouldn't be using a joypad, I'd be using every part of my body and reading chat talking to everyone. Yay, genuine challenge.
And what a challenge it was. After 3 weeks of advertising and planning with Mirtai, I rocked up ready to start at 10pm on Friday 26th with the intent being to say hello to everyone before they went to bed and I'd be getting the hardest part of the stream, the graveyard shift, out of the way while still fresh and awake-ish. Oh were we all in for a surprise! Mirtai went for a nap at around 12am for 8 hours leaving me with Draz, Tort, Petzy, Jav, Meno, and loads of random people who joined in for the duration. By the time the Americans were heading to bed and the Europeans were waking up, we'd managed an average of 15 viewers throughout what everyone thought would be the hardest part of the stream! It dipped to 7 for all of 15 minutes before everyone started to come back in again.
That's the most surprising part - I was expecting the majority of viewers to pop in for an hour or two, and appear at the end to help me across the finishing line. What we actually got was people logged off to sleep.. and came back for the rest of the stream. Which brings me back to the big strength behind a challenge like this - everyone cheering me on as every second ticked by and every mile Matilda drove. As the hours went by and the fatigue set in, having you guys continuing to talk to me kept me going.
There were also guest speakers too - we had a Draz and a Tort, Meno popped in, Jav had a turn and I swear there was someone else before the Race Across Europe... but yeah. What was a loosely structured event turned into quite possibly the biggest and best charity stream I've had the pleasure of putting on for everyone.
Big thanks to everyone for your time helping me set up, promoting the stream, chatting away with me on the day, and of course your donations. We managed to raise, with Gift Aid added, £484.69 for Macmillan Cancer Support which is amazing, and will help them so much!
Special thanks to Mirtai who didn't even blink an eyelid when I threw this out as a suggestion. It meant you were on your own for the day with the cats and your ailments, but at no point did you complain. Insert cheesy comment about how you make me a better person, yada yada yada.
Parting shot: Don't expect another 24 hour livestream until next year. They're way too intense to do too often.
