Rowan University’s Television Network, Esports, and Cinema Workshop team up with Extralife for their 8th annual charity livestream. This event was held in the local host building on April 12. It was a 12-hour stream going on from 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. 

The proceeds from the livestream were donated to the Extra Life Children’s Miracle Network hospital in Philadelphia. The livestream would end up accumulating $2,180, which would be the most in the Rowan and Extra Life livestream history. 

Senior Mechanical Engineering major and president of the Esports club, Tristan Wyskiewicz, touched on the record-breaking livestream success on the improvement of their advertisement.

“I want to say overall advertising was probably our biggest change, which brought in a lot more interest or a lot more than just singular donations from friends and family,” said Wyskiewicz.

There were a ton of segments, like Minecraft Hunger Games, board games, and a Smash tournament, which kept the energy going. This was also the first live music segment with bands Lvna, Estrogents, and Shiva performing in Bozorth Hall. There were also punishments and stretch goals throughout the livestream. For example, at $500, Wyskiewicz waxed his legs, while every $25 resulted in a crew member getting pied in the face. 

But for the crew, getting pied wasn’t an issue due to what it was all for. Senior radio, television, and film major Crew member Kevin Jenner said it was for the kids and more. 

“It brings out the inner child in a sense. We say we do it for the kids, but we’re also doing it for the child in us. What we’re doing is we’re coming out, we’re having fun, we’re putting something together that gives us real-world experience,” said Jenner. 

He further continued with how much of a family RTN has felt throughout the process. 

“RTN becomes your family in a sense. When I got into the club, I made a few mistakes, sure, but that was normal. You really become connected to people,” said Jenner. 

Recent graduate Jason Kenney, who was there for the Smash segment, showed full support for the cause. He had seen the event being posted on Discord and X by friends and decided to come out to support his friend who was helping set up the smash segment. If he won, he wanted to donate his winnings to the charity itself. 

“It’s great to support children’s hospitals. It’s an important thing to get behind,” said Kenney.

That friend Kenney came out to support was Senior psychology major Andrew Mullis. He is the captain of the Smash Collegiate Esports at Rowan and was asked to come help in preparation for the Smash tournament. It was his first time handling such responsibility, but he was able to adapt and learn throughout. It was a good experience for him, though. 

“It feels great. I’m really glad I can help because I haven’t run a tournament before. The fact that I can run a tournament for other people that is also going to a good cause makes me very happy,” said Mullis. 

For Wyskiewicz, being able to raise so much money in his last year was the icing on top of an already great event. 

“Having this be my second year as a host, as somebody who’s running a ton of stuff behind the scenes. It’s absolutely amazing to have an increase in growth… But seeing that we were able to raise so much more. It just means so much more for it to be my final year,” said Wyskiewicz. 

He is even more excited in the next few years to see if his crew members will be able to come back next year and break the donation amount again. 

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