Shroud Month-Long Fragathon Hits 1 Million Donation Goal
A month ago, back on the 4th of January, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek announced that he would be hosting a month-long Fragathon with the goal of donating all proceeds to charity. The primary motivation and inspiration behind the Fragathon was to serve as an homage to Shroud’s father, who had passed 2 years prior.
Milestone Goal For First Ever Fragathon
In his first ever Fragathon of this type, Shroud managed to hit over $1 million USD in donations, with all the proceeds from the entire event set to be donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital for breakthrough research in the treatment of childhood cancer and other diseases.
The goal was achieved on the 9th of February just prior to the event ending. On the final day of the Fragathon, with a little over $750, 000 USD raised, the goal was reached with a combination of games and live auction taking place. High-grade Pokemon and MTG (Magic: The Gathering) cards were put up for bid, skyrocketing the amount to just shy of a million. That was before Shroud even included the additional $100, 000 USD from ad revenue.
Over the month-long event, numerous notable streamers and names in the community lent a hand to make the donation number as high as possible, from IRL streams to fun games and variety content. TenZ, Vakyrae, Tarik, QuarterJade, Skadoodle, Ludwig were among those who could be found on Shroud's stream during the month of January.
“I set my goal for a million [but] I didn’t think we’d actually cross it. Thank you for this insane month with all these donations,” said Shroud. “Thank you for sticking with us. Big ‘W’s to you guys. We had a lot of hiccups, we had a lot of power outages, but we got through in the end.”
1 Kill, 1 Dollar
What started as an incredible premise in the month of January ended more spectacularly than even Shroud envisioned. The extended community all came together to raise the final amount. Over 250,000 kills collected by Shroud and his friends during their month-long extravaganza.
Marvel Rivals played a prime role as a big draw for Shroud’s streams during the month. But he and his friends also delved into many other game titles include Counter-Strike, VALORANT, League of Legends, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and even Minecraft and Squad. Reportedly, Shroud played over 2 dozen titles during the Fragathon.
Shroud to Start His First Ever Esports Organization
One of the most popular trends in esports currently is for content creators to form esports organizations around their brand. Disguised Toast, MoistCr1TiKaL and Ludwig are among the most prominent names currently, and it appears Shroud is preparing to throw his own hat into the ring.
“For context of what I said, if we hit a million dollars, raised to St. Judes, I’ll make an org for Marvel Rival. That’ll be my first game. I don’t know if we’ll hit a million, probably not, but that’s what I said.”
Reportedly, he has already been reached out by multiple organizations trying to persuade the goliath streamer into the Marvel Rivals space and he appeared fairly sold on the idea, regardless of whether he hit the million-dollar goal. Now that he has, however, it seems incredibly likely Shroud will be fielding a team in Marvel Rivals before the year ends.
“I have tons of top orgs messaging me to try to figure out a way to get me in the Marvel Rivals space to build a team in Marvel Rivals. I’m not kidding, tons of meetings have already happened. People have messaged my agency. People have messaged me. It’s gone around.”
Setting a New Precedent for Gamers and Streamers
In recent years, Shroud has cemented his self-status as a place for gamers to just be gamers. However, his latest initiative - the Fragathon - sets a new precedent for the impact huge streamers can generate for not just their immediate community, but for the greater good.
Over $1 million USD was raised during the month of January and Shroud contributed roughly half that sum. The Fragathon was an incredible product, from production, to content, to names contributing to enhancing the experience. Costumes, set, storylines, variety.
Shroud pulled out all the stops to make this event the best it possibly could be. All together, it made for one of the most entertaining and impactful starts to the year and one we hope to see Shroud revisit in the years to come.
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Featured Image Credit: Shroud // Twitch Stream
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