Gamers For Giving 2026 Recap

Events | April 13, 2026

Gamers For Giving 2026 is a wrap! 

As sad as it is that it’s over, for everybody directly involved, be proud that you’re a part of GFG history. The GFG 2026 LAN Party and Streamathon withdrawals will definitely hit hard, but understand that this is just the beginning.

And the result is…

The Gamers Outreach and GFG community has done it again. Altogether, we’ve raised over $1.8 million for the kids! It’s a new record, and for the third year in a row, we’re showing just how important it is for children to enjoy the power of play in hospitals worldwide.

For the first time ever, we surpassed $1 million dollars raised on Saturday night–26 hours after we opened doors, to be specific! Whether you attended the LAN Party, took part in the streamathon, supported your favorite streamer, or simply spread the word, YOU made this the biggest fundraiser in the history of both Gamers For Giving and Gamers Outreach. Thank you!

As amazing and unforgettable as it all was, we’ll still acknowledge that it can be better. We know that no event can be perfect, but we’d still love the feedback from anybody that attended the LAN party. Please fill out this survey if you were present. This is your chance to grab the mic!

So many activities!

One thing that makes the GFG LAN Party so special is the fact that it’s the only time the entire community and staff can come together and celebrate our passion for gaming. 

Gaming comes in many forms, and at Gamers Outreach, we believe gaming is for everyone. We have video games of all kinds, from console games to PC games to arcade games, and one audience we wanted to give more focus on was trading card games (TCG).

GFG CARDS FOR A CAUSE

Last year, we enlisted the help of The 8th Side, a local hobby shop in Lincoln Park, MI, to put together a small Magic: The Gathering tournament. 

This year, we ran it back to do something bigger in the form of the GFG Cards For A Cause Championship. Taking place in the AUX Gym (now dubbed the TCG Arena), Cards For A Cause featured three tournaments, Magic: The Gathering (standard play), Pokémon, and One Piece.

“It’s been a great community, a great turnout, and a great time over in TCG Arena. We can’t wait for next year to make Cards for a Cause bigger,” said Krystal Caasi, one of The 8th Side’s Card Experts.

These tournaments provided us the opportunity to open up GFG to more people near and far, so they can take in all the GFG LAN action. The hospitality and knowledge of The 8th Side staff and community made them the ideal partner to put this together.

LAN COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

One of the mainstays in every LAN party is tournaments. At GFG, we have tournaments for video games and we even get wild with tournaments for games like rock-paper-scissors and chess.

“We had another great showing with our tournaments at GFG this year with over 300 participants across 11 different games,” said Jeremy Stahl, a longtime Gamers Outreach volunteer who’s helped us run tournaments for over a decade. “Huge shoutout to the TO team for all of the help and hope everyone who participated had a great time.”

This year, we surprised winners and finalists for some of the casual tournaments with brand new trophies, medals, and even Gamers Outreach-branded gift cards. A lot of the team-based competition had people teaming up for the first time, so it was awesome seeing attendees who never teamed up before place in competitive tournaments.

GFG AWARDS

The winning doesn’t end with tournaments. GFG attendees that have the most impressive PC and the best camp setup also leave with trophies. The best part is unless you’re really gunning for it, there’s no way to know if you’re a finalist, and seeing the smiles we get when we approach finalists with their awards is beyond heartwarming.

“It was amazing winning the (Most Impressive PC) award after coming for so many years. It was almost not going to be finished in time for the event due to some last minute problems, but I was able to get all the issues sorted out in time,” said John Bruestle, a community member who’s on his eighth GFG. “After all the hard work, it paid off and it meant so much taking home the award. Adding this to some of the best memories while attending G4G year after year!”

Hermitcraft does it again!

By now it should surprise no one when it comes to what Hermitcraft does for us during GFG.

Their fourth annual charity stream was another monumental success, and they were a large part of the collective effort to hit the $1 million milestone on Saturday night. Their community donated at a rapid pace, with creative incentives that brought their total to over $1 million.

We’ll have another blog showcasing their highlights. But for now, we wanted to extend our gratitude again to not only the Hermits and their community, but Mojang, Team Xbox, and Microsoft for once again hosting both the hermits and our crew members to assist with the steam.

THANK YOU TO OUR ON-SITE STREAMERS

Our on-site streamers deserve their flowers for not only making the trip to the LAN Party, but contributing to the GFG Streamathon while here! Let’s take the time to recognize our on-site streamers like CrowWing15, helloitsmouse, iiizwerg, Michael McChill, QueenManda, sunnys, TslayzTV, and VernNotice. 

We also would be remiss to not mention The Academy Role Play (TARP) who came with both numbers and excitement. OfficerMesser, BobbyRayGray, Smithers, itsbanhammer, crub, Decipherr, TrooperSlivers, BurtsBeat, AlexMasonGaming, DeputySmitty, FastTraveler, C0urtesyflush32, Hooligan_GamingTV, and JohnnySmokes were all a huge part of making the GFG creator area as lively as it was. Whether it was Nerf wars or just their vibes on the stream, TARP really brought the energy!

It was an absolute joy hosting every single one of these talented creators, and we’d love to have everyone back at GFG or another future Gamers Outreach charity event.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

GFG just wouldn’t be GFG without the help from our generous sponsors. Thank you to the following sponsors for adding to the excitement of every participant!

GFG will return…

Ah, we’ve come to our favorite point of recapping GFG, talking about when the next GFG is happening.

Gamers For Giving 2027 will return to the George Gervin GameAbove Center on the weekend of April 9, 2027! We’ll update the GFG website with details as we get closer to the event dates.

Don’t Forget! Eligible members of The GRID, our monthly giving community, get first dibs at event tickets when pre-sales start next year! To be eligible, you have to have been a part of The GRID for at least a full year leading up to Gamers For Giving, donating at least $10 a month.

Until next time

As we’ve said, Gamers For Giving 2026 may be over, but it’s just the beginning as far as Gamers Outreach fun! We could be coming to an event near you, and we’d love to see you! Not only that, we have three BIG streamathons along the way starting with V-Tuber Summer Slam, so stay tuned for more information!

Big thank you to everybody in our amazing community once again for making this another great memorable Gamers For Giving!

FOR THE KIDS!
The Gamers Outreach Crew