The Z Event raised €3,509,928 in total for the Pasteur Institute — a non-profit foundation whose mission is to help prevent and treat diseases through biomedical research.
This amount breaks the previous record, earned by GuardianCon in June this year. The effort was prominent enough for French President Emmanuel Macron to congratulate the group on Twitter.
"55 French gamers have just raised more than three million euros over a weekend for the benefit of the Pasteur Institute.
You are inspiring, and you have showed us that anything is possible when supporting a cause in which we believe. Well done Z Event 2019!"
This was the third outing for the event, with previous efforts raising almost €500,000 and €1.1 million respectively. This time round, the event saw significant donations from Riot Games, who donated €20.000, while Ninja contributed €26,000.
Jean-Francois Chambon, Director of Communication and Patronage at the Pasteur Institute, revealed that a third of the organization's budget comes from charitable donations — and stated that a million euros allows for the creation of a new research centre to support a dozen researchers for a year.
This effort is just another in a long trend of gaming communities raising money for worthy causes.
Alongside the GuardianCon effort, other examples include the Games Done Quick series of speedrunning events and Extra Life.
Humble Bundle also supports various charities through it's software bundles and store purchases, while Epic Games have run several Fortnite pro-am events for good causes.
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Photo credit: Z Event
