RHA organizes game festival for ALS

RHA and other MU organizations sponsored the Video Game Festival.

By Luke Udstuen

Published Dec. 11, 2009

Freshman Alex Deckard never played Halo 3.

But by chance, Deckard, who has worked for The Maneater, walked by the Residence Halls Association's Video Game Festival, which was designed to raise money to fight Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and decided to join the festivities.

"I had a great uncle, I think," Deckard said when asked if anyone in his life had been affected by ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. "My biggest worry is not playing well. Which isn't really a worry. I guess I'm more going into it and expecting to have fun. I guess my biggest actual worry would be playing against someone that's just a dick. That takes all the fun out of it, when you get a guy yelling at you all the time."

National Communications Coordinator Mike Madden said he combined the efforts of RHA, the MU Anime Club, the National Residence Hall honorary club and the Mizzou Board Game Club in order to put on the event, which raised $424.67.

Approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed every year with ALS and it is estimated as many as 30,000 Americans live with ALS at any given time, the ALS association's Web site stated.

"I had a friend several years ago whose father passed away from ALS," Madden said. "At the time it was a huge eye opener because I didn't know anything about ALS. The more I researched it, the more I hated it. So, I decided to be a part of something to get rid of this disease forever."

The festival included many activities, ranging from Halo 3 to Rock Band to a vintage Nintendo Entertainment System.

Deckard completed the first round of the Halo 3 tournament with a few difficulties.

"I started strong-ish," Deckard said. "I messed up on my control scheme -- I tried to hit him and I jumped instead, so that didn't work real well. I started to hold my own around the middle of the match -- I picked up a shotgun and got a few good kills in. But then, I found out they were putting their invisibility power up and it was pretty much downhill from there."

Freshman Michelle Markelz, who was at the festival, said she enjoyed Rock Band, which was hooked up to a projector and professional quality sound system.

"I enjoy playing Rock Band because those of us who aren't musically inclined naturally can enjoy being musically inclined synthetically," Markelz said.

Later in the tournament, Deckard had fixed controller scheme issues, but wasn't able to attain victory.

"It did not go well," Deckard said after the second round. "I lost eight to nothing. I technically got a kill right after the buzzer — I still counted it for myself because it doesn't change anything and we both still thought the game was going well."

The tournament continued through the night and after 11:00 p.m. Junior Tim Parris won the Halo 3 tournament, after a lengthy final battle.

"My heart's racing," Parris said. "It's an intense game."

Parris began the night playing his roommate in the Halo tournament. When Parris lost, he was automatically entered into the loser's bracket.

Parris then worked his way through the bracket until he met up with the familiar face of his roommate.

"Since it was double elimination, I was automatically in the loser's bracket the first game," Parris said. "I had to beat everyone in the loser's bracket and then I had to beat him again. I just got off to a bad start."