Staff Spotlight - Speedrunning for Charity
Simon Fraser has been a lecturer at Perth College UHI for 17 years, having graduated here as a Computing degree student. He loves supporting our students with their courses and is always happy to help. On his well-deserved summer break, Simon spent some of his taking part in charity speedrunning events. He tells us what he got up to 👇
Can you tell us what Speedrunning is?
Speedrunning is about playing a computer game, or parts of a game, as fast as possible. This can be done in different ways – playing the game normally or using ‘tricks’ and ‘glitches’ in the game to do things that weren’t intended by the developer.
The main reason most speedrunners do this is for the challenge of beating a game in an unusual way, but it also become a focus of charity fundraising events.
How did Speedrunning turn in to a charity event?
One of the first charity marathons for speedrunning was first held in January 2010. The American organiser ran a three-day ‘online marathon’ from his mother’s basement that raised over £8.8k for the CARE charity. This has evolved into two regular annual events in the United States, the most recent of which in late June 2022 raised over £2.6 million for Doctors Without Borders.
How did you get involved in it all?
I started watching online speedrunning events in 2017, and soon after I started watching several speedrunners practice their craft on the online platform Twitch. By 2019, I’d decided to try to attend such events myself, and that year I attended nine total events – four in Glasgow, and one each in the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and London.
At the Dutch event in 2019, I also performed my first ‘live’ speedrun at a charity event with a speedrun of a childhood favourite game “Manic Miner”.
Did the events stop during COVID?
Unfortunately, due to the Covid outbreak at the beginning of 2020, all in person events that year, and most of the events in 2021 were cancelled. However, the community did continue to raise funds for charity with plenty of online events during this time, which I also contributed to. In 2022, we were able to return to in-person events for the first time in over two years!
What events did you take part in this summer?
My first in person event was the European Speedrunner Assembly Summer event from 23 – 30 July in Malmo, Sweden. I’d been to this event twice previously, but this time I was able to stay and help out as a volunteer. I was responsible for helping with the event Administration and Fundraising teams, as well as being an online Chat Moderator. Due to changes in the schedule, I also performed a speedrun which wasn’t originally planned, but was a pleasant and welcome surprise! The event raised over £101k for Save the Children, and nearly 500 people attended over the course of the week. As part of my volunteer duties, I ‘hosted’ certain speedruns – reading donations from viewers and contributors and explaining about the cause and the charity.
A few weeks later, from 14 - 21 of August I attended the Benelux Speedrunner Gathering Annual 2022 event at Venray in the Netherlands. Again, I was responsible for helping promote the charity and host speedruns, but I also again performed two of my own. I was particularly honoured to be involved in an interview during the event with the benefiting charity – MIND, which discussed gaming addiction and mental illness. The event raised over £5.6k for the charity, which I’m very proud of!
At the beginning of September, I attended the United Kingdom Speedrunner Gathering Autumn 2022 event at the Village Hotel in Glasgow. Benefitting Crisis, we raised over £5.7k over the weekend, which I’m so proud of. I was a member of staff for this event, helping out with the planning and preparation work, and also training volunteers to help with the technical aspects of putting on such an event. I also had the privilege to help with the closing speeches. It was very hard work, but so satisfying!
Any plans for future events?
I’m fully intending to continue attending speedrunning events in the future. There are usually several throughout the year, and hopefully now with Covid receding, more of these fantastic events can be held to raise even more for charity!
Now that the new academic year is underway, what are you looking forward to most about being back on campus?
I can’t wait to get back to seeing the students face to face. As much of my role is supporting students with IT issues, I really enjoy being able to help people in person and its really satisfying to be able to sort out problems. The appreciation from students is also really nice, as it is good to know you’ve been able to provide a positive experience.
At Perth College UHI we offer a range of short courses for anyone looking to improve their IT knowledge and skills. Can you tell us what your role is within the IT Hub and what advice can you give anyone that is considering starting a distance learning course?
In the IT Hub, we offer a variety of IT Courses from beginners right up to HNC and HND level. I am a support tutor, so I help students get started with their courses and provide on-site tuition and support during the course. Our MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) courses are very popular, and they provide a certificate from Microsoft demonstrating your competency with Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Outlook. They are normally taken one at a time, but you can do as few or as many packages as you like. Our IT Hub is a custom computer suite which is a quite space for studying that our students can use at any point during the week, with tutor support available on site.
For anyone looking to enhance their computing skills, or try something new, we have a variety of courses to suite - most of which can lead to further courses depending on your enjoyment!
