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Desert Bus for Hope 2011

Desert Bus for Hope 2011

Desert Bus for Hope

 

Desert Bus for Hope is back in a massive way. The torturous fund raiser put on by online comedy group Loading Ready Run has returned for its fifth annual run, forcing players to endure the worst game ever made to raise money for Child’s Play. For 2011, the LRR crew have pulled all the stops to bring us the best Desert Bus for Hope yet. Every single aspect is bigger than ever this year, and that includes the donated amount thus far.

The gig is the same as it has been for the previous four years. Four drivers, all from the comedic ranks of Loading Ready Run, take turns driving 24 hour shifts in the terrible mini-game known as Desert Bus, from the unreleased Penn and Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. Viewers, watching the live stream of the “action”, donate money to make them play longer. As the amount of donated money increases, so does the number hours that the team must continue busing.

Last year, the team earned an astonishing $194,280.00 for charity, which was an unbelievable accomplishment considering that in the inaugural running of Desert Bus for Hope, the total donations amounted to $22,805.00. Most assumed that the incredible amount of donations from 2010 would be difficult to beat in 2011, but as of the time of this writing, a mere 48 hours into the event, the crew have earned over $100,000.

Chat moderator "Kroze" sings us a song about Dr. Who

The LRR crew had already amassed over $8,000 in donations before the event even began on Friday. That’s more money than the team had originally hoped to earn in the entire first running of the Bus (an amount that was obviously destroyed handily at the hands of donators). If things continue as projected, the team could earn upward of $400,000 during this event. Statistics of the five years of Desert Bus for Hope donations can be seen on this near-real-time graph.

Like last year, unique items are being auctioned off live to help boost the amount being donated. The auctions are bigger than ever this year, with tons of great items up on the block. The few auctions that have hit already have brought in serious amounts of cash. Two custom-made 8-bit Mario Bros. pillows sold for $3,640, while a massive uncut sheet of Magic: The Gathering Innistrad foil commons sold for over $3,800. There are many more auctions to come, including some rare Magic: The Gathering sets that have come directly from Wizards of the Coast.

To augment the auctions and giveaways, no Desert Bus for Hope would be complete without live appearances from many big names in geekdom. So far, the event has seen appearances from Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame, Destructoid’s Jim Sterling, the voice of MST3K’s Tom Servo, Kevin Murphy, the legendary Tim Schafer, and many others. There are many more slated to make an appearance in the coming days of Desert Bus, including some unannounced mystery guests, so be sure to tune in to see more awesome interviews!

If you have some money to donate, be sure to head over to www.desertbus.org. Watch the team bus, spread the word, make a challenge request, or bid on an auction. It’s all for the children, and this year Child’s Play will certainly be putting many smiles on the faces of kids across the world. Come be a part of it!

Comments

  1. Canti
    Canti It's easily one of the most brilliant and admirable things anyone has ever done with the power of the internet not to mention it's highly entertaining. Dat bus.
  2. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx Dat Caramelldansen.
  3. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx The team just hit $211,000 dollars, beating out last year's massive total. They've still got at least two days to go.

    It took everyone jumping up and down yelling PONY GLUE to rally the chat and donate the final five grand to break last year's total within five minutes.
  4. Fitzkrieg
    Fitzkrieg LoadingReadyRun are an awesome group. I'm proud to say that I share a city with them.

    It's good to see the Bus-ing is going so well this year.
  5. Ilriyas
    Ilriyas The people involved in Desert Bus for hope are heroes in so many ways. Really is a great thing they're doing.
  6. cola
    cola I managed to survive in chat for about 4 hours under the name "eatadickclown" and they only kicked me from chat after I had announced I was leaving and was about to close out. :D

    Also, somehow they got my challenge to dance to dance to She's a Pony by Wooden Toaster.
  7. Canti
    Canti My favorite part of that is that WHILE they were singing a song you can here someone say, "Is that guy's name Eat a dick clown?" "Yeah, banhammer that guy."
  8. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx It's 2AM PST. For UPS Kingpin, it's 5AM local time. What were we staying awake for?

    For Kingpin's legendary donation challenge. Most of you have heard us bust out the Flava Flav YEAH BOYYEEEE when we jump on vent. Kingpin got the entire LRR crew to yell it while wearing clocks and such. It was incredible:

    http://www.youtube.com/embed/m4DSVKj40EM

    Also, legendary night tonight because of the chat trolling post Pony stream. I don't know how Cola managed to get away with a name like "eatadickclown" while talking smack then entire time, while I get BANNED for saying "Mods are asleep - poast ponies!"

    So, achievement unlocked - first desert bus ban, I guess. Got back in, though, so it was K.
  9. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx I should also add - Cola was the one who directly replied to the mod that banned me and appealed my ban WITH the "eatadickclown" username, and he STILL DIDN'T GET A BAN.

    Haters gonna hate.
  10. TheAlertHusky
    TheAlertHusky Hey look it's that crazy group of comedians that live just down the street of me :D
  11. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx If you guys aren't watching Desert Bus, you are SERIOUSLY missing out on some of the finest, most exciting entertainment available on the internet right now.

    Moments ago, they auctioned off a full, uncut sheet of Magic The Gathering Instraad foil RARES. Upon opening bids, it quickly hit $5,000. Two or three people were locked in this massive bid war.

    Suddenly, NOTCH.

    Notch joins the chat and asks "how do I bid?" The chat starts going NUTS. Notch tried to bid $6,000 but he couldn't as he wasn't voiced in chat yet (able to bid). So to troll, the top bidder pushed his bid up to $5,996. Since the bids have to increase by $5, he blocked Notch from going $6,000. The chat exploded at this.

    Notch gets voiced, and he throws down a bid of $6,500. The other guys immediately dropped out - not that they couldn't roll with sixty five hundred dollars, but because everyone knew that no one in chat had pockets deep enough to beat Notch.

    So it was Notch's loot, and everyone starts to encourage him to SPACE BID. Space Bidding is where an auction leader out-bids themselves just for lulz. So a confused Notch asked what Space Bid was. The chat quickly explained it, then suddenly, SPACE BID. Notch threw down TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS on the sheet. Everyone was frigging NUTS. It was unreal. A massive, massive new single auction total record.

    They gave it to him for $10,000, then upon his request, the entire room riverdanced to dubstep.

    Unreal. This whole thing is simply incredible.
  12. TheAlertHusky
    TheAlertHusky
    UPSLynx wrote:
    If you guys aren't watching Desert Bus, you are SERIOUSLY missing out on some of the finest, most exciting entertainment available on the internet right now.

    Moments ago, they auctioned off a full, uncut sheet of Magic The Gathering Instraad foil RARES. Upon opening bids, it quickly hit $5,000. Two or three people were locked in this massive bid war.

    Suddenly, NOTCH.

    Notch joins the chat and asks "how do I bid?" The chat starts going NUTS. Notch tried to bid $6,000 but he couldn't as he wasn't voiced in chat yet (able to bid). So to troll, the top bidder pushed his bid up to $5,996. Since the bids have to increase by $5, he blocked Notch from going $6,000. The chat exploded at this.

    Notch gets voiced, and he throws down a bid of $6,500. The other guys immediately dropped out - not that they couldn't roll with sixty five hundred dollars, but because everyone knew that no one in chat had pockets deep enough to beat Notch.

    So it was Notch's loot, and everyone starts to encourage him to SPACE BID. Space Bidding is where an auction leader out-bids themselves just for lulz. So a confused Notch asked what Space Bid was. The chat quickly explained it, then suddenly, SPACE BID. Notch threw down TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS on the sheet. Everyone was frigging NUTS. It was unreal. A massive, massive new single auction total record.

    They gave it to him for $10,000, then upon his request, the entire room riverdanced to dubstep.

    Unreal. This whole thing is simply incredible.

    Goodlord how do I get into this chat!!!!????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
    MUST DONATE MONIEZ
  13. cola
    cola Watch the thing and click the live chat button thingy
  14. TheAlertHusky
    TheAlertHusky
    cola wrote:
    Watch the thing and click the live chat button thingy


    Lol I just realized. :b Thanks though man!

    *bro-hoof*
  15. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx Cola is WEAK SAUCE. It's 2AM and he's going to bed.
  16. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx And here we are.

    Desert Bus 5 ended a minute ago. Final donated total: $376,253.01. Unbelievable.

    I was bummed that I couldn't donate very much this year because of being laid off, but as a result, I got to watch almost the entire event. It is such a bittersweet moment, now, because you become close to these people. The people in the chat, and the people on the video stream become a sort of family. Every single moment of each day, these people are interacting with you as a viewer. And now, that's it until next year.

    I seriously have withdrawal for a few days after this ends. I'll miss it, but what a fun ride it's been.
  17. Canti
    Canti t210768_i-know-that-feel.png

    It's honestly a really weird feeling.
  18. Koreish
    Koreish I don't think I ever watched the stream at the same time you guys did. Unless you have different handles for Twitch/JTV.
  19. Canti
    Canti I had it running pretty much 5 days straight. Still missed a lot.

    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nM6NBGpWErA&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  20. UPSLynx
    UPSLynx I was logged into the chat at almost all times of each day. UPSLynx as normal. mostly lurked though, I didn't type much until the late evenings.

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