[Honey’s Anime Interview] Ramin Ostad from Extra Life Edmonton

3:23 PM August 26, 2019

While at Animethon 26 in Edmonton, Canada, we got the chance to speak with the president of Extra Life Edmonton, Ramin Ostad. Extra Life is a gaming fundraising event that occurs every November in Edmonton. While Animethon usually supports Extra Life at their November event, this year Animethon hosted activities for their new official Charity of Choice, Extra Life. 100% of the donations raised through events such as the first-ever live auction, Race to Planet X, and the 50/50 Raffle. Extra Life Edmonton raises money for The Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. Ramin Ostad started the Edmonton chapter of Extra Life almost a decade ago to help raise money and give back to The Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation as he was a pediatric patient there due to his heart condition.

Ramin Ostad

Honey-Chan

Interview with Ramin Ostad from Extra Life Edmonton

For those who don’t know what Extra Life is, could you tell us a bit about it?

It’s 25 hours of gaming in the West Edmonton Mall ice palace that’s held in November. We’ve held this event for nine years now and it’s gotten bigger and bigger each year. It’s currently the biggest local city-based chapter and the biggest city-based event in Canada.

What kinds of games do those participating play? Are they all console or computer games? Do they have to bring their own setups?

Gamers bring their own equipment. It can be console, p.c., or board games. We’ve even had a 24 hour DND (Dungeons and Dragons) campaign run at our event. Basically, you sign up, check the seating chart, bring your equipment, and then play. We try to pack as many people into the space as we can.

Do people raise money on their own or are there teams?

Extra Life is entirely pledge based on extra-life.com. You can join any team as there’s no limit to how many people can be on a team. You can make teams with just a couple friends or have a company team of thirty people. It’s really up to you. We just require every person to raise at least $75 to be eligible to participate in the event as a show of commitment to raising money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

Can gamers stream what they’re playing during the event?

We do allow people to stream, but not everyone can because we have to balance the number of people streaming with the bandwidth we have. There are hundreds of gamers and only so much Internet [laughter]. You can check out some of our local streamers who are fundraising for the Stollery Children’s Hospital on our website.

Are there any incentives for teams?

We do have contests at the event itself. As for the teams of gamers, think of it like fake esports teams. We have a tournament and there are prizes for those who compete.

Does your team have any goals?

Our goal is to raise $100,000 CAD for our team. Last year, Edmonton raised over $250,000 CAD. To date, we’ve raised over one million dollars over the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

That’s fantastic! And this year Animethon officially announced that Extra Life is the Charity of Choice. The Co-Chairs Bryan and Vlad have also challenged con-goers to raise at least $5,000 CAD.

Yes, it’s pretty great. We have three different activities. One is the live auction. This is the first year we’re doing it live as it had been a silent auction in previous years. We’re auctioning off a lot of cool stuff that our guests this year have signed as well as discontinued items, like the Animethon mascot, Ryu, plushies. There’s also the Race to Planet X where donations back whichever hero you choose and a 50/50 Raffle as well.

Final Thoughts

We at
just want to express our gratitude to Mr. Ramin Ostad who took the time to speak with us at Animethon. We know how busy you were with selling those raffle tickets, so we truly appreciate it. It’s really wonderful to hear how gamers can give back to the community. Thank you so much for founding the Edmonton chapter and inspiring more and more people to join Extra Life.

And thank you for stopping by! We hope to see more gamers getting involved as well. For anyone interested in learning more about Extra Life Edmonton, check out our website (yegextralife.org) and follow us on twitter (@YEGExtraLife) for the most up-to-date information.

While we didn’t win anything at the auction or raffle, Extra Life Edmonton surpassed their goal of $5,000 and doubled it to $10,000 CAD! That’s such an amazing show of support from Animethon goers and we at Honey’s are proud to have been a part of this wonderful event.

Writer

Author: Jessica

As a full-time freelancer (translating, proofreading, and writing) and coffee-lover, I’ve turned into a complete workaholic. People often say “work hard, play hard” but I’m not about that life. While I love traveling and working on the go (like going to cons), I’m more often than not holed up in a coffee shop or at home, multi-tasking more things than I should.