The Bakersfield College Renegamers hosted an Extra Life charity event for the second time, in partnership with California State University of Bakersfield Campus Gamers, to raise funds to help kids that are sick or injured. The event raised $845 out of a $2,200 goal in one day, but donations are being accepted until the end of 2017 at www. bcrenegamers.com. The event had numerous amounts of consoles, ranging from Nintendo Entertainment Systems to Xbox Ones, that were lent by CSUB Campus Gamers to play video games in 13 different rooms.

The rooms were categorized by what type of games would be available, such as first-person shooters, fighting games, board games, and many others. There was also a raffle that had many prizes donated from businesses in Bakersfield. Everyone who donated $10 received a ticket to use for a chance to win video games, card-game packs, and other unique prizes. Chad Hidalgo, president of Renegamers, gave insight to how this event started the first time.

He said, “The first time, I was director of student organizations, and we had two clubs that expressed interest in doing something for the Nintendo recognition of some milestone in Nintendo … the Japanese culture club and computer science club came to the department of student organizations and it blossomed from then, so it quickly outgrew what any one club could do, so we turned it into a collaboration of clubs with the department of student organizations overseeing. And then this year, since I wasn’t director of student organizations again, we actually started the BC Renegamers with the idea of having this club kind of be the director that would get other clubs involved.”

Hidalgo is a full-time student at BC majoring in industrial automation and is trying to get his bachelor’s degree. Hidalgo said that he has probably been playing video games since he was 10 years – old or so. Growing up he had an Atari 2600, a Nintendo Entertainment System, and a Sega Genesis. When asked what his favorite video game is, Hidalgo explained that he does not play that many video games anymore and now plays role-playing board-games.

He said, “I play ‘Star Wars: Edge of the Empire,’ which is a multiplayer role-playing game, and I like to be the story-teller, so I take on all the roles of the supporting characters that get the playing characters through the game.” Hidalgo also mentioned that the Renegamers was not only founded for the Extra Life event, but also to create a competitive video game eSport team. “The Renegamers was founded to oversee this event, but we are working toward forming a collegiate video [game] competition team – ‘League of Legends’ specifically,” he said.
When asked when this team could be formed, Hidalgo said, “We are working on it. We have Information Technology working on opening up the computer ports so we can be able to compete with other schools online.” Hidalgo was also questioned about how the school would go about coaching this professional gaming team for Bakersfield College. “We are looking at having student coaching. We have some members [of Renegamers] who have expressed some interest in coaching. Right now, we haven’t had any active tryouts because we’re still working on the necessary structure to be [formed,]” Hidalgo said.