Exeter Esports have been selected as the Pot Noodle Society of the Month for February! With pub nights, a scavenger hunt around the city and a charity stream, February was certainly a busy month for the society.
We spoke to their president, Lovate, to find out more...
Congratulations on winning Pot Noodle Society of the Month! What exactly did your society get up to this past month?
Our main event in February was our charity 24 hours livestream for Young Lives vs Cancer! The committee played a range of games over the 24 hours on Twitch including Pico Park, Minecraft and Valorant. We raised £1,430 in the 24 hours, which is amazing with the biggest thanks to everyone who donated but also kept us company over the 24 hours. Our community officer Sam ran and set up the stream, with treasurer, Jack taking on an overnight shift playing games. This was the first time Exeter Esports has ran a charity event before, so a huge success for us! We also held some in-house tournaments for Valorant and as always socials, including scavenger hunt which takes everyone around town and is always a favourite.
I didn't know it was Exeter's first charity event, even more impressive that it did so well then! What inspired you guys to do the event, and how did you settle on which charity and what to do for the stream?
Running a charity event has been something we've discussed for a while, which Sam (Community Officer) decided to lead for this year. We put it towards the society to choose which charity after talking through some that were important to us as a committee. During the stream, we pre-planned and played around 16 different games, including a few esports games but also some committee challenges, such as Pico Park, RV there yet, DBD and a Minecraft 'speed run'. Although I don't think anyone watching would say it was particularly fast as it took us over a hour...
Honestly, I think if I tried to speed run Minecraft I'd be there all day! If you were to run another charity stream, do you think there's any lessons learnt or any advice that you'd give to other societies looking to do the same?
I think I would say don't underestimate the challenge of gaming for 24 hours on stream! However, we also made sure we were doing it in shifts, taking breaks and getting sleep and prioritising our well-being throughout. Remembering what a good cause it's for, the importance of it and using any advice from the charity made specific to online as well is really important. I think also for us, how amazing the community/society is for supporting the cause and getting involved with us during the stream.
As for your other events, I'd love to know more about this scavenger hunt!
So we run socials as often as possible and one of the key favourites is always scavenger hunt! This was the second one we've ran this year and we randomise up the teams each time for everyone to meet new people. Each team receives a points list with a range of locations which take them across Exeter, as well as challenges and photos to do at the same time. So some of the challenges have been re-creating a voice line, swapping outfits, drawing something or taking a photo with someone in stash/fancy dress/security guard. It tends to get quite competitive with everyone rushing back at the end of the 3 hours.
That's so iconic! Definitely makes for some good memories. On the theme of a scavenger hunt, final question: what would be the best place to hide a Pot Noodle?
Ooh I think either at the Imperial (Impy), which would be iconic or behind the Exeter Rocks! However, I wouldn't be telling my society, the pot noodle would definitely get you extra points in the scavenger hunt!
