After player's cardiac arrest at 'Smash Bros.' tournament, community raises thousands for hospital bills
The competitive Super Smash Bros. community is coming together to help out one of their own after a player went into cardiac arrest at a tournament in February.
Player Nicholas "Ministry" McGuire went into cardiac arrest during the BEAST 7 Smash tournament in Sweden in February after an artificial valve in his heart stopped working. Since being rushed to the hospital on Feb. 19 and moving around to multiple intensive care units at two different hospitals, McGuire's hospital bills are piling up and his sister Katherine McGuire has set up a GoFundMe page for some financial support.
The Smash community and others have already raised over $28,000.
McGuire's hospital expenses, which include two procedures to widen the conduit in his heart and implant a pacemaker, are expected to be around $200,000 when all is said and done. His Swedish work visa and health insurance expired just days before his cardiac arrest.
On top of the $23,300 that has been raised on GoFundMe as of today, two of the top Super Smash Bros. Melee players in the world have already hosted daily streams surpassing their goal of $5,000, enticing donators with incentive goals featuring other top Melee players.
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The players, fellow Sweden resident Adam "Armada" Lindgren and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman -- two Melee Gods -- have been running their charity streams on Twitch with all proceeds going to help McGuire. The next stream will start today on Armada's Twitch channel at 5 p.m. ET and will be featured on the front page of Twitch.
Incentives have included a player meet-and-greet with fellow Melee God Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma at a future tournament, an interview with Melee God Kevin "PPMD" Nanney and a bootcamp in Sweden featuring Armada and William "Leffen" Hjelte, who is widely considered to be the sixth and latest Melee God.
Leffen, who competed in BEAST 7, tweeted that he would be donating his prize money to heart-related charities after McGuire's cardiac arrest.
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Armada reached out to the Smash community on Reddit calling for anyone to donate anything they can, no matter how small.
"All donations matters, don't feel that '[$1] does not matter,'" he wrote. "When you have to pay [$200,000], every dollar matters."
