THE World of Tanks Asia-Pacific team have exponentially exceeded their bushfire relief fundraising efforts after raising $90,000 for charity BlazeAid.
Publisher Wargaming ran a silent auction and eight-hour charity livestream on January 23, hoping to raise $10,000.
As it happened, they raised that in the first three hours of the livestream, and ended up with a total of $90,000 at the conclusion of the event.
More than $90,000 was raised following a series of fundraising activities including an eight-hour livestream by World of Tanks ANZ team members Jake (JayRated) and Dillon (Vondle), a silent auction, donations, premium shop donations and Wargaming Asia-Pacific contributions, which included Wargaming Asia-Pacific matching, dollar for dollar, all the funds raised via the livestream and silent auction.
World of Tanks Australia/NZ community Manager Jake Truman said the team were overwhelmed with the support from Australian and New Zealand players, as well as those from across the Asia-Pacific region.
“We’d like to thank our players from across Australia, NZ, Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and South-East Asia, for their generous support by participating in the silent auction, providing a pure donation or purchasing fundraising items in the premium shop,” he said.
“This is the first silent auction that World of Tanks Asia-Pacific has held, and I was blown away to see tanks, such as the FV215b (183) and Type 59 go for as high as $1,000 each.
“Alongside this, players were incredibly generous with their donations, with one player alone donating $5,000.”
According to Wargaming, the funds raised for BlazeAid will go towards the purchase of three custom trailers, and rebuilding dozens of kilometers of fencing, sheds and fodder for livestock.