The Runaway Guys Colosseum

A collaboration for good, supporting Direct Relief
TRG Colosseum is an annual charity event hosted on Jon's channel, usually lasting one weekend out of the year. This event is the culmination of the ties between many long-time creators (who happen to be mostly Nintendo-focused) that have become friends with each other over the years, creating a big creator crossover that is looked forward to every year since its inception in 2018. Fitting, considering Smash Bros. Ultimate came out that year…

Since the channel is known best for Mario Party, their inaugural and signature collab game series, the theming of the event is centered around the Mario Party series. This doesn’t end with a Mario Party segment being thrown in almost every year, it even goes down to the donation sounds originating from games across the Mario Bros. and Mario Party series (copyright laws be damned).

All 12+ hours of air time between the three days are jam packed with entertainment. The events and games played vary each year include incentives for the audience to donate toward. These incentives can be as simple as impeding the players' progress of current games, to bonus streams such as the aftermath of the Chaos Cookie (playing the top 10 or so games donated by the end of the segment).

Beginning in the 2019 edition, bumpers air at the end of each segment. These are usually skits that are performed by the participants of the event, but could also be simple adverts promoting the charity. As of 2021, there’s even an animated bumper from artists that came from the Egg PAC (later forming the TRG CAB and including other recognized community members). The intro of the entire marathon, as of 2019, is also a highly anticipated watch. In all, there's LOTS of content that is worth watching all around, no matter how much you’re able to watch or what you may be into. And the event is posted by-segment after the fact onto the TRG channel!

As the event has evolved, the production value of the entire event has grown exponentially. Same could be said for the amount of money donated—which has reached over $1 million (USD)—since its inception. Usually helping the audience to meet incentives and donation goals is notorious lamp thief Lord Dona'tor, who usually only appears during the Colosseum events. In the end, it’s a charity marathon and he’s actually quite charitable, if a bit… suspicious in his methods of enticing the audience to donate.

This event benefits and is in partnership with Direct Relief, a humanitarian charity giving medical support to people around the world regardless of politics, religion, or ability to pay.

[block quote taken from the official TRG website] Direct Relief is a nonprofit organization aimed at providing essential medical equipment and services to people in need. Established in 1948, Direct Relief has raised over one billion dollars and has frequently been listed as one of the top charities in the world.

To learn more about Direct Relief and their mission, please visit their website here.

History
Click the sub-headings for the playlist of that year's event!

2018 - Everyone is Here!
TRG Colosseum's first run took place on May 4th-6th, 2018, produced somewhere in Virginia. The event raised a total of $112,610 for Direct Relief.


 * TRG & Friends present: All three Runaway Guys, JoshJepson, TomFawkes, Reese, Masae, Stephen, Mal, Tyler, Devin/Marriland, FamilyJules, Jack/ToxicxEternity, and Adriana Figueroa/Adrisaurus.
 * Tech Crew: The production team consisted of Direct Relief Gaming and Kinstone team members such as SuperMCGamer, Jyggy11, KampyDK, and Abra, known for their charity work through Zeldathon and other charity events. MC’s name may also be familiar to some who have followed the Mindcrack Network in its early years.

2019 - The Mansion House
The 2nd event took place from May 3rd-May 7th, 2019, produced in South Carolina, USA in a three-story vacation home duplex (they only used half). The event raised a final total of $183,790. This is the only time there has been a four or five-day event (the main event was four, with an extra segment streamed on Jules' channel a week after). The bonus segment is sadly lost to time and was never archived or uploaded to YouTube in full (only this clip remains).


 * TRG & Friends present/New guests: Everyone in the TRG friend group that attended 2018, with the addition of MotionDan, Carlos/insaneintherainmusic, Sab_Irene, and Jerod/The8BitDrummer.
 * Lucah DID NOT attend due to her and Jon's move at the time.
 * Tech Crew: SuperMCGamer, Jyggy11, and KampyDK return as the only tech crew present.
 * Intro: 90's Sitcom parody (primarily shot and edited by Stephen)

2020 - The Show Goes On, Directly to You!
The 3rd event, dubbed "Direct", took place from April 17th-19th, 2020. The event was done from all members' houses remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the bumpers and intro sequence. Due to the state of the world, Jon stated up-front at the beginning of the event that any donations are extremely appreciated but not expected by any means; they were not expecting a big amount. Despite this, the event raised a combined total of $230,236, setting a record over the previous two years.


 * TRG & Friends who participated: Emile, Tim, Jon, JoshJepson, Reese, Masae, Tom, StephenGeorg, MalMakes, Tyler, AdrianaFigueroa, ToxicxEternity, FamilyJules, Sab_Irene, Carlos (Insaneintherainmusic), MotionDan, Jerod (The8BitDrummer)
 * Following this event, Marriland has not appeared after quitting regular content creation later that year to focus on his website.
 * New guests: Donnabellez, Erika (Chatia), Brooke (FireLordBrooke)
 * Special guest: Voice actress Lindsay Jones (during Animal Crossing)
 * Tech Crew: SuperMCGamer (master stream), Jyggy11, KampyDK.
 * Intro: Brady Bunch parody (TRG Bunch, with music and lyrics by Sab)

2021 - Limitations Breed Creativity
The 4th event took place from May 7th-9th, 2021, still produced remotely with a similar setup as the previous year due to the pandemic. The year naming scheme started in 2019 continues, dropping the “Direct” moniker from 2020. The event raised over $434,715 (the previous grand total record).


 * TRG & Friends who participated/New Guest: Emile, Tim, Jon, JoshJepson, Reese (both IRL and as a VTuber), Masae, Tom, StephenGeorg, MalMakes, Tyler, AdrianaFigueroa, ToxicxEternity, FamilyJules, Sab_Irene, Carlos (Insaneintherainmusic), MotionDan, Jerod (The8BitDrummer), Donnabellez, Erika (Chatia), Brooke (FireLordBrooke), and now including Jirard/TheCompletionist,
 * Special Guest: Delcake (mod of Jerod and Jules, as well as Jules roommate)
 * Tech Crew: SuperMCGamer, Jyggy11, KampyDK
 * Intro: Saturday Night Live parody (announcer voice by MotionDan)

2022 - Returning to Half-Normalcy
The 5th event took place from February 26th-28th, 2022, happening less than a year after the 4th event due to expiring AirBNB credits at the end of February 2022. It was a hybrid event with multiple hubs set up in the US (plus Calgary), and it raised $418,846. This pushed the total amount donated across all events to date to over a million US dollars raised.

The event was semi-virtual. The two hubs that were set up were dubbed Team East and Team West.


 * Team East: Stephen, Mal, Emile, Tim, and Tom (alongside the Tech Crew) were in the same vacation house that the 2019 event took place. Tyler was supposed to be with them, but was stranded further north due to inclement weather and ended up streaming and filming his bumper remotely.
 * Donna did not return for this event and has not appeared since her content creation hiatus.
 * Tech Crew: SuperMCGamer and KampyDK were also considered to be with Team East, as they hosted the master stream from there. Jyggy was remote for this event, but hosted his own segment.
 * Team West: In sunny San Diego, California, Jules, Jack, Adri, Masae, Carlos, and Sab formed their own group at the mansion house made famous for its programmable doorbell.
 * Stream-From-Home: Jon and Reese stayed home in Calgary due to travel restrictions. Reese also went as her VTuber form during certain segments and bumpers like the previous year, now with a brush-up rig by BunChata. Josh and Brooke opted to be remote from their home in Washington state without officially siding to Team West.
 * Intro: Survivor parody

2023 - TRG Colosseum III (really VI)
The 6th event's dates, March 3rd-5th, 2023, were revealed to the public on the third day of Super MAGFest 2023 (January 7th), the first time TRG did a convention show since Super MAGFest 2020. This announcement came with the reveal of a refreshed logo created by SuperMCGamer and Eric_PTG. This was the first event since 2019's edition where participants, guests, and crew members were planned to be present under the same roof. This was 90% realized, as Tim and Emile contracted COVID the weekend before, and Adri couldn't attend due to schedule conflicts, so they all participated remotely. It is also the first year the event was streamed from a hotel ballroom like Zeldathon! The stream setup and set design was leveled up to match.

The total raised for this event, after ALL merch sales (shirts, leftover shirts, and fanzine), amounted to $483,202.56, setting a new grand total record over 2021's total! Despite the in-person absences of Tim, Emile, and Adriana, this was touted by fans, contributors, and performers alike as the best Colosseum event yet, effectively being “what Colosseum 3 should have been” if it wasn’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, as many things were planned for the 2020 event that ended up getting postponed such as Jirard's appearance.


 * TRG & Friends who participated: Emile (remote), Tim (remote), Jon, JoshJepson, Reese, Masae, Tom, StephenGeorg, MalMakes, Tyler, AdrianaFigueroa (remote), ToxicxEternity, FamilyJules, Sab_Irene, Carlos (Insaneintherainmusic), MotionDan, Jerod (The8BitDrummer), Jirard (TheCompletionist), Erika (Chatia).
 * For reasons disclosed publicly after the event, Brooke did not appear in any capacity at this event (outside of fan works) and may not appear in future events.
 * Tech Crew: SuperMCGamer, Jyggy11, KampyDK, Klinkit (NEW), Bassoonify (NEW), romscout (NEW). BrettUltimus, Masae's boyfriend, was also around but did not appear on stream; however, he did submit a Chaos Cookie pick under his name.
 * Intro: Addams Family parody (TRG Family, with music by Sab and Carlos and lyrics by NCS)

Additional Reading

 * Trivia
 * Intermission Content
 * TRG CAB (Colosseum Animated Bunch)
 * Lord Dona'tor
 * The Lamp

More info

 * The Runaway Guys
 * TRG Website's Colosseum section (external link)