The Z Event: How Does It Work? Everything We Know

What is the Z Event?

The Z Event is a charity event organized every year since 2016 by Adrien Nougaret and his sidekick Alexandre Dachary. The event is so called in reference to “the event of Zerator”, the pseudonym of Adrien Nougaret on the net. This annual meeting aims to collect funds for the benefit of an association working for the common good.

The Z Event takes place face-to-face, with dozens of personalities invited by Zerator. But the public attends the event remotely, watching live on Twitch, via the participants’ channels. It is an event that takes place in a large room and over several days. This is a marathon around the video game – but not only.

Zerator, right, saluting the involvement of guests at a previous edition of the Z Event.
// Source: Z Event

If it mainly revolves around video games, the Z Event is in fact a marathon made up of many other activities. During the streaming, there may also be discussions, quizzes, room tests, drawing, karaoke and so on. And, sometimes, streamers take a break to go to sleep or eat.

The Z Event is not the first event of this type, but it is undoubtedly the most followed in France – and perhaps even in the world, so unique is this format, the audience and the profits collected. It is also the event of this nature that receives the most media attention. It must be said that it now generates millions of euros – literally.

How does the Z Event work?

The “goal of the game” is to offer live and streaming entertainment for more than fifty hours. At the same time, Internet users are encouraged to donate the amount of their choice to the association. To achieve this, the members of the Z Event generally have “donation goals”: these are increasingly important challenges, divided into levels and associated with amounts.

For example, Jean Massiet will read the French Constitution in ASMR if the threshold reaches 49,300 euros. And for a million euros, he is running for the presidential election. Ponce, for his part, will make a cosplay from 5,000 euros. And at 300,000 euros, he will do live paragliding. Each guest chooses their own challenges. The levels are personal: they depend on the amount each person collects.

The goal is to create fun caps, so that the public pays as many euros as possible and thus sees streamers respecting the commitments made – normally, within the year. Obviously, personalities have fun placing inaccessible “donation goals”, like Antoine Daniel, who had promised What the Cut 39 for 103 trillion bitcoins.

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Z Event 2021 attendees. // Source: Z Event

Who is present at the Z Event 2022?

There are 57 personalities on the program for Z Event 2022, including Zerator. There are recurring guests, such as Alphacast, Baghera Jones, Rivenzi and Mynthos, to name only a small handful, but also newcomers, for whom this is the first edition, like CarlJr (who comes from Canada) and BlitzStream. But, there are also names that are among the absentees.

This is the case of Gotaga or Joueur du Grenier, as well as other personalities seen at the Z Event 2021 or who were involved during the event on Reddit with R/Place. This had been the source of controversy on social networks. However, the interested parties reacted by explaining that their withdrawal from the Z Event 2022 is due to a scheduling conflict. Nothing more.

The guest list:

Alexclick
Alphacast
Altair
Right angle
Anthony Daniel
Avamind
Baghera Jones
belu
BlitzStream
Bob Lennon
Bren
CaMaK
CarlJr
ceb
Chap
Chow1
Dash
DamDamLive
Doigby
domingo
DrFeelgood
stars
Guis
GoBGG
Gom4rt
Horty
ImSoFresh
Jbzz
John Massiet
jeel
Jiraiya
Kenny
lapi
LeBouseuh
Lege
LittleBigWhale
Master Snakou
Mister MV
MoMan
Mynthos
NBK
PopeSan
Pumice
Rivenzi
Shaunz
shishyu
SkyRRoZ
skyyart
Solary
uncle
TPK
Trinity
Ultia
A33D
xari
ZeratoR

Z Event donations

Organized since 2016, the Z Event has consistently broken its previous donation record. However, the event may not succeed in 2022, both because a controversy erupted earlier this year over the choice of the selection, but also because the economic context is unfavorable – high inflation is hitting France. and many other countries.

Donations raised so far:

2016: €170,000 for Save The Children;
2017: 500,000 euros for the French Red Cross;
2018: €1,094,731 for Médecins Sans Frontières;
2019: €3,509,878 for the Institut Pasteur;
2020: 5,724,377 for Amnesty International;
2021: €10,064,480 for Action Against Hunger.

Paradoxically, missing the record in 2022 could be liberating for Zerator, breaking this pressure to always do better. Even if we wish success for the new edition of the charity event, it would be an opportunity to break this “race” for results and put fun back at the center of the meeting, without fear of missing a level. or not.

The deductibility of donations for the 2022 edition of the Z Event is unclear. Not one, but five organizations (Time for the Planet, Sea Shepherd, the Bird Protection League, WWF and The SeaCleaners) were selected. However, the Z Event plans to recover the final amount and distribute it equitably among these five beneficiaries, which could deprive of a tax receipt.

There is obviously always the possibility of donating directly to organizations, via their website, but the amounts cannot then be counted in the Z Event 2022 earnings or in any “donation goal”. The question of the deduction of the donation from taxes could be re-clarified by Zerator by the start of the streaming marathon.

A Z Event affected by a controversy

In 2022, it was planned to support the GoodPlanet organization with the Z Event. This was Zerator’s plan, which announced its name mid-year. However, GoodPlanet’s profile resulted in a heated controversy that eventually resulted in a divorce between the Z Event and GoodPlanet . It was therefore necessary to find a fallback solution: but rather than choosing, Zerator let the Internet decide.

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The GoodPlanet homepage. // Source: Screenshot

Internet users were able to vote on a dedicated site to retain five other associations among twenty-two pre-selected. The five chosen ones ( Time for the Planet, Sea Shepherd, the Bird Protection League, WWF and The SeaCleaners ) were also the subject of criticism, but these proved to be significantly less harsh than those targeting GoodPlanet.

This isn’t the first time the Z Event has come under fire. In 2019, it was the insufficient mix and the low diversity of guest profiles that had been denounced. In 2021, it was the reaction of the organizers who had been criticized after an outing deemed misogynistic by a videographer against a guest who did not speak French. A videographer had intervened to obtain an apology from her peer, before being the victim of online harassment.

Where to see the Z Event?

On the Twitch channels of participating streamers, that of Z Event , and ZeratoR.

When is the Z Event?

From September 8 to 11, 2022.

Which associations have been chosen for the Z Event 2022?

Time for the Planet;
Sea Shepherd;
The Bird Protection League;
WWF;
The Sea Cleaners.

A “pixel war” at the Z Event!

This will certainly be one of the highlights of the Z Event 2022. There will be a “pixel war” in which Internet users can participate, in a nod to the event which took place this spring on R/Place . If you give one euro, you can then drop ten pixels on a blank page, to draw pixel art, but also to vandalize the neighbour’s composition.

This activity is inspired by the participatory initiative of the community site Reddit, where you could make pixel art on a whiteboard. The game had then turned into a pitched battle between the French and the Spaniards – the expression Pixel War was then quite apt. This time, it will be a Franco-French battle, between streamers and streamers.

The Z Event: How does it work? Everything we know