Streamer Spotlight: KMagic101 Talks The Road To Guardian Con, ‘Destiny’ And More

“The state of one game will not dictate this convention’s intentions or it’s growth, the community will.”

To this day, video games still receive a negative stigma from the general public. They’re games that are played on a monitor. However, that perception was quickly changed in 2016 when three people got together from the Destiny community and created not only a convention but a revolution and showed how powerful video games can be. Guardian Con was coined after Destiny Community Con took place in 2016 at the Florida State Fairgrounds. The week-long celebration raised over $500,000, per an article from Kotaku. That was only the beginning for Guardian Con event director Kevin Murray, aka KMagic101.

However, according to Murray, Guardian Con isn’t just about the convergence of fans of a video game. It goes far beyond that. “The message of Guardian Con is just that, community. We may have met each other and grown from Destiny but we all play other games and are involved in various activities together,” Murray said. “If we limit ourselves to one title or IP we’re doing just that, limiting ourselves. Guardian Con is about a community that is charitable, kind, inclusive, competitive and most of all, fun.”

In October of 2016, KMagic101, King Gothalion, and Professor Broman revealed that Guardian Con would commence on June 30 and July 1. The hype was very real when the tickets were opened to the public on Black Friday. VIP tickets sold out in three and a half hours, which goes to show how excited fans are to come back.

Guardian Con is approaching swiftly. When talking to Murray, he said preparations for an event with much bigger plans are going very well.

“The level of support I have compared to last year is great. We actually have a small staff dedicated to the convention and St. Jude has been nothing but helpful in planning this year’s event. People are going to be shocked at the quality improvement compared to last year,” he said.

In a recent article by the Inquisitr, a full write-up of the most-recent Guardian Con infoblast was revealed and it was full of major announcements as the trio is looking to be bigger than ever. For example, the main event of the convention is going to be a 4v4 Destiny PvP tournament, with the winning team donating $50,000 in their team’s name to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Other new features include the Podcast Theatre and the new meet-and-greet format.

The official Guardian Con website states that all of this began when Broman and Gothalion scheduled a meet-up with Destiny fans from various parts to enjoy each other’s company, talk about Destiny, and make new friends. One year following that is where Destiny Community Con made its impact on the gaming and philanthropic universes. One thing Murray is proud of is where they’ve come from and what he calls last year a “small miracle.”

“Whenever you plan an event you have to learn from your mistakes. I was shocked to see and hear that complaints were at a minimum. I consider what we pulled off a small miracle with the budget I had to work with. This year my budget is about 3x what I had to work with in ’16.”

The week leading up to Guardian Con, Broman is once again hosting the 24-hour, seven-day-long charity stream. It will be filled with not only Destiny content creators, but also the addition of contributions from other communities in order to help reach that goal of $1 million towards St. Jude.

When asked if Guardian Con would hit that momentous benchmark, KMagic101 has a different outlook on the power of a strong community. “I doubted we’d hit $250k last year. Broman is the “vicious optimist” as I like to call him. He sets a goal and does whatever he has to to reach it. If Broman says $1 million, I believe him,” he said.

In four months, people will gather from all around the world in Tampa, Florida, to accomplish a few things. One of them will be to celebrate the presumed release date of Destiny 2, the sequel to Destiny. The other is to give back and help raise awareness in conjunction with St. Jude. As KMagic101 put it, Guardian Con is more than just an event for a sole video game. When the check is handed over to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on July 1, Guardian Con will show just that.

[Featured Image by Twitch – used with permission]