While bad omens predicted the opposite, the ZEvent 2022 once again managed to exceed its donation record, a major achievement for an event that deserves it.
[Mis à jour le 13 septembre 2022 à 14h56] More than fifty hours of streaming, 57 streamers present and as many voices lost, the ZEvent 2022 was a great vintage. The young streamers under the aegis of Adrien “ZeratoR” Nougaret managed to collect €10,182,126 during a LAN in Montpellier, offering the associations WWF France, Sea Shepherd, Sea Cleaners and the LPO more than 2.5 million euros each to develop their 2023 budgets. An event placed under the sign of ecology which attracted as much the generosity of French youth as the attention of its political sphere, to the chagrin of certain streamers who did not hid their disgust at some clumsy recovery attempts. We take stock of this historic moment.
It was therefore Friday around 6 p.m. that Adrien “ZeratoR” Nougaret and his friends began their streaming marathon. Their goal ? Collect as many donations as possible in one weekend to fairly support the LPO, WWF France, Sea Shepherd France, Sea Cleaners and Time for the Planet. An edition placed under the sign of ecology therefore, and which already intended to do things well, the ZEvent not having hesitated to break its partnership with the Goodplanet foundationconsidered too close to the currents of greenwashing and biodynamics to associate with these five other associations.
For a little over 50 hours, therefore, a little over fifty French-speaking streamers shouted loudly in front of their screens and their audiences, sometimes participating in rather crazy joint activities, encouraging French youth to give by imposing challenges on themselves. wacky. We could see video game tournaments, with a superb giant game of Fall Guys on Friday evening, but also a lot of sport with paddle, boxing and spikeball tournaments, and even daring taste adventures during the Croc-Lanta of Lapi.
But that’s not all, in order to offer alternatives to “traditional” donations, in addition to the classic ZEvent shop, the event also offered Internet users the opportunity to build their own artistic fresco on the r/place of ZEvent 2022. By offering 10 pixels for €1, ZeratoR and its friends have enabled their communities to express themselves in the manner of the r/place that had been so successful last April. The result, some hilarious sequences between streamers trying to put a spoke in the wheels, via their viewers.
In addition to these 57 young men and young women, there are also various distinguished guests who punctuated with their actions this few days of celebration, with the appearance in particular of Alain Chabat during a crazy burger quiz on Saturday evening. And the festivities continued until very late on Sunday night, where the young streamers managed to collect close to 4 million euros in a few hours, totaling a pot on the event of 10,182,126 €, a new record. A fact that would not have been possible without the involvement of several hundred thousand young viewers of the Twitch streaming platform.
But beyond the entertainment, it was also the political commitment of some streamers that made a bit of noise on the last day of the event, especially after the usual thank you message posted on Twitter by Emmanuel Macron at ZEvent. While some once again welcomed the “involvement” of the President of the Republic, his message was considered unwelcome by some streamers like Antoine Daniel and Angle Droit, who did not hesitate to criticize the head of state for its ecological inaction or its attempts at political recuperation. It was Antoine Daniel who opened the ball of criticism by not hesitating to express his antipathy towards the head of state: “The promo? The word is more propaganda… But it bugs me; we didn’t ask for that! I want people to know that since the ZEvent, there are people who hate him, and it’s because of people like him, among others, that we do these events.“For Angle Droit, it is Emmanuel Macron’s hypocrisy that is in the sights:”Well yes you count on us c****rd because you burn nothing! If only you could afford to do something shitty!“Launched the young woman with humor and cynicism after seeing the message from the President of the Republic.
For the ZEvent, the hostilities began a little before the launch of the streaming marathon, this Thursday at the start of the evening. It was with a big concert at the Zénith de Montpellier that ZeratoR and his friends kicked off this charity weekend. A sold-out concert that brought together more than 120,000 viewers on the Twitch streaming platform at the best of the evening. But that’s not all, this concert also opened the pot for the event and raised just under 7,000 euros in a few hours. Among the many personalities present this evening, we were able to find Biglo and Oli, Soprano, PV Nova in duet with LittleBigWhale, the French Fuse duo and the Berywam crew.
An undeniably successful event that bodes well for this 2022 edition of ZEvent. Something to reassure ZeratoR and his cronies after the wave of criticism that fell on the event due to the absence of certain flagship streamers from Twitch. But that’s not all, it’s also the atmosphere of the room that surprised many artists like Bigflo and Oli who admitted not having expected so much enthusiasm from the audience.
This year, we found regulars and newbies at ZEvent 2022, with some absences noticed and criticized by a certain part of the community of viewers of the event. Among the big regulars we find Mister MV, Maghla, LittleBigWhale, MoMan or the TV LOL Solary. But it was also a big first for AvaMind, Skyrroz or the star of Warzone Chow1. The absences that most intrigued the public are those of Kameto, Squeezie or Billy alias Rebeudeter.
The list of participants at ZEvent 2022:
- Alexclick
- Alphacast
- Altair
- Right angle
- Anthony Daniel
- Arkunir
- Avamind
- Baghera Jones
- belu
- BlitzStream
- Bob Lennon
- Bren
- CaMaK
- CarlJr
- ceb
- Chap
- Chow1
- Dash
- DamDamLive
- Doigby
- domingo
- DrFeelgood
- stars
- Guis
- Gom4rt
- Horty
- ImSoFresh
- Jbzz
- John Massiet
- jeel
- Jiraiya
- Kenny
- lapi
- LeBouseuh
- Lege
- LittleBigWhale
- Master Snakou
- Mister MV
- MoMan
- Mynthos
- NBK
- Pumice
- Rivenzi
- sardoche
- Shaunz
- shishyu
- SkyRRoZ
- skyyart
- Solary
- uncle
- TPK
- Trinity
- Ultia
- A33D
- xari
- ZeratoR
If the 2021 edition had been dedicated to Action against Hunger, the ZEvent 2022 changed slightly by teaming up with GoodPlanet. Founded in 2005 by photographer and director Yann Arthus-Bertrand, this French foundation recognized as being of public utility aims to “place ecology and humanism at the heart of consciences and arouse the desire to act concretely for the Earth and its inhabitants.” She offers access to green energy to the most disadvantaged populations and joins forces with various companies to suggest that they commit to reducing their carbon emissions. She was notably behind the film project human by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, released in 2015.
The choice of this association was debated for a few days on Twitter, with many Internet users criticizing its proximity to Total and Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s support for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Even if the latter has since claimed to have made a mistake in this unwelcome partnership, the links between GoodPlanet and certain energy circles are disturbing. It is moreover the choice of this association which had pushed certain streamers to refuse the invitation of ZeratoR to the ZEvent, like Maghla or Arkunir. In addition, Goodplanet has long been associated with “Greenwashing”, considered too wait-and-see by some, but also with biodynamics, an obscure current of agriculture pointed out for its sectarianization by the Miviludes. Critics of the choice of this foundation as the beneficiary of ZEvent 2022 have been very numerous. So many that the organization of the streaming weekend has decided to kick him out of the event. A decision taken this weekend by ZeratoR and its teams, and explained in a post on social networks:
The rupture of the partnership between Goodplanet and ZEvent has since been confirmed by Albane Godard, general manager of the foundation. She deplores the many criticisms “unfounded“Worn by Internet users on social networks, while affirming that the environmental cause should be supported without faltering in these times. On the side of the ZEvent staff, this unprecedented withdrawal is justified in an open letter to the spectators: “It is clear that the choice of this year’s association did not convince you” “The truth is that the perfect association does not exist, some carry out illegal actions, others are too small to accommodate a such amount of money and others are financed by actors whose activities destroy our planet on a daily basis.” can we read in the explanation of ZeratoR.
The new beneficiaries of ZEvent 2022
The sidelining of Goodplanet therefore leaves space for other associations for the ZEvent 2022, and the decision was made to select five associations which will share the donations of the event equally. These are the Internet users were called to vote to make this choice from a long list of candidates. There we found:
- The League for the Protection of Birds
- WWF France
- The Sea Cleaners
- Time For The Planet
So to answer this question right away, no, the ZEvent 2022 will not be the last edition of the event. Although this information can turn on social networks, it seems to extrapolate a tweet posted by Adrien Nougaret at the time of the announcement of the 2022 edition:
One last huge event before changing the formula for a subject that affects us all, that is too important to ignore. the ZEVENT is back. Thank you all for your trust #ZEVENT2022 https://t.co/ixfiRNQpeL
— D -1 . ZeratoR (@ZeratoR) July 4, 2022
The young streamer indeed announces that the event will completely change formula next year, but will obviously remain an appointment on your calendar. Given its success, one can imagine that the ZEvent is gradually moving away from the large friendly LAN in Montpellier to get closer to a large-scale show in 2023.
The ZEvent is an event organized by Adrien “ZeratoR” Nougaret and Alexandre “Dach” Dachary since 2016. Each year, these two big names on the French streaming scene bring together a whole panel of streamers for a weekend. More than 50 hours of continuous streaming on Twitch, Amazon’s go-to live streaming platform. Concretely, the guests gather during a gigantic LAN where everyone broadcasts their stream and participates in common activities. The amount of donations offered by all the spectators, or viewers, is accumulated in a kitty donated at the end of the weekend to a charity association. Each streamer encourages its viewers by imposing “donation goals”, challenges to achieve if the donations of their viewers reach certain amounts. It is also necessary to add to this amount all the sales of derivative products (mainly t-shirts) which represents a non-negligible amount each year. In 2021, ZEvent joined forces with Action against Hungerthe French NGO that fights against malnutrition in the world.