Hello, my name is Amanda head of the The Heart Container. I am an E-Sports Organizer for my local Tekken Community. I have a brand with The Heart Container i created, that I use to do pop-up cooking for events and to put together these FGC events. I do them with my partner Jeishon (also known by Nonenity as his gamer tag), we have been doing Tekken Tournaments and community events since right after COVID around 2021. We started small with TVs, no stream, our love for the scene and a dream. And slowly thanks to the community support and using our own money over time we gathered proper monitors, a laptop for stream, some cameras, some proper mics, we got Commentators and more. We have slowly been trying to become more professional and better quality in the FGC scene. Currently, we do Bi-Weekly Tournaments at Tenth Level Tavern in Oakland. It is thanks to them and their support that we have all the Ps5's and monitors needed for Tournaments. When previously we paid and had our own 3 Ps4s and monitors and would ask others to bring more so we could have a proper tournament. Currently our setup was working well for weekly Tournaments that we streamed live on twitch for everyone to review the Videos and share and showcase what we can do. We also put together a big Regional Event twice a year called the "Tekken Legacy" its an all day event and we get sponsors to help us make a big prize pool to make the event extra special and worth it for our players. As well as vendors and we get a much higher production for the event. Paying a local production manager and photographer we are close to, To help our event look the most professional it can be. But we personally dont have the things used in that kind of production. Our weekly Tournaments just have my gaming laptop for stream and some cameras and mics. However ive had the same gaming laptop since we start in 2021. And after 5 years it seems to be dying on me. Our streams have been lagging, we can't connect the hdmi's to showcase the matches properly on the tv's at the bar anymore. The lag is affecting players and the videos, our mouse has been acting up, sometimes my laptop freezes over and wont work, and sometimes it gets so bad streaming becomes impossible. We have not had the money for me to upgrade my laptop at all. In fact in our personal lives we are heavily struggling, and trying our best between our normal jobs and these pop up jobs I do. Its hard to contiune supporting our community and the scene we love so much thats supported us for so long when we are also dealing with so much in our life. We want to contiune giving them the experience they deserve. But with so many issues with stream, our camera, and the mics we use even being borrowed as it is, its becoming too difficult to keep up to what's required for a proper event. So, with all our struggles in mind, we are dealing with what we have to deal with personally for now. But, we are asking for help with our local community to contiune sharing the E-sports experience. This isn't just a game. Its a community that has all become friends. So many of us talk outside of Tournaments and spend time together. Ive personally become close to so many that its become a family. Our Tekken Community has become a family. Even when we are struggling and having terrible days we always push ourselves to do our Tournaments. We see the excitement everyone gets at them, we see the community getting along and the fun everyone has and it makes it all so worth it. Hosting these events has truly changed my life. Ive connected with so many people. Even during dark times when I felt alone I had this community and my new friends and a shared love for a specfic game. This one game did that for me. This community did that. So I try my best in my ability to take feedback from them, to hear what they have to say cause their opinions matter. To give them a good time. Spend time with them with dinners after and getting to know them. Anything I can do for them. But I now I need their support. I need them and locals to help me contiune funding this dream, this passion, and this love we have for this community. I am asking for an amount that will help cover a new proper Gaming Laptop that can handle stream quality so we can upgrade and give you guys better quality videos to look back on and stream at a better quality for all those that watch at home. So we won't have anymore lagging, issues with our playback on TVs in the venune or anything like that, so we can have a laptop that is functional. We are asking to help fund the new laptop as well as some smaller upgrades like a new camera to show off our Commentators that work so hard to help us that we only get to show for special events, and so we can buy the mics we use and have our own for our Commentators instead of having to borrow forever. (Which we wouldnt be able to do forever). These are the upgrades we need so we can contiune making our community happy. And any donation towards that helps tremendously. We appreciate all of you so very much, we will do our best to continue supporting our community no matter what. Because we love our Tekken Family, our E-Sports family and we are all in this together. Thank you - Amanda