The Lady Arcaders Super Showcase (LASS) is an annual charity fundraiser showcasing the talents of women and femmes in gaming. This year marks Lady Arcaders’ fourth Super Showcase and is benefiting CARE—last year over $6000 was raised for them! CARE works worldwide towards ending poverty, saving lives, and achieving social justice. Because of the disproportionate impact of resource scarcity, disasters, and climate change on women and girls, they center them and lift their communities into a better world with them. “CARE has been such a great group to work with. I think it’s so cool that we support an organization with such a long-standing history. They’ve done decades of work supporting so many locations around the world that struggle with famine, violence, and displacement. They also focus on empowering women’s voices in leadership and collective action. Another really unique and cool thing we’re able to do for LASS is not only get an interview with a CARE representative, but also have them play a game during the event as well. Being able to show our viewers and community who we work with and also spend time connecting with them through video games is so impactful and so much fun,” said Lazlo, a Lady Arcaders staff lead and co-lead of the Games Selection Committee.

This year’s schedule includes more non-speedrunning events than last year, emphasizing bringing more unique and exciting showcases into LASS. Enbyzee, co-lead of the Games Selection Committee, commented that one of the goals of the committee was to “accept things that never get into other events. If we see something and think ‘that’s cool’ either content-wise or tech-wise, we try to get it in.” They looked to “showcase things that are unique” and that presenters are passionate and knowledgeable about! “If we’re not doing things that other people wouldn’t do, then we’re not really doing our jobs right.” With the size and excitement of the Lady Arcaders community submissions, Lazlo added that there are “really creative ideas cooking (for one of them, I mean that literally!). I love that we’re able to show off the variety of talents and skills our community has in a way that isn’t exclusive to speedrunning.” Both Lazlo and Enbyzee shared that it was difficult to decide which submissions to accept into LASS because of having “so many fantastic ideas and runs” with limited scheduling slots.

Excitement for LASS is high, and the staff is looking forward to watching the showcases with the community and being there to support and help the runners. Both of the Games Committee co-leads are planning to attend the full event and “help out anyone who needs it,” as well as helping to plan and update the event incentives throughout it! Wrapping things up, they shared a few last thoughts. Enbyzee encouraged everyone that “we’re gonna kick ass,” and Lazlo wanted to share that “if anyone has any questions about getting involved with Lady Arcaders, volunteering, or anything LA-related at all, I’m always super happy to chat!”