Scared But Not Alone 3 is Team Overture’s latest LGBTQ+ Apex Legends tournaments
Scared But Not Alone 3 is a charity Apex Legends tournament and costume/cosplay/drag competition for LGBTQ+ players, by LGBTQ+ players. The Hallow-Meme tournament and costume/cosplay/drag contest will kick off on October 29 to benefit The Games and Online Harassment Hotline. Organizers Team Overture have put together six Apex Legends tournaments for and by LGBTQ+/BIPOC players, and raised over $43,000 for charity.
It all started with a community then-called Gamers4Pride, which tournament organizer HaiBobby was a part of. HaiBobby and some friends from this community decided they wanted to put together the first LGBTQIA2S+ Apex Legends tournament and raise some money for charity.
“It was my mission to create a safe space for BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ individuals to play a game that they love amongst their peers,” HaiBobby told Gayming Magazine.
This event was the first-ever all queer created, hosted, and participated in Apex Legends tournament. EA even supported the tournament, promoting it and matching $5000 in donations.
“It was an amazing feeling to be supported for an event that was highlighting our community,” HaiBobby said. “It was the first ever all queer, hosted, created, and participated Apex Legends Tournament, and we had support from the developer of the game. I was blown away.”
The first Scared But Not Alone tournament took place shortly after for Halloween 2020, putting Team Overture’s creation two years later into motion. Last year, HaiBobby and fellow BIPOC streamer Aphasia Speaks hosted the second Scared But Not Alone charity tournament on the front page of Twitch, where HaiBobby was being featured for Hispanic Heritage Month.
“A Queer Latine individual (HaiBobby), and a Black Drag Artist (Aphasia Speaks) hosting a FPS shooter, with 10,000 viewers on Twitch, was something that had never been done, and we let so many folks know there was a safe space for them because of this,” HaiBobby said.
With the success of Scared But Not Alone 2, a friend of HaiBobby’s who was a Twitch partner extended them the opportunity to build an official stream team. With this opportunity, the community re-branded to Team Overture in April of 2022.
“Overture is both a community and stream team, focused on creating content and providing a safe space for marginalized creators to play all types of games and learn from each other,” HaiBobby said. “Participation for our most recent tournament was amazing, more than half the teams had women, and femme presenting folks playing. 1/3 of the participants were BIPOC, 1/3 were Trans/Nonbinary, and 100% queer.”
HaiBobby went to school for Intersecting Identities Social Justice at Cal State LA, so being able to build a community and stream team that is caring and creates a safe space for marginalized folks is something that’s very important to him.
“I understand that tournaments are competitive in nature, but we create these tournaments to show that you can still have fun and be competitive,” they said. “You can be queer, BIPOC, and any other intersectionality and have a safe space to compete in your favorite game.”
Players interested in participating in Scared But Not Alone 3 can register for the event over the next three weeks, starting September 23. The theme is “Hallow-Meme,” so attendees are encouraged to come dressed to impress with their favorite memes.
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