Video game tournament held in Bronson to help fellow gamer with cancer treatment

BRONSON, Fla. (WCJB) -More than 80 gamers of all ages gathered at Bronson middle high school to participate in a two-part tournament to help raise money for a fellow gamer battling cancer.

Timothy Snider or better known as ‘TJ’, was diagnosed with stage four melanoma cancer just 6 months after he graduated high school.

“I’m really really grateful, shocked, and overall amazed,” said Snider. “How many people are here to just have fun and support, it’s awesome.”

His former game design teacher, Michael Wilson, jumped at the chance to organize a Super Mario Bro’s gaming tournament to help raise money for TJ’s cancer treatment.

“He talked about it a lot and I heard about what he was going through,” said Wilson. “I said let’s do something together, let’s do something for him and raise some money. I mean it came together like this.”

While some came to win, others like tournament organizer Adam Wehr came merely to support TJ.

“I’ve been in the scene for 4 or 5 years now that smash bro’s is a game that really brings people together,” said Wehr. “As we can see so many people are coming up to support this tournament. Both doubles and singles, we have huge brackets of like 80 people all coming out for this and it’s great, it’s great to see.”

The winner will receive two tickets to Battle for the south 2023 in Valdosta, Georgia. However the real winner here today is TJ as he continues to fight against this disease.

Organizers have set up a gofundme for further donations.

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2023 WCJB. All rights reserved.