In the wake of the tragic Jacksonville shooting, Madden pro gamer Shay Kivlen will go head-to-head in the game against NFL star Mike Evans for a benefit in honor of the victims.
The live-streaming face-off between the gamer and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver will take place on Monday at 2 p.m. ET.
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As has been reported, the shooting took place during a Madden NFL 19 video game tournament, when 24-year-old David Katz opened fired on the crowd in the Chicago Pizza restaurant and killed two men, which included Kivlen’s best friend Elijah Clayton.
“I go through multiple emotions a day. I’ll feel sad, and then I’ll be angry and then I’ll be confused,” Kivlen confessed. “When you see the news, you never think this would happen to you or your close friends.”
Kivlen had been at the tournament the day of the shooting, but left about a short time before the shooting so that he could rest in his hotel room. PEOPLE reports that he revealed he was watching the live-stream of the tournament when the shooting began, but that he did not initially understand what was happening.
“You don’t think a shooting is happening at the Madden tournament,” Kivlen added. “It never came across my mind, at first.” He then explained that once he realized what was happening he started trying to get in contact with everyone he knew who was at the tournament, finally reaching one person.
“He was crying on the phone,” the gamer explained, later adding that he was told that the shooter was specifically asking about him.
“A police officer stayed with me for about an hour and a half until the shooter was pronounced dead,” Kivlen continued. “It still feels unreal.”
Everything that he’s been through in the past week led him to do the live-stream fundraiser so that he could help the families of the victims.
“I don’t want anyone to experience what I’m going through or what these families are going through,” Kivlen stated. “It’s a feeling and an experience that no one should ever have to go through and anything we can do to prevent this, I’m all for.”
Another person helping to promote the fundraiser is Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor Cameron Kasky, who told PEOPLE that he has been involved in helping because “no parent should have to worry about money when they’re burying their child who was killed playing a video game. It should have never happened.”
All the proceeds from the fundraiser will be donated to the Jacksonville Fallen Gamers Fund. The non-profit was set up to help the victims of the shooting and their families.
