As the 2010 Clix for the Cure is this upcoming weekend, I thought I'd share a bit of the history of the event with the wonderful HeroClix community.

Way back in 2005, Tim “Frontman” Scallon had a thought… HeroClix players come together every week to play their favorite game, so why not come together and support a cause when we get together? At the time, Tim’s mother was battling breast cancer. Over the course of a conversation, Duane “DS-00-0, FSD” Bruun took Tim’s query and literally ran with it. Clix for the Cure was born.

The idea was to get a bunch of Clix players together and raise money for the Susan Komen Foundation. Right from the start Duane wanted this to be big. Really big. Duane immediately took to organizing the event. He worked with his local venue in Bloomington, IL to arrange a date and secure the space needed. He advertised the event every chance he could, posting on the different HeroClix forums. He even hit people up for donations of LEs to give away as prizes. It’s at this point that Karl “hair10” Markovich got involved.

At the time, Karl was the Rules Arbitrator for HeroClix and he spoke with Jason “BrotherMagneto” Mical, a WizKids employee at the time, about the event. With his help, WizKids immediately came to the aid of the event by donating LEs, including a couple of very rare Masterpiece figures. Throughout the years, WizKids has stepped in to help with this worthy cause every year except for last year when WK was ‘on hiatus’.

That inaugural year had a good showing. 34 people got together from all over the Midwest and raised a total of $891. The event received positive reviews and praise from all who were involved and discussion started on making it an annual event.

And so, it became an annual event with the 2nd Annual Clix for the Cure. Due to some personal conflicts on his time, Duane couldn’t organize the second Clix for the Cure so Karl took up the task. The second event took place in 2006 and was held in Peoria, IL. At the time, the local venue had very little space… not nearly enough for an event like this. Working with a local hotel Karl was able to secure one of their meeting rooms for the event. Many of the same faces showed up as well as some welcome new ones. 2006 featured a raffle for a Spectre colossal figure and factory set giveaway, with WK being instrumental in providing support once again. The 2nd Annual Clix for the Cure event drew in approximately 30 players and $770 was donated to the cause. However, thanks to a generous “matching gifts” program, Karl’s employer matched that amount thereby bringing the grand total to a whopping $1,540!

For the 3rd annual event in 2007, Duane was back on board and getting things set up in Bloomington once again. This year coincided with the 5th anniversary of HeroClix and to celebrate Duane wanted to do something a bit different. He came up with a ‘Kill It and Keep It’ idea. He worked with the owner of Gryfallia’s Aerie, Ken, who donated 2 cases of Supernova boosters. The first would be used by participants and the second case would be opened for the ‘Kill and Keep’ prizes. Each player was also given a Diamond Lil (a character in Marvel Comics that has battled breast cancer) figure to use on their force. But Duane would never let something as simple as a “play your booster” game take place. He had to include a rather unique twist! Each player in the event could also include two other figures (besides the contents of their booster and the Diamond Lil) in their force. But there’s always a catch with Duane and the catch was that those additional figures fell under a venue wide highlander rule. That meant if some player chose Superman as one of his extra figures, no other player could play Superman! This made for some interesting choices of figures that were used as well as quite a few laughs.

That third year was a great showing. 36 people got together from all over the Midwest and raised a total of $1,443. Some of that was through entry fees and some through prize raffles, but a large part of it came from yet another harebrained idea that Tim and Duane cooked up which has become a hallmark of the event…. “Probability Control for a buck”.

The idea was ludicrously simple and insanely fun. Basically, ANYONE could pay $1 to force a re-roll of the dice. It might be someone involved in the current game, or someone playing at the map over, or someone just standing by watching the event. If someone put down $1, those dice would have to be rolled again. The “PC for a buck” has become a standard at the Clix for the Cure events and driven some crazy games, especially tightly packed Kill and Keep matches where a large crowd is gathered to play and $1 bills are being thrown around from every direction!

The 4th annual event again took place in Bloomington. The “Kill and Keep” scenario was popular enough that it stuck around for 2008’s event. This time around everyone received a booster each of Justice League and Mutations & Monsters and made a 500 point team out them. The figures the players would be facing and trying to win on the other sides of the maps were all LEs, uniques, and super rares that were donated by the HeroClix community and WizKids. All total, there were over 100 figures donated to be used as prizes. To coincide with this event, Karl ran an online auction and Michele “KitsuShel” Angelo’s homemade cookies were raffled off. “PC for a buck” was once again back in play as well. The 4th annual event was an unqualified success by any measure. The event itself saw an attendance of 43 players raising an astounding $2,070! Additionally, $560 was raised through the online auction and $200 through Michele’s cookie raffle… a grand total of $2,830 that was donated to the Komen Foundation!

Last year was the 5th Annual Clix for the Cure. Everyone involved knew this event was going to be a challenging one. WizKids had been closed by their parent company, Topps. There would be no help from them when it came to prize support. Duane, always thinking of new and creative ideas, turned to the HeroClix modding community. He reached out to them for donations and they came through big time. The community donated a number of very creative and very cool custom creations to be given away as prizes. In addition, part of each player’s entry fee went towards a booster which was placed into the prize pool for another ‘Kill It, Keep It” event. However, this time around the games were themed. One round featured an attack on Master Mold, where the players went up against an army of Sentinels. The second round saw the players teaming up to defeat the hordes of the Sinestro Corps. These games were made even better thanks to the donation of some custom “Sentinel Factory” and “Green Lantern Corps” maps designed and created by Steve “ibeatdrew” Coblentz. After the events were over, the maps were then raffled and auctioned off. Even with WizKids being “dead” during that time, the event still drew over 40 people and raised $1,450.

This year is the 6th Annual Clix for the Cure. In an effort to make this the biggest event yet, it has been expanded to three locations, extending the reach of the event from coast to coast. The “original” Midwest event will be held in Peoria, IL this year. Additional events will be held at the same time in Savage, MD and Lakewood, WA. Full details of this year’s event can be found at here. The events this year include some fantastic prizes including custom figure sculpts by Ben Misenar, WoS and B&B factory sets from WizKids, original sketches by Ed McGuinness, Watchmen HeroClix sketches by Seth Johnson, custom maps by GridReality, and a whole lot more!

When the organizers left that first event, everyone agreed that it was a great time for a worthy cause. There was talk of making it an annual event. But it’s doubtful that anyone thought it would have continued on for as long as it has and continue to grow as big as it is. To date, the Clix for the Cure events, with the help of the players, community, and WizKids, has donated over $8,000 to the Susan Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. Congratulations and be sure to come out this year if you can make it!

Thanks for sharing all that. I was aware of the event for years, but not the history.
Very cool.
I've been blown away by the generosity of so many people, from players to judges to creative types, you name it! This is going to be one awesome weekend!
Thanks for including the East Coast this year! We won't let you down!!!

Very amazing history. I hope you consider the Bay Area HeroClix community next year for the additional locations.

My wife and I were both there last year for the "Hiatus" game. It was our first time at C4TC, and we weren't quite sure what to expect. Ended up taking 2nd place out of 40+ people and walked away with the Custom Green Lantern map, Goldeeh's Black Lantern E2 Superman, and won an Alfred Chase figure as well as about 5 other LE figures. My wife won a custom figure, and several LE figures as well. Her crowning achievement was taking down the full powered Anti-Monitor with her Birds of Prey team (and a healthy dose of $1 re-rolls! ) We had a blast besides my not feeling well. I had woken up that morning not feeling well and got progressively worse throughout the day. I found out the next day that I had a NASTY case of Strep throat and 103 degree fever. I was determined not to let that stop me though, and I'll do it again if necessary!

This year's Hurdle? UNEMPLOYMENT!!!

I hope there are some events in the Los Angeles and/or Orange County area finally in the future, as I live in Orange County and I have never heard of any around these counties. I wouldn't mind participating in this event, it is for a good cause! However, they are never around me. I applaud all those involved in this event over the years.

Awesome job!!!

I remember that 3rd event well. Since only one person could use any given named fig everyone was trying to get their big guns in. I was somewhere in the teens for picking my fig. All the people before me were calling out names like Superman, Thor, Cap America, Batman, etc. When it got to my turn I yelled out "Ambush Bug!" That drew a big laugh from the crowd.

Great article. I have made it to all of them, and hope to not miss any in the future. One small correction to the history. It was Anish's that came up with the hairbrained idea of PC for a buck.

Good to know.

I was going to mention the Ambush bug thing. The other highlight for me was winning the Legacy set at the very first one. But I've always come away with something cool from here and had a blast.

I can't seem to differentiate 3 and 4 in my head, they run together. I'm pretty sure the only one I missed was 2. Were 3 and 4 both held at the Bloomington game shop, or was one held at the restaurant around the corner like 5 was?

I ran into him at Gencon. Is he coming to this?

IIRC, 3 & 4 were both at Gryfalia's Aerie.

i admire u guys for helping the cure out.maybe some day i could go to one but in the mean time good job

This has touched my heart. I will be attending this year's Clix For The Cure with Tom's crew on the east coast. Its amazing what people can do when they set their minds to it.

It'll make enjoying this event that much better, now knowing the details of what came before. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, and with 70 participants at the East Coast event alone, I can't see how this year won't topple all previous records.

Everyone use their little plastic men to gut punch Cancer!