Winnipeg gamer smashes world record for longest playing time

A Winnipeg man has just smashed a world record.

Dan Bergman began playing the Nintendo game Super Smash Bros. on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT.On Friday at 7:01 p.m., he officially broke the Guinness World Record for playing a fighting video game.

Bergman plans to keep playing the game well into the wee hours of Saturday morninguntil he sets a newrecord for 55 hours played.

• Gamer aims to break Guinness World Record to raise money for coding program

He took on the challenge to raise money for a video game coding program aimed at inner-city youth. It will be run by the Christian charity Geekdom House.

So far the group's Canada Helps page has raised $350 for the program.

"He didn't want to just do it for himself, he wanted to pick a cause," said Geekdom House founder Kyle Rudge.

"Dan is someone who really cares about kids. He's a teacher by trade and he loves to see kids learn and grow."

While Bergman started off strong, after playing for so much time, Rudge said fatigue has begun toset in.Guinness does allow for breaks, but they're short just 10 minutes of rest for every one hour played.

"You kind of have that energy boost And then you hit some of those lows where you start to ask Dan some questions and he can't answer in a clear sentence anymore," said Rudge.

Despite heavy eyelids,Bergman is determined to make it to 3 a.m. and set a high bar for the record's next challenger.

"His adrenaline is pumping so hard, why wouldn't he," said Rudge.

"The place is going to be open anyway so we might as well pad the record as much as we can."