Cooler Master is holding a two-part community contest to design a new recolored special edition of its MM711 gaming mouse, with all proceeds going to coronavirus relief, the company announced today via press release.
Dubbed the MM711 Challenge, the contest’s first step asks fans to submit new color schemes for the mouse, while the second step gives them the opportunity to donate to a COVID-19 charity to earn a discount on the new special edition peripheral once it’s released.
“Frankly, gaming peripherals are pretty low on the list of priorities for the world right now,” Bryant Nguyen, General Manager for Cooler Master’s Peripherals Business Unit, said in the contest’s press release. “But bringing the community together for a design challenge and then raising money for an incredibly serious cause is something we can all get behind.”
(Image credit: Cooler Master)
From April 29th to May 8th, Cooler Master will be accepting color schemes for the contest’s special edition, with participants choosing one color and one finish (matte, glossy, or metallic) for each of the mouse’s 7 sections, then submitting their completed selections via the contest’s main webpage.
After that, Cooler Master will select its Top 5 designs, then open voting to the public to choose a winner. Voting will last from May 11th to May 18th, after which the "crowdfunding" stage will begin.
During crowdfunding, prospective buyers for the new MM711 can “Donate $30 to a Covid-19 charity to get a $30 discount off the limited edition MM711.” This phase will last from May 18th to June 18th, with the mouse being produced and released to the public at an unspecified date later on.
"After the design phase, a separate donation drive campaign will be set up on the Tiltify platform that will go live on May 18th," Cooler Master PR Manager Cat Tompkins explained over email. "Donations will go to benefit the Direct Relief foundation."
The mouse itself will cost $60 on release, with those who helped donate only having to pay $30. Cooler Master clarified to us over email that the $30 crowdfunding participants pay for the mouse will go to cover production and shipping, with the donation discount ensuring any actual profit goes to charity.
"We decided to do this method for transparency and immediacy," Tompkins told us. "Instead of collecting the full $60 up front and donating the proceeds after, people can donate instead and be able to purchase the $30 mouse afterwards at their own convenience."
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Community contests always run the risk of not properly paying participants for their spec work, but Cooler Master is also offering a prize package of products totaling $1,000 to the winner.
To participate in the contest, check Cooler Master’s website. As for the mouse itself, while we have yet to review the MM711, we’ve previously written about its predecessor here, where we said "they don’t come much lighter than this."
Michelle Ehrhardt is an editor at Tom's Hardware. She's been following tech since her family got a Gateway running Windows 95, and is now on her third custom-built system. Her work has been published in publications like Paste, The Atlantic, and Kill Screen, just to name a few. She also holds a master's degree in game design from NYU.
