Chess.com revealed on July 21 that its celebrity-infused PogChamps tournament will return for a fifth edition. The event that aided the chess boom during the COVID-19 lockdown era will begin today, July 26, with the group stage and play-offs running till August 5.
Sixteen prominent internet personalities will go head-to-head for a massive prize fund of $100K at this entertainment and sports extravaganza. Most excitingly, the finals in Los Angeles, California, on August 18 will be a live affair — the first in PogChamps history — meaning fans will get to meet and cheer for their favorite creators in person for the first time.
This chess competition will be hosted by PogChamps veteran Ludwig, with the popular content creator's participation in every edition so far helping him be part of some of the franchise's most iconic moments. The American will host watch parties on his YouTube channel while also joining the live finals commentary team. Moreover, fans can catch the action in Dave & Buster’s restaurant and family entertainment branches.
PogChamps 5 will also see a talented lineup of streamers and celebrities gracing the 64 squares and duking it out. The list of confirmed participants at the tournament, which has also partnered with Mogul Moves and Offbrand, includes Tyler1, xQc, QTCinderella, Sykkuno, and Jinnytty.
Moreover, not only does the friendly competition boast a stellar list of mental combatants but also some pretty big names who will commentate on the action live. The entire list is below:
- Ludwig
- Hikaru Nakamura
- Robert Hess
- Daniel Naroditsky
- Aman Hambleton
- Alexandra Botez
- Andrea Botez
- Danny Rensch
- Levy Rozman
- Anna Rudolf
- James Canty III
Viewership stats from previous PogChamps iterations
The PogChamps series has been pretty successful, bringing chess back into the public conscience and making it a fashionable sport. These tournaments have regularly attracted thousands of fans. In fact, Chess.com Pogchamps, the inaugural event, saw a scarcely believable 166K Peak Viewers while doing 105.7K Average Viewers and 4.7M Hours Watched over 45 hours of airtime.
However, the most popular event in the franchise is Pogchamps 3, which recorded 375.1K PV, making it the third most popular chess competition of all time. While the second and fourth iterations are not as popular, they did help keep the series in the public eye as life slowly returned to normal after the uncertainness of the height of the pandemic era.
In terms of the most successful chess competitions ever when looking at peak concurrent viewers, only the official FIDE events (international chess federation) that reached a worldwide audience have done better than Pogchamps 3. Atop this list is FIDE World Championship 2021, which saw Magnus Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi 7.5:3.5 across 11 games.
PogChamps 5 promises to be an exciting time for chess fans and those who love entertainment crossing over into sports, especially with the participation of some of their favorite streamers, who also happen to be some of the most prominent names in the industry. Starting July 26, they can tune into Ludwig's YouTube channel to catch all the live action.
List of participants at PogChamps 5
| CDawgVA
|
Daily Dose of Internet
|
Franks-is-heres
|
Fuslie
|
| Ghastly | I did a thing | Jarvis | Jinnytty |
| Papaplatte
|
QTCinderella
|
Sapnap
|
Squeex
|
| Sykkuno | Tyler1
|
Wirtual |
