Over the years, Twitch has grown and evolved quite a lot, not only becoming home to some of the video game industry's biggest and most popular streamers, but also to communities and events, like Games Done Quick and Twitch Plays Pokemon. Just last year, a new event exploded in popularity on Twitch, a livestreamed online chess tournament hosted by Chess.com appropriately named Pogchamps.
Over its 3 iterations since June 2020, Pogchamps has featured a whole host of streamers and internet personalities, now throwing popular celebrities into the mix. A Pogchamps match which took place yesterday featured recently retired rapper Logic against actor Rainn Wilson, most known for his role on the hit show The Office, and during the match, Logic decided to have a bit of fun while playing against his opponent.
While a match between a former rapper and a famous actor may sound like a celebrity game of chess, Logic's recent streaming deal with Twitch now puts him more in line with other streamers featured in Pogchamps. For his match against Wilson, Logic decided to don a suit, a pair of glasses, and a mustard yellow shirt and tie combo to reference Dwight Schrute, Wilson's iconic character from The Office.
Logic (Rapper) dresses as Dwight Schrute in his game against Rainn Wilson (actor of Dwight) from LivestreamFail
During the chess match, commentator and International chess master Daniel Rensch pointed out Logic's outfit, showing off how well the former rapper's outfit matched his own Dwight Schrute-themed mug. During the stream, Rensch noted that Logic had texted him ahead of time, alluding to the outfit he would wear against Wilson during their match. The former rapper-turned streamer started off strong, winning the first game thanks to trapping Wilson's king. However, Wilson went on to take the next 2 games. After his win, Wilson commented on Logic's outfit saying, "it's awesome, I think you look incredibly handsome."
Although this is an online chess tournament, saying there's a lot at stake would be an understatement. The latest iteration of Pogchamps has a prize pool of $100,00, doubling the prize pool of Pogchamps 1 and 2. Pochamps' winners will be donating their prizes to a charity of their choice, and Chess.com has also pledged to match up to $100,000 of viewers' donations during the tournament.
In addition to Logic and Wilson, other participants in Pogchamps 3 include popular streamers xQc and Pokimane, and YouTubers MrBeast and Michelle Khare, among others. The livestreamed chess tournament has seen incredible increase in popularity due in part to Netflix's chess-themed show, The Queen's Gambit. The final match in Pogchamps 3 is set to take place on February 28.