One of our marketing team members heard a twitch.tv streamer, who was playing chess, “leak” the fact that there may be a Pogchamps3 tournament, and we were interested in finding out more about it. What we didn’t know was that only a few hours later we would be on a call with the team at Chess.com to discuss the potential of sponsoring one of the biggest chess tournaments of all time.
Chess is known to be one of the oldest games in the history of the world. It is speculated to be as old as the 6th century. Although it is ancient, it is still extremely popular, and its interest only continues to grow. A study in 2012 showed that 605 million adults play chess regularly, played at least once a year by 12% of British people, 15% of Americans, 23% of Germans, 43% of Russians and 70% of Indian people. When you think about how old the game is and how it is still being played so much, it really makes you realize just how complex the game of chess is. Chess has a rich history and an insane amount of strategy making it so intriguing to people all around the world.
We like the idea of sponsoring a chess event because the game of chess is such a well respected game that really represents strategy and intelligence. When we were debating if we wanted to align our brand with the Pogchamps tournament, our team was excited about the possibility of breaking into and becoming involved in the chess community.
Current popularity of Chess
Along with the lifelong chess fans around the world, there seems to be some new growth and excitement around chess. A lot of credit for the excitement can go to the Netflix show called “Queen's Gambit”. It has been in the top 10 streamed list on Netflix for months, and has become an instant classic. This show seems to have jumped an already growing excitement to the next level. Chess has been played and watched more since the release of the hit show. While the Netflix show surely brought some major attention to the game of chess, the viewership on Chess.com/tv and twitch.tv was growing well before the show’s release.
What is Pogchamps?
Pogchamps is a chess tournament held by Chess.com, an online chess platform that is becoming a hub for chess players around the whole world. Pogchamps is really a simple idea: taking popular internet streamers and celebrities to have them battle it out on Chess.com for over $100,000 to their favorite charity while millions of people across the world tune in to watch the excitement. Pogchamps is not a professional chess tournament because the players are not professional chess players, but it is still the most watched chess content due to the personalities that are playing in the tournament. Chess.com added professional chess players like Hikaru Nakamura as commentators to really add to the feel and entertainment of the event. Twitch tv personalities and Youtubers were trained in private lessons by professional chess players leading up to the Pogchamps2 tournament, which made for some amazing competition that was viewed by approximately 26 million viewers throughout the span of the tournament. Viewers poured in for the tournament due to hilarious games of chess being played by some of the world's funniest celebrities and internet personalities. While it may not be professional chess level content, the average person browsing on twitch.tv is way more likely to watch chess when they see their favorite people playing, and then consequently decide to play chess themselves.
Pogchamps3
After a majorly successful Pogchamps2, it was only natural to expect Chess.com to come back and run another Pogchamps tournament. This time it is going to be even bigger! Pogchamps2 took place before the recent jump in the popularity of chess, and along with the growth in the game itself, Chess.com has recruited even more popular personalities to play in the tournament this time around.
Some of the new personalities and celebrities that are going to be featured in Pogchamps3:
- Mr Beast, a Youtuber with around 100 million total followers throughout his social media platforms.
- Rainn Wilson, a famous actor and director most widely known for his role as Dwight in The Office.
- Logic, a rapper turned twitch.tv streamer and beat creator.
- Ludwig, one of the largest streamers on twitch.tv
- Pokimane, one of the largest woman streamers on twitch.tv known for her talent in a variety of different games.
Other amazing players joining for Pogchamps3:
-Michelle Khare
-CodeMiko
-moistCriTiKaL
-xQc
-Daniel Negreanu
-Myth
If Pogchamps2 had 26 million live views, we can only imagine what type of viewership Pogchamps3 is going to have with such an amazing lineup of players! Once the tournament begins, we are sure to see highlight videos all over the internet from the players in the tournament, and people taking highlights and making their own funny videos on their own channels.
Why Is a Belt Company Sponsoring a Chess Tournament?
Our Products Are Great For Everyone
We have such an amazing fan base of people who love our products for their functionality, comfort, and unlimited lifetime warranty. GRIP6 has always been firm in the principles of manufacturing great products that are backed by a lifetime guarantee that is held true by an amazing customer service team. We believe that anyone who gives our belts, socks, and wallets a chance will love them. Pogchamps3 is sure to drive a large new wave of people to hopefully want to discover our products, and we hope that as they do so, they find a quality product that lasts them forever.
Charity
Another major reason why we are so excited to be a part of Pogchamps is that it is mostly a charitable tournament. Celebrities and major internet stars get to compete in a tournament that represents something for charity while getting a chance for their personalities to be seen by more people.
New Industries
We hope that we can build our reputation and relationships with all those involved in this amazing event, and we look forward to the potential of sponsoring other similar events as well. While chess is the main focus of this tournament, in reality, most of the viewers are not “chess players” like you would find in a professional chess tournament. Most of the viewers of the Pogchamps tournament are fans of the streamers and celebrities that are playing in the tournament which means that most of the viewers are gamers, or those that enjoy the entertainment that these people provide.Fresh Sponsorship For Viewers
Events like Pogchamps seem to have developed very quickly into major marketing opportunities. There have been some majorly notable companies that have started to sponsor events on Twitch.tv and Youtube. Just like all marketable things, some companies will spend a lot of money to dominate the ad space. Users of Twitch are likely getting tired of seeing the same sponsors for a lot of different ads and events, and we hope to break that expectation. This will be our first major step into the gaming/streaming industry, and we hope that we are accepted with open arms as a brand that is true to itself. We are not trying to market a video game, or energy drink, or anything directly related to gaming. We just have amazing high quality products we believe in, made 100% in the USA and backed by an unlimited lifetime guarantee for every product we sell. We are hoping that the community appreciates that we are supporting an amazing event, and that we are relatively small when compared to other headline sponsors.
As an avid consumer of events like this, I personally get very tired of seeing the same sponsors for large events. Not only am I sick of seeing them, but they stopped adding non-monetary value to the tournaments because it is a very hands-off sponsorship for them.
What GRIP6 Is Doing To Add Value To Pogchamps3
Besides our addition to the prize pool and charity prize pool for the tournament, we are looking to be directly involved with the streams. We will be doing giveaways of chess themed belts, and even a custom made aluminum chess board that we designed and created in house. We will be doing a giveaway of one of the chess boards digitally signed by the participants of the tournament as well. For the players involved we will be sending out a lot of custom belts for them to show off to their viewers and get more hype around the event. We will be making a large custom championship belt for the winner of Pogchamps3 that will act as a trophy for the event and will be something they will want to show off for years to come.
Sources:
1. https://web.archive.org/web/20190719144126/https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/6376-agon-releases-new-chess-player-statistics-from-yougov.html
2. https://www.chess.com/article/view/pogchamps-3-all-the-information
2 comments
Tobias
Will the chess boards be available for purchase?
Geo Warbeck
I cannot tell you how impressed I am with your participation. All class.
If you set up a program where I can buy a chess set for a school, let me know.
GW
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