Pogchamps 3 is cringe

 What elo? You dont watch pogchamps at all, you said it yourself. You did not watch the full broadcast when they interviewed a colleague of Rainn Wilson and he claimed his strength was at least 1600 elo. And he did not mean ONLINE elo.

 And Im sure you did not watch the stream at all, considering you said you did not like it and you have never watched it.

  You probably just saw 1160 elo and the "blunder" from my link (stuff like this happened several times in the last 2 matches), and actually fell his "oh noes I blundered" bluff.

 Everyone noticed it - all chat - and especially Nakamura and Rozman, who were really awkward at the whole situation.

 You are extremely naive and you should go watch the last matchup in FULL before you come to the forums to throw insults around like a little child.

Anyway my point is this guy is way too good for the tournament average. I think it's a mismatch to have booked him.

I did watch the match otherwise I wouldn't comment on it. I only started playing again 3 months ago or so that's why I never watched the previous pogchamps.

I also don't look at his rating since he only played a handful of games, I look at the moves.

He did not play like a 1600 or anywhere close to it.


Just amazing to me how clueless and mental you are. 

:) :)

My only criticism so far is that instead of sticking to the regular chatting/gaming streamers, theyve bought in TV actors, Youtubers and Rappers, which slightly takes away from the spirit of the first and second tournaments

at least moist got another throbbing victory ig?

 You are not a great appraiser of chess skill. Anyway, enough of you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This part is hilarious, Nakamura can't even hold his laughter at the sight of such throwing:

https://youtu.be/ebdPqrk-5gM?t=16120

Rozman is speechless.

If they are going to keep this guy in the tournament, they need to talk to him about his throwing - it does not look good for the tournament which averages 50,000 viewers per round (and peaked at 100,000 in the XQC match), his 'Oh noes what did i do" are extremely awkward and cringeworthy, and even if this guy himself realises there is a mismatch in his opponent, throwing the game is disrespectful for the opponent he's playing, too.

 I have a feeling he was invited to what he thought was an amateur tournament, and he expected opponents of his playing strength or higher. And only now he's starting to realise he's playing against people who have just learnt the game a few weeks ago and he does not want to look like he's bullying new players.

I mean first point I want to make. I feel the word "cringe" has been so overused by the Zoomer generation that the word "cringe" itself is now cringe, and I wish the word to burn in the deepest corners of the underworld. Second, which is the real point I was going to make, I feel that this mindset is a bit closeminded. I myself appreciate the chess community growing and reaching a younger audience. Getting kids to play chess rather than watching/playing video games all day is a win in my book, since it engages their prefrontal cortex to a larger degree than gaming. For me as well, I appreciate looking at these games, their ratings are relatively low, "anything can happen". Seeing the eval bar swing back and forth is truly an art, and just how I appreciate watching master level chess, I've come to appreciate the more amateur/beginner games as well in a unique way. Perhaps this is what they call being "hype"

I love Pogchamps.  Strangely, these 'streamers' are more human than many GMs and chess enthusiasts.  I feel their blunders and their victories.  I learn way more watching their matches than watching Magnus draw five times in a row!  Real emotions...real wins and real loses!  If you can't enjoy it even a little, you are already lost in a world of black and white squares. 

i have to agree pogchamps isnt good chess but twitch is made for entertainment and stop claiming it takes away chess. chess is tiny. Stop calling everything cringe. These people arent the bes tut are INFLUENTIAL

He is speechless because of the mistake, not because he thinks the guy is throwing. 

Reality has completely escaped you.

Quantity over quality right?

The system will be perfected when 90% of the players don't even know the rules, and they're just making memes with a chessboard in the background.

---

Anyway, I watched some pogchamps. I disagree with the OP. I think it's fun and good.

I mean, I'm not going to watch multiple hours of beginners making terrible moves, but I watched bits and pieces, it's all fun, and makes the game accessible to new players.

Do you think famous people participate in public events with no research? Do you think he or his publicist wouldn't have figured out what pogchamps is <5 minutes after typing "pogchamps" into google?

And even if he joined totally blind, do you really think he joined for the chess?

That's not how any of this works. These people partner with chess.com so both parties (the celebrity and chess.com) can grow their audience. It's a business venture.

---

Oversights are typical of old people who are out of practice.  They play many sensible non-tactical moves, then do something dumb... could he have been faking it? Sure. But there are much simpler explanations here.

In practice even. Watching Rainn Wilson felt like looking into a mirror.  Play well, get into a strong position, and then hang the queen because I've constructed this genius plan that would have been awesome if the first move wasn't hanging a piece. 

The thing that kills me beyond me being older and just not grasping the streamer aesthetic is the pattern of commentary.

(translated from BS to English) 

1) "This may look like a mismatch based on the ratings"

2) "[lower rated player] is showing some sophistication in the opening. Which is expected seeing the vast majority of the training was about this, but we still need to act surprised and complimentary because otherwise pogchamps 4 will feature a Civ5 streamer with 60 viewers"

3) "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!"

4) "Well, that was unfortunate. Giving away the queen was probably not the best move but other than hanging half the pieces and missing mate in one [streamer name] played a good game."

when you're a top female streamer, simps are kinda a way to measure your popularity.

I think part of the problem is the commentators are rated waaaaay too high. In their head it's:
"that's a beginner level move, there are 5 reasons it's not very good"
"that's a beginner level move, there are 5 reasons it's not very good"
"that's a beginner level move, there are 5 reasons it's not very good"
"that's a beginner level move, there are 5 reasons it's not very good"

-

But they can't say that, so they mumble something without saying anything of substance.

Instead of that, if they had someone around 1200-1500 give commentary then it would be a lot better I think. And then for color commentary someone around 800 or someone who has been playing less than a year... and maybe more like a few months.

I like Pogchamps. Because I like chess. Isn't it great popular streamers playing our game. Just support it.

For example the Sinquefield Cup commentary team had GM Seirawan doing the play by play commentary, and 2300 rated Jennifer Shahade doing color commentary.

GM Ashley was on computer duty, and did a good job as a hype man in the wings.

---

So for pogchamps have someone like voyboy or hutch do the play by play (they're ~1500 level, and voyboy won the first pogchamps) and then some pretty female face rated under 800 do color commentary.

I agree, I mean, what's so wrong about hosting tournaments with popular streamers? I mean, just look at Tubbo or Fundy, they're just having a good time (And being sponsored at the same time)! If you don't like it, don't watch it. 

PogChamps 3 also has the added bonus of raising money for participant-selected charities.

Every dollar donated by viewers gets matched by chess.com, as well (up to $100,000). So that's pretty cool.