Before his switch to YouTube, Ludwig Ahgren (28) was considered Twitch’s “golden boy.” He is known for his elaborate events. In 2023, he wanted to outdo himself, but now he is canceling the planned mega-event in Las Vegas.
What kind of event was it supposed to be? In December 2022, Ludwig reached over 270,000 viewers with his chessboxing event and even set a record. In this sport, competitors take turns playing blitz chess and step into the ring together.
For the YouTuber, it was the biggest streaming event of his career and even overshadowed his legendary subathon on Twitch.
In 2023, Ludwig wanted to make the “Mogul Chessboxing” bigger and better: He not only wanted to ensure more spectacular fights but also move the event to Las Vegas, the “fight capital of the world.”
However, on September 28th, the YouTuber unexpectedly canceled the event. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote that it was “the biggest failure of [his] career,” but it would motivate him to become the best possible content creator in 2024. On the same day, he talked in a short stream about the circumstances that led to the tournament’s cancellation.
“If I do it, I do it right”
Why won’t the event take place? Ludwig emphasizes that he demands a lot from the participants of his event: After all, they would agree to get hit in the face and prepare for months.
To make the event safe and legally secure, the YouTuber wanted the event to be sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. After a change in the rules of the commission, Ludwig could no longer get the event approved as planned. He was faced with a choice:
- Holding the chessboxing tournament without approval
- Turning the boxing event into a kickboxing event
- Or trying it in another state
At this point, he asked himself why he should push through the tournament at any cost. If it were truly about hosting the best possible event, he wouldn’t rush and jeopardize the participants’ safety by holding the tournament without approval or forcing kickboxing into it.
For this reason, Ludwig ultimately chose a fourth option: He is setting up a new event for 2024. “If I do it, I do it right,” said the YouTuber. “I won’t just host an event where people sign up to put their safety and health at risk to somehow pull it off.”
Why is it such a failure for him? By the time Ludwig decided to cancel the tournament, he had already invested 9 months of work and $100,000 into the chessboxing event.
He explains that with his switch from Twitch to YouTube, he had made a kind of compromise: daily streams would become a bit less and perhaps even worse, but he would invest his time and resources into elaborate events like the chessboxing tournament.
Now he has nothing “big” to showcase for 2023, making the entire year pretty much a bust for him. However, Ludwig doesn’t want to let that get him down, but uses the “biggest failure of his career” as motivation to make a big impact next year.
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