On Twitch, former Overwatch professional Felix “xQc” Lengyel is known as a hothead. It’s hard to imagine someone like that as a chess expert, yet he has now started streaming chess. More than 30,000 of his young fans are watching him. He has received praise from Hikaru Nakamura, a chess grandmaster.
This is xQc: The 24-year-old Canadian was originally known as a tank player in Overwatch. However, his temperament often got in the way. For an esports player, xQc was too uncontrollable. He was released by his teams and banned from the game multiple times. He tended to have outbursts, in which he wildly insulted teammates and opponents.
After the end of his Overwatch career, xQc became a star on Twitch. His authentic style is especially loved by young fans. After the departure of Ninja and shroud from Twitch, xQc was even briefly the new number one in terms of hours watched at the end of 2019. Nowadays, xQc is a well-established figure on Twitch, shaping the platform with reaction streams and his unique style.
More than 30,000 tune in when xQc plays chess on Twitch
What’s up with chess? In recent weeks, xQc has started playing chess live on Twitch. On average, 31,178 of his mostly young viewers are watching him. That’s significantly more than any “real” chess player has on Twitch (via sullygnome).
Several chess clips featuring xQc have become popular. In them, the former Overwatch professional appears rather aimless.
In one clip, he focuses so much on his own attack that he overlooks that he is on the verge of being checkmated. We have embedded the clip above.
In a second clip, xQc is only one move away from victory but wants to play it safe, overdoes it, and the game ends in a draw.
The chess world must keep up with the times
This is why a chess grandmaster praises him for it: 32-year-old chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, a Japanese-American, is currently the biggest chess Twitch streamer. He explicitly welcomes that xQc is now playing chess:
When I watch xQc, I can tell you what the reaction will be. The classical chess world will simply say: The guy is not good at chess. He is so bad – why should we waste our time with him?
Hikaru Nakamura
But this attitude, Nakamura says, is complete nonsense.
xQc was a grandmaster in Overwatch. If you put Nakamura in Overwatch or Magnus Carlsen, the best chess player in the world, they would also be total noobs.
The chess world must keep up with the times.
Nakamura explicitly praises gaming streamers who have discovered chess on Twitch and are bringing new fans to the chess sport.
From Nakamura’s perspective, streamers like xQc engage the TikTok generation for the game of kings. He sees little wrong with that.
The last time we reported on xQc was in March 2020. He had received a Twitch ban because he just had to perform a “Strip 4” with a virtual schoolgirl.
He simply couldn’t resist the idea of seeing what would happen if he wins: The schoolgirl undressed, and xQc received a mandatory break from Twitch.
