OnTwitch,no streamer is an island. Streamers big and small all belong to a network of fans and content creators that often get together to chat, play games, and enjoy time together.Twitch, YouTube, and other streaming platforms are partially built on this sense of community that comes out of multiplayer gaming. There’s another important pillar of the community, though: Competition. Twitch streamers love to test their skills against one another and strive to be the best in their game of choice. Twitch itself has noticed both of these things and leaned into them by creating a competition series known as Twitch Rivals.
The name of Twitch Rivals says it all: it’s an official Twitch-sanctioned series of tournaments where players get together and compete with one another, with a hefty monetary prize usually hanging over the competition. 2019’s Twitch Rivals prize pool had a total value of a few million dollars. Of course, since Twitch doesn’t limit players to any particular game, there’s a broad variety of games for streamers to compete in, which also means there’s something for everyone to watch.Twitch Rivals has changed a fair bitover the last few years, but it’s no less compelling as an assembly of the Twitch community.
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A Brief Overview of Twitch Rivals
Although Twitch Rivals seems like the natural way for Twitch to gather its users in one place, it’s actually a very young concept. The first Twitch Rivals took place in February 2018. Although Twitch had hosted plenty of tournaments before atvarious TwitchCon events over the years, Twitch Rivals gave the platform a new avenue to host competitions outside of TwitchCon and over a broader period of time than a few days or a week. Twitch Rivals started as a LAN-focused event where players would gather in person, but events where streamers compete from home are perfectly common nowadays.
Twitch Rivals competitions take all kinds of forms. Sometimes they’ll star highly competitive and mainstream games such asLeague of LegendsorCall of Duty,while other streams will play on Twitch’s hottest games, fromAmong UstoFall Guys: Ultimate Knockoutto even chess. Although LAN Twitch Rivals events still take place in person, many of the series' events get streamed on the official Twitch Rivals channel Twitch aims for a viewerbase as broad as the list of games featured in these events too. While the main Twitch Rivals channel has English commentary, there’s alternate channels for speakers of Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, and more.
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Although Twitch Rivals is technically open to all Twitch Partners and Affiliates, participation is invitation based, so it’s no surprise that it largely features Twitch’s most popular faces. Others can still participate by co-streaming the event or sending suggestions for future Twitch Rivals events, though. There’s also a lot of opportunities to participate in Twitch Rivals on the whole, whether by potentially getting an invitation or just tuning into the stream.Twitch Rivals events happen at all timesof the year, constantly putting streamers in contention with one another for huge prizes.
Twitch’s Neverending Competition
There’s still a few Twitch Rivals events coming up in December 2021, and there’s no doubt that Twitch is already lining up content for 2022. WhileCall of Duty, League of Legends, Minecraft,and other Twitch Rivals hits are sure to return, it’s also exciting to wonder what the next big Twitch tournament will focus on. It seems more than likely thatHalo Infinitemultiplayer eventsare on the horizon, for instance, but maybe another indie game will take Twitch by storm in 2022 before making its way into Twitch Rivals. Twitch already has something new planned, so fans should ensure to tune in and cheer on their favorite streamer.
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