Minecraft streamer Fundy has won Chess.com’s fourth PogChamps event.
Fundy played against Magic The Gathering streamer Crokeyz in the final which was livestreamed on 12 September. Their first two games were draws, but he was declared the winner after Crokeyz ran out of time in their tie-break match.
He won games against YouTuber 5up and variety streamer IamCristinini to reach the finals, and joins League of Legends esports player VoyBoy, variety streamer Hafu and League of Legends player Sardoche as a PogChamps winner.
“[Crokeyz] definitely was winning in the end. Like, he got my queen,” Fundy said in his post-match interview. “It was one of the…closest matches that I’ve ever played, genuinely.”
Earlier in the day, Mr.Beast was declared the winner of the Consolation bracket after his opponent Rubius ran out of time in the final match. The first two games ended in stalemate, a position where the king has no legal moves but is not in check.
Pogchamps is an amateur chess tournament for Twitch streamers and influencers that is streamed on Chess.com’s Twitch channel. The event began on 29 August, although many contestants received coaching from popular chess streamers such as Alexandra and Andrea Botez, Anna Rudolf and Levy Rozman prior to this.
The format of the matches was 10+5, where each player has ten minutes on the clock and receives five seconds every time they move. The tiebreak matches were 3+2, where the players started with three minutes and had two seconds added to their time per move.
16 content creators participated in the tournament, including Ludwig, QTCinderella and Boxbox. They were sorted into four groups, where they played each opponent in their group. The top two from each group advanced to the Championship bracket, and the other two moved to the Consolation bracket.
The total prize fund for the event was $100,000, with the tournament champion receiving a prize of $20,000, and the consolation champion receiving $7000. Each group stage winner will also receive $2000.
Alongside the tournament, Chess.com has been raising money for Rise Above the Disorder, a charity dedicated to providing free mental health care. They raised over $60,000 from donations, and Chess.com will match this.
Chess.com anticipated the event would be one of the most viewed chess tournaments ever, after the first three PogChamps events achieved almost 500 million minutes watched.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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