BY: DANFORD
After a week of crazy competition between some of the world’s top personalities, the group stage of PogChamps 3 has come to a close. Participants played everyone in their group once – 3 points for a win, 2 points for an Armageddon win, one-point for an Armageddon loss, and 0 points for a loss in regulation. Here are the standings at the conclusion of the group stage:
The top two participants from each group move on to the Championship bracket to compete for a $20,000 grand prize, while those in the latter half of their respective groups get a shot at redemption in the Consolation bracket. All this considered, here are the winners and losers of PogChamps 3 after one week of play!
Winner(s): Rainn Wilson and Logic
Before PogChamps 3 began, many of the participants spent weeks training with some of the top chess players in the world. Since the chess streaming community is quite tight, a lot of the participants (and their master-level chess coaches) knew how their peers were progressing as the tournament approached – except for Rainn Wilson and Logic.
Emerging as the dark horses of PogChamps 3, no one in the chess community knew what to expect from them. The only information on Rainn Wilson was that he played one game of chess online – against world-champion GM Magnus Carlsen. Logic did not offer much more, collaborating with GM Hikaru Nakamura for one streamed lesson a couple months ago.
They took PogChamps 3 by storm.
Rainn Wilson stepped into PogChamps 3 with a rating over 1300, immediately making him one of the highest-rated players in the entire tournament (he would later switch to a different account with a lower rating). After going radio-silent in the chess streaming community, Logic emerged as a strong player with tactical prowess. Despite being in the same group (Wilson beat Logic in an Armageddon match), these two have a strong case to make for being the top chess player in the entire tournament.
A final note: when Logic and Rainn Wilson were pit against each other, Logic dressed up as Dwight Schrute, Rainn’s character from The Office. Clearly, Logic thinks identity theft is a joke!
Loser: Mr. Beast
Let’s be honest: Mr. Beast was here for the fun. And why wouldn’t he be? At a bird’s eye view, this tournament looks like it’s comprised of a bunch of celebrities who don’t have a great deal of chess experience looking to have a good time.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
While Mr. Beast was out setting up stores of free merchandise to give out to random people and buying private islands for his squad to host their own version of Survivor, the other participants were spending their free time training for the tournament. This isn’t a shot against Mr. Beast – on the contrary, his work towards his craft and making the world a better place is admirable at the very least. His chess play needs some refinement, but if he put an effort towards it, you could be looking at a contender in PogChamps 4.
Winner: xQcOW
Credited as a catalyst for the recent chess boom, xQcOW entered PogChamps 3 with a score to settle. After going winless in the group stage of the first two PogChamps tournaments, xQc had no where to go but up – and did he ever. Whether it was his dedication to the chess grind, his lessons with GM Hikaru Nakamura, or both, xQc showed up to PogChamps 3 with a vengeance and swept his group, securing one of the top seeds in the Championship bracket. The improvement he has shown over the course of a year is astounding, and with the GM Hikaru chess-isms he uses, xQc has likely solidified himself as the fan-favorite contender for the hardware.
Loser: Rubius
For those of you who aren’t up to date on the world’s top personalities, Rubius is a Spanish-Norwegian streamer and YouTuber. Unfortunately, he also happens to be the unluckiest contestant in PogChamps 3. Playing in a deceivingly difficult group, Rubius went from being a dangerous contender to sporting a goose egg by the end of the stage. This was not due to lack of skill; on the contrary, Rubius played extremely well. Despite his sound play, Rubius missed some key moves that could have changed the course of his matches, ultimately resulting in his opponents eking out the win. Don’t be surprised if you see Rubius tear his way through the Consolation bracket.
PogChamps 3 has been a whirlwind of excitement and entertainment! If you’re interested, you can learn more about the upcoming matches here: https://www.chess.com/article/view/pogchamps-3-all-the-information
Who do you think will win the Championship and Consolation bracket? Let us know in the comments!
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