Earlier in the week, Trainwreck, who serves as an advisor for new streaming platform Kick, said six new signings would be announced soon, and it would leave Twitch and its fans shook.
On March 28, streamer and chess grandmaster Hikaru said he would be making a big announcement the following day, leading to speculation he was one of the six signings. It turns out, speculation was warranted, because Kick couldn’t contain the excitement. They beat him to it and made the announcement, welcoming him to the Kick community.
Hikaru is, of course, one of the most prominent personalities in the global chess scene. The pro American star is a prodigy, a U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion, to name a few.
As a streamer and content creator, he has helped popularize chess online via his Twitch and YouTube channels, and has racked up more than 1.8 million followers on each in the process. The only difference is he will now predominantly stream his chess content on Kick.
Given the mixed opinions about the platform and ownership, reactions have been polarizing. YouTube king MrBeast summarized it nicely with an aptly used popcorn emote.
On the one hand, some described it as a “fire” pickup that will help make the platform stronger. Others, however, felt like it didn’t live up to the big signing Kick claimed it would be. If what Train said is true, which is likely given his close ties with the platform, five more signings will follow, and there’s a good chance they’ll be just as impressive.
Hikaru will likely talk about his move on-stream tomorrow, and perhaps mention whether he intends to stream exclusively on Kick, or will still dabble on Twitch from time to time.
