Along with more news about Twitch’s annual TwitchCon conference, Twitch just announced their newest event – a digital convention by the name of GlitchCon. Twitch confirmed on Twitter that they were going to host the event for fans to watch after the 14th of November.
They announced it with a somewhat clever ad – “Numerous glitches have been observed on Twitch. Our engineers have been working around the clock to debug the issue,” the ad read. “And they’ve found the source of the glitches deep within our systems – yep – it’s a portal to another dimension,” it continued, ending with the new GlitchCon logo. The whole thing was held in a somewhat retro glitch vibe – and it came with a video teaser.
© Twitch
If you’re hoping to find out exactly what you can expect at GlitchCon, you’ll be disappointed. Despite launching in just 10 days, the event is still mostly a mystery with even invited content creators being deliberately vague about the event. There are clues of course, but not much definitive info.
Given that the event is aimed at replacing the physical TwitchCon conference, we can probably expect similar content to what the regular TwitchCon contains. Esports tournaments, digital meet-and-greets, streamer Q&As, remote cosplay contests, and more, possibly in addition to virtual goodies as well. There will likely be a nod to the sections of Twitch not directly related to gaming as well, showcasing the varied communities and contents available on Twitch.
“Because no fun was ever had by NOT going into an interdimensional portal.” is the motto of the event, and the creators of GlitchCon definitely have a point there – the theme of the interdimensional/glitch getup seems like it will play a major role in the event that we’ll see next week!
What we can info on with a bit more confidence is the competitive aspect of the event. Twitch partners and streamers have been invited to create four “Super Teams” in Fortnite, League of Legends, Valorant and Fall Guys. Each team consists of 16 players for a total of 64.
You can expect each of these four titles to be played in a competitive mode that is not part the usual esports ecsystem. More informati0n and tournament specifics should be known this weekend, when “Road to GlitchCon” events take place.
Finally, a total of $503,385.76 in prize funds has been allotted for the event. All of the participating players will get a share of the money based on their Super Team placement.
Originally, the TwitchCon 2020 event was supposed to have happened in September, but because of COVID-19, it was cancelled months ago, with initially only vague promises of a virtual replacement. TwitchCon isn’t alone – major esports and gaming events like BlizzCon and the like are all cancelling their in-person events and moving online instead.
For Twitch, this will be a new move – for BlizzCon, not so much as they have had an online angle to their entire event before, complete with virtual tickets, rewards and perks for attendees. Blizzard is liking the change so much they’re already looking at BlizzCon 2021 – and they announced that attendance would be free for the February event.
We are likely going to see a full TwitchCon entirely turned into a virtual conference. At the very least Twitch can learn how to make their future TwitchCon broadcasts more engaging after this event.
Read next: To cap or not to cap – the Twitch donation debate
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