the next kings and queens of esports
Seconds later, she was starting a new game against a new opponent. Such is the life of a full-time chess livestreamer.
About six days a week, Botez sits in front of these monitors to play chess and interact with people on the internet. She's part of a growing scene of chess players who have followed in the footsteps of people who livestream themselves playing popular video games such as "Fortnite" or "League of Legends." While competitive esports has become a lucrative and growing market, popular personalities such as Tyler Blevins (better known as Ninja) who stream themselves playing games are among the market's biggest stars.
And while chess is far smaller as an esport than video games, it has grown quickly. On Twitch, the most popular internet platform to livestream esports, time spent watching chess has risen by more than 500 percent since 2016, according to data from the company. With that consumption has come some money, mostly donations from viewers facilitated by Twitch but also in sponsorship dollars. |