TwitchCon 2018 — the yearly event where streamers and their communities celebrate and learn together about the platform and everything that surrounds them — has just come to an end. If you happened to missed the news, don’t worry because we’ve got you covered with our roundup of tournament results for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Fornite, and PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, interviews, and the best cosplay of this year.
If you missed our coverage live from the event, be sure to visit Digital Trends on Twitter and Instagram to see everything we gathered from the event, as well as our social guy @allRidoisWinn.
Keynote: All upcoming features for the platform
TwitchCon 2018 took place at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, on the weekend of October 26-28. During the Keynote presentation on the first day of the event, there were a number of announcements regarding upcoming features for the platform, some long sought the users and others that came as a surprise.
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Squad Stream: The days of needing to use third-party software to create collaborative streams are over when Twitch begins airing Squad Stream in 2019. It will allow four streamers to join in a single view and will be available for both desktop and mobile versions.
Highlighter update: Arriving in January, this functionality allows for streamers and editors to stitch multiple moments from a past broadcast into a single Highlight.
Featured sections for Twitch homepage: Up-and-coming streamers, new recommendations from a wide range of topics, and more are getting their special place on Twitch’s homepage later this year — just in case you were looking for new streams to join.
VIP Badges: This upcoming feature will allow you to recognize great viewers of your streaming by granting them a VIP Badge with only a chat command.
Channel moderation tools in chat: Starting in January, mods will be able to use a set of tools to keep track of a user’s chat, band, or timeout history, as well as leave secret notes for other mods in each viewer’s panel.
Subscriber tenure based on total months: Another feature that’s coming soon will now show the total number of months you’ve been subscribed to a channel, and chat badges/recognition will be based on that period of time. Viewers can even share their “streaks” on chat whenever they gain a new badge.
TwitchCon 2018 Events
Digital Trends was not only busy covering the event on our social media channels, along with taking part in each tournament finale, but we also had the chance to speak to streamers from all around the world throughout the weekend.
Interviews
With over 40,000 followers on Twitch, DataDave is a well-known variety streamer who’s not only a big fan of Pokémon, but also a Ph.D. student who streams daily. DataDave spoke to us about what he would be doing if he wasn’t streaming and what it means to him to actually meet his audience in person at TwitchCon.
DizzyKitten is also a variety streamer who has also been doing ASMR content for over a year now. Her main games are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. She spoke to us about the importance of having two internet providers at all times in case “one of them fails during a stream.”
Jakenbake made a name with outdoors streaming, which is pretty different from what you would expect. During a trip to Japan, Jake used Twitch as a way to record his travels, which he shares with his audience.
xChocoBars focuses her streams around Fortnite, Hearthstone, and World of Warcraft. She talked about when she realized that she had become famous on Twitch.
Maximilian_Dood told us about his vision for fighting games within the TwitchCon community and his longtime love for Street Fighter. Kripparrian spoke about his focus on Blizzard games during his career as a Twitch streamer and YouTuber, along with his professional status playing Hearthstone, and his routine as a young, full-time League of Legends player. the rise of YouTuber and streamer Sleightlymusical as a musical revelation, showcasing occasional demonstrations of magic on camera.
Tournaments
The Esports presence at TwitchCon this year featured a wide variety of games and prizes for dozens of contestants. Here are the results for 2018’s matches:
Streamers such as Ninja, Shroud, CouRage, and DrLupo took part in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s new Blackout mode at the Doritos Bowl. Each gamer led a team of four, and the winner ended up with a $100,000 prize. Results are as follows:
First place was taken by Shroud, Just9n, Chocotaco, and Chad with 499.5 points; CouRage, Karma, TeePee, and Hysteria finished second with 431.25 points; Ninja, JoshOG, Gold Glove, and Fearitself were third with 374 points; and DrLupo, Annemunition, Mad Ruski and Ninja With No L were fourth with 350.75 points. We also had the opportunity to talk to Shroud about what this huge win at the Doritos Bowl meant for him.
And of course, the Fortnite Fall Skirmish had its Grand Finale over the weekend with a Streamvitational Event for 50 Fortnite creators and 50 random TwitchCon attendees. Tfue and Cloak were the champions of the night, claiming $400,000; NateHillTV and @FunkBomb took second place, and ZexRow and Vinny1xx finished third.
Cosplay Contest
The cosplay contest is a highlight of TwitchCon that saw its return this year, and there were some impressive cosplays on stage. Casey Renee won the grand prize of $15,000 with her Amethyst cosplay, in the category Needlework.
Cig Neutron won for Best FX with their Mother Brain suit from Nintendo’s Metroid. the “Larger Than Life” category featured Terrible Trio Creations offering their take on the Guild Wars 2 character Khan Grimblood. Lastly, Azure Props introduced an Artorias the Abysswalker cosplay from Dark Souls, winning the Best Armor category. You can watch the grand finale below:
Your #TwitchCon 2018 Cosplay Contest winner is… @CaseyReneeCos!
Her flawlessly detailed Amethyst cosplay (by artist Sakizou) gave her the edge against Artorias, the Mother Brain, and the Charr. Congrats on earning the $15,000 grand prize. pic.twitter.com/8HhhcejrDo
— Twitch (@Twitch) October 28, 2018
Between live tournaments, cosplay contests, and many upcoming features for both streamers and viewers from Twitch, there was something for everyone at TwitchCon 2018.
