Missing friends

My friend Manuel and I started streaming Chess at about the same time. We met through a mutual viewer who has a talent for "connecting" people. We hit it off and have been friends ever since.

When we started streaming, Pogchamps had just finished and it was a big deal. Being a fan of college basketabll in the US, I wanted to do something like March Madness but also like Pogchamps.

Manuel thought we could do a Mayhem, instead of Madness, tournament. And it would have "May" in the title! And then, he went off the deep end, changing it to Mayham. Not sure why. But I can't help but smile whenever I say it.

So we worked hard to find 8 small chess streamers to be our "pog" champs. We offered each two lessons from each of us (just like the Pogchamps got from IMs and GMs). We got really lucky and had 4 male, and 4 female combatants.

We got really unlucky, having to deal with last minute cancellations, finding a good time for the tournament, and technical difficulties. BUT we pulled it off! It was a LOT of fun and the players all had a blast! Each was allowed to stream their matches, and we did the official stream together. Manuel and I would interview the players afterwards. Rather than be a single elimination like March Madness, we took the first round losers and had them play a consolation bracket (where they were one-and-done if they lost). So everyone got at least two matches.

We had upsets! We had a wide range of presonalities! We had a great time.

Six months later, Manuel and I looked back on it and realized that almost every streamer that had participated had stopped streaming. Out of eight, only one still streamed and he only streamed chess occassionally.

Why had they stopped?

Even my buddy Manuel has recently stopped streaming.

It's a little strange how we become attached to streamers, make friends with people that we don't really know, have never met or shared a handshake with. And as streamers we become friends with viewers who we struggle to pronounce their usernames and only "hear" them via chat.

But it happens. And when they stop visiting our streams or stop streaming, we miss them.

I miss you guys!

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