On July 17 the Ringcraft was announced, an event inspired by Lord of the Rings, which aimed to be one of the biggest since the release of the game. The competition had everything to achieve it, and it will stay in the history books, but not for the reasons TheGrefg, host of the event, wanted.
Ringcraft ended up being one of the most polemic events in the history of Twitch Rivals, with many bugs, server issues, and inconsistent rules. The event was organized by Twitch, with the Spanish streamer TheGrefg being the face of the event. Ringcraft took place in the most recent Twitch Rivals and had a prize pool of $100K. It brought together 100 of the most popular streamers on the platform. The event had ten teams, with each squad having ten players, with one being the captain.
During the tournament, the teams played various challenges, winning points depending on the position they finished the event in. The event didn't have an established point system, so the point distribution would vary. Auronplay team lifted the trophy and won $100k after six long tournament days.
Auronplay team winning moment
Problems started before the event had even begun, some participants didn't know they were invited to it, and others discovered it while they were live. There were streamers that were invited, but then were replaced and didn't attend the event. Some team captains also submitted their teams to the event but were ignored.
After the event started problems continued to escalate. There were a lot of bugs in the server, which affected many of the players. Most players had lag problems, and the delay between games was massive, with participants having to wait a long time between games. This was happening because the organization was using the time between games to fix the lag, server bugs, and other issues that were happening.
Ibai talks about all the problems the event had
Auronplay, one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, said that he actually thought about leaving the event on one of the days, because of how long the wait times were. He said that it was making him a little bit angry, and he didn't want to stream in a bad mood. Many other streamers complained about the uncertainty of the schedule, the point system, and even the rules, which were made on the moment, leaving many streamers upset about it.
The event was heavily criticized by viewers on social media, and many streamers that participated in the event did the same. Streaming megastar ibai, which has organized many successful events, said the event was “shit” in terms of organization, also adding that “a multiple millionaire company can’t organize a tournament with a prize pool of $100K, with the rules being made on the moment, and changing from day to day”.
Ringcraft official statement
On the official Twitter page of the event, TheGrefg congratulated Auronplay team for the victory, and also addressed many of the controversies that surrounded the event. He acknowledge the event was the most polemic in the history of Twitch, and that he thought the event had amazing potential, but the bad things overshadow it.
TheGrefg also says that it wasn't easy to deal with so much criticism, in an event where he was the face but didn't control. After the event, the Spanish streamer says he took two lessons with him, never trusting 100% in something he doesn't fully control, and that when everything is bad the best thing to do is to laugh about it. Despite a tumultuous first edition, Ringcraft 2 has already been announced and will take place on the 19th of November.
Viewership Stats
Ringcraft was streamed on over 100 channels, but its viewership numbers weren't as good as expected. The event was streamed for 17 hours, and viewers watched the many broadcasts of the tournament for 5.2 million hours. It had 440K Peak Viewers, and 297K Average Viewers watched the tournament on a regular basis. Twitch was the only steaming platform of Ringcraft, and the event had over 2 million unique viewers, with 1.5 million unique authorized viewers.
Auronplay channel was the most popular and most watched of the event with 212K Peak Viewers, and 1.8 million Hours Watched. Elspreen channel was second in both metrics, with ibai channel taking third place in the two categories. Despite being the host of Ringcraft, and streaming the entire event, TheGrefg only ranks in fourth place among channels by HW and PV. As for Twitch Rivals official channel, it peaked at 24K simultaneous viewers, and had 9.5K Average Viewers.
Day four was the most popular day of the event, and that was mainly because ibai team was facing elimination from the tournament. The squad ended up being eliminated, and in the next three days, the event saw a big drop in viewership. On the final day, Ringcraft only had 317K concurrent viewers. Ringcraft wasn't as successful as Twitch Rivals and TheGrefg excepted. Unfortunately, the vast list of problems the event had, affected its viewership experience, which lead to subpar viewership numbers.
Most popular Twitch Rivals Minecraft events by Peak Viewers
Compared to previous Twitch Rivals Minecraft events, Ringcraft was actually able to reach a huge audience, and became the second most popular Minecraft tournament in the history of Twitch Rivals, having 30% more Peak Viewers than Twitch Rivals Dedsafío Minecraft 2. However, it is still far from Twitch Rivals Squidcraft Games ft. Komanche, which also featured all the Spanish streaming stars, and reached 2.2 million Peak Viewers.
Ringcraft 2 is coming up on November 19th, but there is a big question about who will attend the event, since the first edition was disastrous, and many streamers had harsh words about the tournament. One thing is certain, it won't take much for it to be better than the first edition.
