Arena Kings got a fresh new start on October 1; the new monthly version of Arena Kings continues to showcase the Chess.com streaming community as it always has, and only adds to that sense of community by allowing players to join together in a large, multi-club arena. This inaugural edition can be considered a success after 2,341 players representing 56 different streamers’ Chess.com clubs joined in, a 40% increase in participation compared to the past year average under the previous format.

Ronaldo Playing Chess, a fan club of the soccer star run by streamer @jack2212, won the tournament, while IM Renato Terry of his Los Terrybles club posted the best individual score. Second-place individual finisher GM Oleksandr Bortnyk led his Bortnyk Chess club to fourth place as fourth- and ninth-place GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Haowen Xue joined forces alongside him. Four of these five players (all except Xue) streamed their proceedings on Twitch.

Nor were Kazarian, Terry, Bortnyk, and Naroditsky the only high-profile players to share their games live over the two hours of the arena. Others included IM Eric Rosen, IM George “The Big Greek” Souleidis, and NM Kevin “Blitzstream” Bordi. Three of them—Naroditsky in Russian, Souleidis in German, and Bordi in French—streamed in languages besides English, bringing Arena Kings to an international audience.

Although the Ronaldo fan club led the team standings most of the way, Terry and Bortnyk battled for the top individual spot until the very end, when the two-hour tournament clock ran out during their game. Terry thus ended on a six-game winning streak and retained his lead with a 29/33 overall score, including two wins over Naroditsky in his last four games that counted.