Streaming enthusiasts of all kinds, the year 2022 has allowed you to eat your fill. Over this calendar year, the Twitch Game has offered a small number of very exciting projects. Here is a non-exhaustive selection of the 12 events that most marked JV’s editorial staff.
Summary
GeoGuessr World CupEleven All StarsLeague of Legends Worlds FinalGP ExplorerKCX 2 at BercyNight at the Museum with Squeezie d’ÉtoilesThe OdysseyPixel WarZack en Roue Libre x Karim BenzemaZEvent 2022ZrT TrackMania Cup 2022ZZCC MXTP at Olympia
GeoGuessr World Cup
Driven by streamer (late Youtuber) Antoine Daniel, the GeoGuessr World Cup took place on October 22. It took place in Paris between 10 a.m. and midnight. This game consists of guessing where a person is on Earth from a random point seen on Google Street Views. Small peculiarity, the tournament was played in teams. Here there is no solo and single champion, collective victory takes precedence. Each formation consisted of 3 to 4 players. The competition was, of course, open to challengers from around the world. With a cash prize of €25,000 and around thirty teams, the pressure was on. With Antoine Daniel and Mister V as commentators, Speed Plonkers won the title. The group of 3 players was made up of Frenchman Blinky, German Kodiak and Swedish Maccem.
Eleven All Stars
It was the major event of French streaming this fall. Hosted by streamer Aminematue, a French team face a Spanish selection in a football match. On the ground, two formations were presented this Saturday, November 19. Composed of streamers and Youtubers, they had around fifty players from both teams combined. If the premise did not necessarily sell the game level dream, the atmosphere was there. In a fiery Jean-Bouin stadium, the French won 2-0. The scorers were Sacha with a magnificent deflection of the head and Bruce Grannec after a nice collective movement. With a record number of viewers beaten for a French-language live show, 1,155,060 simultaneous spectators, a return match in Spain has already been announced. A meeting that promises (already) to be the streaming event of the year 2023?
Finale des Worlds de League of Legends
The classics of international streaming have had their share of twists. At the head of the gondola, we find the final of the Worlds 2022 of League of Legends disputed on November 5. Sacrosanct celebration of esports and fans of the Riot Games title, the scenario for this edition was… incredible! In the final, the best player in the history of LoL, Faker, played his first final since 2017 with T1, his team forever. At 26 and in the role of a veteran, he finds Deft during this final meeting. The two players have known each other for a long time and were in the same high school. With the same age as Faker and although recognized in the middle, he had never played in a final. In short, the scenario was incredible and the actors well chosen. As L’Équipe said in its pre-match paper: “No matter the result, the story will necessarily be beautiful.” Eventually, the story turned to Deft and his team DRX for the first Worlds title in their history.
GP Explorer
Squeezie aka Lucas Hauchard was strong. With his unofficial Formula 4 Grand Prix in real conditions, the most popular French-speaking videographer in the world has unlocked something. With this event, French streaming understood that it could dream bigger. On October 8, on the Bugatti circuit of Le Mans, 22 internet personalities challenge each other in a car race. With 40,000 spectators in the stands and 1 million on the stream, this live will be the first to exceed the symbolic threshold of one million simultaneous viewers. A record that will not last very long, the Eleven All Stars will surpass it a few weeks later. On the podium, we find Sylvain Levy of Vilebrequin in the lead, Depielo second and Etienne Moustache, friend of Amixem, in third place. Over the 15 laps of the competition, the Oscaro team, made up of Depielo and Valouzz, was at the top of the team classification.
EPZ 2 à Bercy
For the first time, a French Esports team manages to fill a hall the size of a stadium in France. With 12,000 people in the stands, the formation of Kameto and Prime is making history. In effect, the Karmine Corp filled the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy on June 21st. Posting a sold-out entry very quickly, the Karmine Corp Xperience 2 was a resounding success. Several meetings and events were on the program. The Show notably began with an official Team Valorant match for its first appearance on stage. Spectators were able to enjoy a concert as a half-time show. Artists like Green Montana and Kekra had performed on stage. The Prime structure co-founder also performed well. And finally, the highlight of the show, Team League of Legends was playing an official LFL game. This event was broadcast live on Twitch, bringing together tens of thousands of viewers.
Night at the Museum with Star Squeezie
Will you take a little culture? With his flagship program “La Nuit de la Culture”, the Étoiles streamer brought a breath of fresh air to Twitch. He is initially known for his performances on Mario Kart and various Nintendo games under the Rainbow Alliance banner. One day, he decided to launch a program dedicated to React reruns of Questions for a Champion. On the program, he tries to answer the questions and dissects the answers live. Thanks to this popular format, different versions have emerged such as Questions for a Streamer or the remake of Burger Quizz. After all that, what could be more normal than to go directly to iconic cultural places. For example, the Night of Culture was transformed during a stream into Night of the Museum. On June 3, Stars visited the Palace of Versailles with Squeezie. Thanks to a guide, they took us behind the scenes of this place steeped in history.
The Odyssey
As Nintendo cancels Worlds of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overnight, other players are taking it upon themselves to keep this esports scene alive. On October 15 and 16 in Paris, French streaming put him in the spotlight. At the Cirque d’Hiver, the Odyssey fulfilled this role perfectly. The Nintendo fighting game competition was in the form of a 16-player invitational tournament. It brought together top players from Europe, Japan and the United States. The Stars streamer was the presenter for this event. More broadly, he oversaw the latter and did not hesitate to present it as “the tournament of his dreams”. In particular, he highlighted the diversity of communities within the public. In an interview for aAa Gaming, he said: “I think the model is optimal. Reversal chose to take me as the headliner of the event. It’s me who speaks and who presents, but I don’t forget to say that they are the ones who produce. It is important. The latter is already of interest to Smash fans, but the fact that I present it makes it possible to bring a more multigaming community.” Japanese player Tea won first place, becoming the first Asian to win two major tournaments in Europe.
Pixel War
At the beginning of April 2022, the social network Reddit put in place an unexpected initiative: the r/place. It is an interactive canvas made up of millions of pixels. These can be changed in color to create a drawing, with each user having the opportunity to draw their little square every 5 minutes. Quickly, the adventure, already experienced in 2017, is gaining momentum. Led by the “General” Kameto, French streaming is particularly illustrated. Among other things, the Frenchman manages to grab a large part of the lower left corner to draw there what he and his community want. However, this hegemony on this part of the canvas, quickly filled, does not please everyone. Quickly, the Spaniards and Americans want to take possession of it, but the Twitch Game FR will not let it go! Result of the races: France leaves with its flag, a painting from the Louvre, a portrait of Thomas Pesquet and the rapper Nepal, etc.
Freewheeling Zack x Karim Benzema
With 62 million subscribers on Instagram, Karim Benzema is the second most followed Frenchman in the world on the networks. In front of Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, David Guetta and DJ Snake, he was recently overtaken by Kylian Mbappe. Recently crowned Ballon d’Or 2022, the native of the Lyon region is undoubtedly one of the most followed French people in the world. On November 4, Zack Nani caught up with him on his talk show Zack en Roue Libre for an exclusive interview in Madrid. A choice of guests that may seem far removed from French internet culture, but which remains perfectly consistent with the presenter. A big football fan, the streamer initially known for his Call of Duty games has diversified. Lyonnais and big football fan, he stands out on the Twitch Game FR for his interviews with various personalities live.
ZEvent 2022
The iconic annual meeting of charity marathons was making a comeback. From September 9 to 11, 2022, ZeratoR and Dach organized the 6ᵉ edition of ZEvent. After some controversy preceding the event, fears were high. To laugh about it, the participants did not hesitate to speak of “flop of the year”. And obviously, karma has sided with them. With approximately 10 million and 182 thousand euros collected, a new record has been set. For the occasion, 5 associations in favor of environmental protection benefited from donations: Sea Shepherd France, League for the Protection of Birds, WWF France, Time for the Planet and The Sea Cleaners. With the help of the 54 streamers present, the ZEvent 2022 attracted 2.5 million unique spectators over the course of a weekend.
ZrT TrackMania Cup 2022
This is one of the events that launched spontaneous and amateur eSport initiatives in France. Launched in 2013, who would have thought that the ZrT TrackMania Cup would fill the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy 9 years later? Created by ZeratoR, a fan of the Trackmania game series, it takes the form of an international competition on the game from the Nadeo studio. Thus, the 2022 edition attracted 15,000 people on site and 180,000 viewers at peak audience. It was the first edition in physics for 2 years, the fault of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Franco-Swiss duo Gwen and Affi wins the competition. But then for an event of such magnitude, the cash prize had to be substantial? Nay. As every year since 2017, the price refers to the year. Thus, the winners left with 2022 euros. The symbol of a competition that keeps its simplicity despite its impressive expansion.
ZZCC MXTP at the Olympia
Is there anything that pays a better tribute to internet culture than the ZZCC MXTP? For 1 hour and 42 minutes, it offers you a concentrate of marvelous absurdities. This project is made by Ronare, Pandrezz and Krono Muzik. When it was released, the Mixtape was a public hit. They sell 4799 scratched records on pre-order, a sign of the absurd spirit of the product. To celebrate this success, the creators of the project are organizing a concert at the Olympia and interpret the 41 titles in a row, featuring included! Broadcast live on Twitch, viewers will even be able to interact in the form of a Twitch Plays. Thus, they vote for filters that apply to the broadcast. Present as singers, Antoine Daniel, Mister MV or even Baghera Jones, for example, make appearances on stage. In short, a lot of work for more of everything, happy internet holidays!
