Ke Jie connected the anchor on fire! Will the way out for Go players be a comprehensive transformation of anchors?

Go, a sport that is somewhat far from most people's lives, has been popular on Station B for some time.

Since the eight-time Go champion Ke Jie retired to Weibo and settled on Station B, the "celebrity effect" has brought a lot of fresh traffic to the Go content of this platform. But if you search for Ke Jie on station B, it is already difficult to find the content of his serious game of Go, the most conspicuous is often a large number of live sliced videos, which are usually linked to words such as "abstract" and "against the sky", and the number of views is also considerable, often millions of views.

The success of Ke Jie's live broadcast career is not unrelated to his status as a world-class player, but as a leading figure in today's chess world, his "abstract Go" has actually influenced the current situation of China's Go live broadcast industry: the second stage chess player Zhan Ying has achieved a tenfold increase in the number of fans through live broadcasting, and on Christmas, she successfully entered the "Hall of Fame of a Thousand Ships"; The nine-dan chess player laughed continuously, once left the Go live broadcast world, and now he has mastered abstract Go, slashing 2,600 captains across the Chinese New Year's Eve, and once topped the B station live broadcast popularity list.

Sina Chess selected Zhan Ying as the 2022 Go Figure

In the past few months, Go live streaming has sprung up, creating a new wave of abstract live streaming in the Chinese Go circle. These live studios usually have one thing in common: although the live content is still mainly Go, almost no one seriously discusses Go.

Go is on fire, but it doesn't seem to be Go.

1

In addition to the eight-time champion Ke Jie, the top player in today's Chinese Go world may be the "edge" player of War Eagle.

According to GoRatings, among the 874 active players who have participated in the tournament recently, Warhawk ranks 697th with a rating of 2856 points, which is certainly not very good for professional chess players.

The level of the war eagle has been declining, and its debut is the peak

In the past few years of Warhawk's anchor career, she has experienced the obscurity of Huya's live broadcast period, and also experienced no one after switching to B station, until an unintentional ridicule a few months ago made her live broadcast improve.

War Eagle's fame is actually a very accidental opportunity, from the statistics of fan growth data of station B, the first wave of popularity of War Eagle appeared near October 16, which is the period when her live broadcast slice of Ke Jie's "talent and virtue" began to attract attention. The war eagle himself probably did not expect that after sowing diligently for so many years, he would finally catch fire because of this method.

"Rub" Ke Jie's popularity is not the original intention of War Eagle, after all, in China to talk about Go, Ke Jie is an inescapable topic after all, according to the data statistics of station B users "2-16 to win the first", in the war eagle two and a half years of 118 live broadcasts, mentioned Ke Jie's live broadcast accounted for 115 games, now the composition of the war eagle's fan base, to a large extent and Ke Jie's abstract live broadcast can not be separated.

Of course, relying only on commenting on Ke Jie is destined to go far, and after that, the war eagle quickly found his own live broadcast style, and made a good job that was enough to get out of the circle: being posted to the old brother was so angry that he broke the defense.

The thing is this, after the battle of the war eagle became famous, the bar friends in the Go post bar noticed this little-known chess player. Considering that the results of the war eagle's competition are not ideal, the remarks of the old buddies of Tieba will inevitably not be too good, and watching the lively fans encourage the war eagle to see how the little sunspot of Tieba evaluates himself, the result is naturally imaginable.

In the hearts of many people, Go is a competitive sports project with a certain "forced qualification", and the corresponding Go players should also be pure and indisputable images, and the war eagle in the live broadcast from anger to silence to cover the face of tears of the mental journey subverted the public's stereotype of chess players, it turned out that "the anchor was scolded and cried alive" This kind of thing really happens to a Go professional player.

Wang Tianyi, the first Chinese chess player, also noticed the war eagle defense breaking incident, and the meme of "edge chess player" was born

After the defense breaking incident, the image of the war eagle as "delicious and fun" in the eyes of the audience and fans became clearer. In the subsequent several online interactions with Ke Jie, the war eagle endured the high-intensity torture of the abstract brother and the first person in the live broadcast room with a low profile, and her naturally enthusiastic and funny character invisibly amplified the comedy effect.

Before it became famous, Warhawk's program effects were abstract enough

The effect of abstract Go is immediate, but the war eagle with soaring fans has not completely released herself, and the interaction with the audience is her specialty, and the appearance of adhering to the dignity of chess players is also the reason why everyone likes her. After coming out of the circle, the war eagle made a "Go introductory class", through simple and easy-to-understand teaching videos for the audience who do not understand the basic rules of Go, and the anchor in the live broadcast room who gaged with the audience.

"Happy Go", "adult Go", "abstract Go", are just drainage means, Zhanying repeatedly stressed that her ultimate purpose is to spread Go culture and let more people contact and understand Go, although most of the audience in the live broadcast room did not come to Go at all.

Leaving aside whether the live broadcast of War Eagle has successfully promoted Go, at least on the platform of Station B, Go anchors have found a new way out.

2

The story of abstract Go does not stop at the thousand ships of the War Eagle Christmas, in the cross-Chinese New Year's Eve a few days ago, the nine-dan chess player laughed and gained 2641 captains, a number that can be ranked in the entire B station live broadcast circle.

Unlike the "entertainment anchor" Warhawk, Lian Xiao is a veritable technical anchor. "Tianyuan", "celebrity", "chess saint", these well-known titles once belonged to Lian Xiao; In the Go rating rankings, Lian Xiao, who is no longer at the peak, can still rank 26th in the world, although he did not pocket the honor of world championship, but Lian Xiao's record is dazzling enough.

At his peak, Lian Xiao won 10 consecutive championships in China

But even if he is as strong as a smile, in the bloody live broadcast industry, he is still inevitably a little weak. According to Lian Xiao's live broadcast on December 30 last year, he signed a live broadcast contract with Station B to spread and promote Go culture. The conscientious Lian Xiao concentrated on chess and popularized science in the past live broadcasts, but his popularity was low due to boring live broadcast content and his poor words. In the end, Station B chose to make an appointment, and Lian Xiao lost the part-time job of Go anchor.

It is not unusual for Lian Xiao Live to meet cold, you must know that the average passerby knows about Chinese Go players, in addition to Ke Jie, there are probably only veteran chess players such as Nie Weiping and Gu Li. In fact, before War Eagle became famous, her live broadcast data was already brighter than Lian Xiao, War Eagle still knew how to please the audience, and Lian Xiao really only played Go.

There is a consensus in the chess circle, the more chess is played, the less traffic. Ke Jie and War Eagle have successively proved this iron law with their actual actions, and Lian Xiao has joined the army of "not doing business".

Abstract Go did bring a new opportunity to Lian Xiao, he gave up the traditional live broadcast of Go, except to play Go, he can do anything else. Under the joint drainage of the war eagle Ke Jie, Lian Xiao's live broadcast data is no longer the same, on the occasion of the New Year's Day, Lian Xiao only verbally announced "send a signature fan on board" without prior preparation, but unexpectedly, the number of captains in the live broadcast room increased wildly in seconds, and accidentally became the top stream of the live broadcast of Station B that night. This night is known as the "abstract night" of the Go circle.

Signing and signing fans are traditional gifts in the Go circle, and the Go magazine "Go Tiandi" has sold the signature fans of many well-known chess players more than ten years ago. Although the handwriting on these fans was mass-produced prints signed by chess players, they still sold for a high price of 150 yuan in those days.

Station B opens for a month and the captain's fee is 138 yuan, even if you ignore the inflation over the years, spending this money to buy a signature fan of a top chess player is definitely "picking up a big leak".

Not only the captains who sprang up in groups, but also the spectators who opened a 1998 yuan worth of governors for Lian Xiao were qualified to play a game of guidance chess with Lian Xiao. Judging from the price provided by professionals from all sides, the starting price of the guidance chess provided by Lianxiao chess players of this level is probably thousands of yuan.

But no matter how to say it, Lian Xiao still relied on abstract Go to bring himself on fire after all, if he was still the one who patronized the chess game in the past, he would definitely not be able to reproduce today's achievements in the live broadcast industry. Lianxiao's success proves a truth: even if you don't know how to live like a war eagle, abstract Go can still make you popular. From the time when the data was too poor and was terminated, to the current lightspeed of 2,000 ships, the B station Go anchor began to develop in an abstract direction in an all-round way.

3

The comprehensive transformation of professional chess players into anchors is not a fantasy, considering the current situation of Go in China in recent years, live streaming is likely to be a "survival road" for chess players.

Since the epidemic, all walks of life in China have not lived very well, among them, the already sluggish Go industry has made things worse. The pandemic has restricted the travel of a large number of chess players, making it difficult to compete in the game of Go mainly offline, and although online Go is a feasible way, problems related to cheating, equipment and other related problems have been difficult to solve.

The impact of the previous epidemic on Chinese chess players was particularly obvious. In the whole year of 2022, the official match of Yu Zhiying, the first Chinese women's Go player, was only 4 games, for comparison, the first Korean women's Go player, Cui Jing, played 104 games in one year, a full 100 more games.

The same example occurs in men's Go, where Ke Jie, the more active player, played 50 games last year, while South Korea's Kim Eun-ji played 136 games.

There is no prize money without competition, and the technical decline caused by the lack of competition will directly affect future performance. Top chess players such as Ke Jie and Lian Xiao can support themselves in the absence of competition, but what should those real edge chess players do after losing their jobs?

According to the statistics of Zhihu user "Go Tao Teacher's Cabin", of the 957 chess players who were fixed between 1982 and 2022, only 44 left the industry, and the remaining players are still engaged in Go-related work after the decline of chess power, and Go anchors, of course, can also be a brand new track.

In fact, on platforms such as Huya, Douyu, B Station, and Douyin, there are indeed a group of anchors who specialize in Go, among them there are simple Go enthusiasts, as well as professional chess players like war eagles. It's just that everyone knows that it is difficult for anchors who focus on Go to wait for their own day.

According to War Eagle, she has invited several professional chess players to station B to join this abstract Go circle, including even Shen Zhenzhen, the first person in the current Go game; Lian Xiao also revealed in the live broadcast that he was considering whether to pull professional chess players such as Yang Dingxin around him into the anchor industry. This situation has the potential to develop into the era of great abstraction of Go.

In the discussion community of Go enthusiasts, there has been more and more talk about anchors in recent months. Some people think that abstract Go is ruining the industry, and it is understandable to make money with popularity and influence, but the job of chess players is ultimately to play chess, and it is a pity to waste time on abstract live broadcasts in the prime of their careers. Ke Jie, once the first Chinese Go player, experienced a dismal five-game losing streak in the second half of last year, and many chess fans blamed it on "only engaging in abstraction and not Go".

At the same time, among the passers-by attracted by abstract Go, there are indeed many new chess players who are trying to get in touch with Go. Before this, most of them had no interest in Go, and in order to understand the chess board in the abstract Go live broadcast room, they began to actively learn this difficult board game.

Live streaming has undoubtedly narrowed the distance between professional chess players and ordinary chess players, and netizens on the Internet can buy the attention of top chess players at a relatively low price and learn professional knowledge that they have never understood. Perhaps after the popularization of abstract Go, there will be fewer streamers who concentrate on Go, but if the industry can really survive and grow, you can always find one or two live broadcast rooms that only play Go.

The anchor gained traffic, the fun people got the fun, the chess fans learned the technique, and the passers-by became interested in Go. Each group has its own needs, chatting about different things in these fragmented live broadcast rooms, but at least, Go has gained unprecedented attention.