TwitchCon 2018: A guide for attendees and live stream viewers

Twitch has revealed the full line up of sponsors, exhibitions and esports events set for TwitchCon 2018, including a hall dedicated to Fortnite, tournaments featuring popular players and lots of AAA game developers.

TwitchCon is the live streaming platform’s annual convention, where they show off the best Twitch has to offer in streamers, gaming and esports, as well as announcing new features and future plans.

Hosted at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in California on October 26-28, the event will allow fans to interact with their favorite streamers and brands over the course of the weekend, everything from guest speakers, tournaments and parties.

On October 8, Twitch announced some of the ‘premier exhibitors – of which there are over 140 in total – plus details of all the events and big names attending.

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For competitive gaming, there are four main events, The PUBG ‘Broadcaster Royale: Omen Challenge’, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s ‘Doritos Bowl’, the grand final of Fortnite’s ‘Fall Skirmish’ and for fans of speedrunning, GamesDoneQuick will also be in action.

You can see the full list of sponsors, exhibitions and events below. You can also find the full event schedule on the TwitchCon website.

TwitchCon 2018 Schedule

TwitchCon 2018 – Sponsors, Events and Exhibitors

Helping to make TwitchCon 2018 possible are the following premier sponsors:

• Kakao Games – TwitchCon 2018’s Diamond sponsor will be showcasing Black Desert Online’s brand new expansion, Drieghan, which will be playable on 46 high-end Alienware PCs. Drieghan will feature a large mountainous area, over 300 challenging quests, fresh nodes to conquer and a new menacing dragon boss called Garmoth. It’s set for release on November 14 as a free update with TwitchCon visitors being treated to an advance look that includes never-before-seen content.

• Legion, by Lenovo – Stylish on the outside and savage on the inside. With unmatched performance and modern designs, Lenovo Legion PCs are forged to deliver true gaming power directly into your hands. Stop by TwitchCon 2018’s Platinum sponsor booth #315 for a chance to win great prizes, get hands-on experience with their products, and a few surprises all weekend.

• Level up TwitchCon with Twitch Prime – Twitch Prime members unlock exclusive perks, including a $10 credit and free Twitch tote bag at The Loot Cave (TwitchCon’s merch store) and access to the Twitch Prime Lounge which will host special meet-and-greet events with broadcasters, and more!

• Intel Streamer Zone – Game + Record + Stream without compromise. The Intel Streamer Zone, which has become a staple at Twitch events around the world, will host 72 streamers all weekend long for more than 108 hours of content. Full schedule coming soon.

On the competitive gaming front, TwitchCon 2018 will be home to a number of events featuring top games and streamers, including:

• Broadcaster Royale: Omen Challenge – The biggest PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS streamers go head-to-head in this new style of tournament presented by OMEN by HP and Intel desktops and displays. Playing on OMEN by HP desktops and displays, streamers must survive against the competition and a gauntlet of OMEN challenges that require players to embrace risky strategies to win a piece of the $300,000 prize. The event takes place live across the street from the convention center at the City National Civic Theater, beginning at 1:30pm on October 26, 2018. For more details check out broadcasterroyale.com.

• Doritos Bowl – Doritos Bowl will feature Twitch’s biggest personalities competing in Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4’s all-new battle royale mode — Blackout. Doritos Bowl team captains for this event will be Ninja, Shroud, CouRage and DrLupo. The event starts at 12:30 PM PST on Saturday, October 27 at the TwitchCon Esports Stage, Presented by Doritos. More details at DoritosBowl.com.

• Fortnite Fall Skirmish – Grand Final – On September 21st, Epic Games kicked off a six week Fortnite Fall Skirmish series with a fun new club-based format. Over the course of the series, some of the world’s top Fortnite players and influencers will compete against each other for a $10 million prize pool. The Grand Final will take place over three days at TwitchCon with an open and invitational tournament to determine the Fall Skirmish champions, while fans from home can watch online at twitch.tv/FortniteGame.

• Games Done Quick (GDQ) – GDQ makes its TwitchCon debut with GDQ Express, a 50-hour speedrunning marathon benefiting charities taking place in TwitchCon Charity Plaza. For the schedule of events visit https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/24.

With more than 140 exhibitors taking part in TwitchCon 2018, the following is only a snapshot of several of them. For the full list of exhibitors visit TwitchCon.com.

• Fortnite Hall – Fortnite is landing at TwitchCon 2018 this year and bringing tons of fun activities for solos and squads. Find them at the South Hall and stop by for frights, delights and fun surprises or checkout the Fortnite Fall Skirmish Grand Finals.

• Bethesda – Team Bethesda will be on the TwitchCon show floor for the very first time, where the team will be hosting multiple live-streamed events with the Bethesda community team and some of your favorite streamers. Games being highlighted include the upcoming Fallout 76, The Elder Scrolls Online, Quake Champions, and The Elder Scrolls Legends. Be sure to follow twitch.tv/Bethesda to catch all the action!

• Sony Interactive Entertainment / PlayStation – PlayStation is heading to TwitchCon 2018 with the Road to Greatness truck – a new and improved gaming rig outfitted with PlayStation4 Pro gaming stations and PlayStationVR demos. Attendees can stop by to go hands-on with unreleased games and compete for their chance to win prizes, swag, and more.

• SEGA / CREATIVE ASSEMBLY – SEGA and Creative Assembly™ are coming to TwitchCon 2018 with the latest playable demos of Total War™: WARHAMMER II and Total War™: THREE KINGDOMS, including weekend-long live gameplay demonstrations of the latest content for the Total War™ series featuring the Creative Assembly team and your favorite streamers. Stay tuned to the official SEGA and Total War twitter accounts for TwitchCon updates.

• Magic & Dungeons & Dragons – Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons join forces to bring two of the biggest fantasy games together for the first time ever at TwitchCon. Play Magic: The Gathering Arena at demo stations or stream to one’s own Twitch channel onsite. Attendees and viewers alike can also watch Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons events live from the TwitchCon booth and on the D&D and Magic Twitch channels all weekend.

• World of Tanks PC – Visitors to the World of Tanks booth will be able to indulge in heart-pounding online tank combat, meet with famed streamers, and get hands-on with their favorite game in AR. In addition, a real M60A1 US tank will greet all TwitchCon guests right at the entrance to the convention center.

• Omen by HP – Located at the City National Civic Theater, attendees will be able to play PUBG to win prizes, as well as test out their latest PCs and accessories, such as the thin bezel OMEN 15 Laptop with GeForce® GTX graphics, the powerful new OMEN Obelisk Desktop with up to GeForce RTX™ graphics, the optical-mechanical switch OMEN Sequencer Keyboard and OMEN Reactor Mouse, with the just-released OMEN Mindframe Headset – the world’s first headset to have active cooling by way of their FrostCap technology. The booth’s shop will also feature the first ever drop of OMEN apparel!

• Nerf Nation Experience – The ultimate Nerf experience is coming to TwitchCon! In the South Hall attendees can get hands-on and battle with the latest Nerf Elite, Rival and Laser Ops Pro blasters IRL. There will also be plenty of photo opps so bring a camera along with your squad.

• GUESS?, Inc. – Level up your style and drop by the GUESS Arcade to pick up limited edition GUESS Gaming apparel, only available during TwitchCon. Explore their throwback retro arcade and win prizes from GUESS, Tetris, and more. Meet your favorite streamers with several surprise appearances by the world’s biggest gamers. For streamers, sign up at booth #321 to be a part of GUESS Gaming for an exclusive loot box membership.

• Hershey’s – Hershey’s Milk Chocolate and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups will be teaming up for a special announcement at their first-ever interactive booth at TwitchCon. Two well-known gamers, Ninja and DrLupo, will be making an appearance Saturday for their fans and there will be a special sweet prize for those partaking in the photo booth portion.

• Nissin – It’s all fun and games until Nissin breaks out the noodles…then it gets seriously fun! Stop by the Nissin Cup Noodles booth to try the new delicious Cup Noodles Very Veggie and take away a sample – a great snack to fuel attendees’ TwitchCon experience. Make sure to snap a selfie in their photo booth too!

TwitchCon 2018 will also feature a number of areas and activities, including the following:

• Indie Ally – As one of TwitchCon’s most popular areas every year, the Indie Zone is sure to surprise and delight attendees with something new and fun to play. Stop by to meet the developers and show support to Toynk.com, The Stonebot Studio, Motion Twin, Kitfox Games, Trigono, Grunka Munka Games, Exato Game Studios, Holospark, and Everland.

• Streamer Workshop – With thousands of streamers registered for the show, TwitchCon continues to focus on educating them on how to optimize their channels for success with a special area on the show floor. This includes demos of relevant products and services from brands such as Blue Microphones, BoomTV, Game ON,  Gear on Amazon, Intel, LiveU, Morgan Stanley, Noiz, Stream Elements, Stream Labs, Skype, TC HELICON, Tobii, and Vreal.

• Charity Plaza, Presented by Tiltify – This year’s plaza will not only feature more than 10 charities that have been supported by Twitch broadcasters over the past year, but it will also feature the return of the highly anticipated TwitchCon Charity Decathlon. Stop by to show your support or watch it on Twitch here. For information on participating charities and more, visit the TwitchCon blog.

• City National Civic Theater – Beyond cheering on their favorite streamer in the Broadcaster Royale: Omen Challenge presented by OMEN by HP and Intel, fans can get free PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS merch, rub elbows at the bar with their favorite PUBG partners, play the game at the HP OMEN booth, and battle friends in fun live activities, all while jamming out to a live DJ.

Additional areas and presentations to check out include the Table Top room, TwitchUnity Lounge, Cosplay Contest,  Artist Alley, Arcade, Kappa Cabana, the array of events taking place in the Glitch Theater, and all of the sessions.