The Global Poker League is about to branch further into the bedrooms of eSports and video game lovers after announcing plans to host their Playoffs in San Diego as part of TwitchCon 2016.
So when will we see a Team Liquid franchise in the Global Poker League (GPL)?
Soon.
Queen bee Alex Dreyfus and his drones have announced the location of the inaugural GPL Playoffs and what a location it is.
San Diego.
TwitchCon 2016.
It’s one of those breadcrumbs. A bog standard press release drops into your inbox bringing you the great news. It gets reported. Everyone ignores it until the big day. A decade later when HoldemX is as popular as Hearthstone, 
everyone will be wondering where the trail started.
It began with this press release.
Over 20,000 people attended the TwitchCon 2015 in person, and more than 1.9 million people watched the action online. That’s a lot of eyeballs, and it’s only going to get bigger.
The second iteration of TwitchCon will take place in San Diego Sep 30 – Oct 2, and poker will be an enormous part of it. The top four teams from both conferences will square off in 3v3 action in TheCube to see who will progress to the Wembley finals in November.
TwitchCon attendees will get to meet the GPL players (if they can turn up on time, Sorel), play with the new card game HoldemX, and even compete in exhibition matches. GPL and Twitch are already best buddies – Scott Ball, Community Development and Poker Manager at Twitch competes for the Las Vegas Moneymakers. He told the world that TwitchCon will plug the GPL as an eSport, and that’s exciting news.
Here is the current GPL Conference Leaderboards:
Americas Conference
1. Montreal Nationals – 84 pts.
2. New York Rounders – 81 pts.
3. LA Sunset – 76 pts.
4. Sao Paulo Mets – 64 pts.
5. Las Vegas Moneymakers – 63 pts.
6. San Francisco Rush – 55 pts.
Eurasia Conference
1. Moscow Wolverines – 87 pts.
2. London Royals – 79 pts.
3. Paris Aviators – 78 pts.
4. Hong Kong Stars – 74 pts.
5. Berlin Bears – 64 pts.
6. Rome Emperors – 58 pts.
If the GPL was over today then the Montreal Nationals, New York Rounders, LA Sunset, Sao Paulo Mets, Moscow Wolverines, London Royals, Paris Aviators, and Hong Kong Stars will be on a jet plane heading to San Diego.
It’s not the first time that poker has had a presence on an eSports platform such as this. Daniel Negreanu and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier played in a Hearthstone exhibition match at BlizzCon 2015. Negreanu beat ElkY who eventually went on to sign professionally with Team Liquid.
Keep your eyes peeled on the GPL and Alex Dreyfus Twitter feeds. The team at the GPL is planning to offer some fun ways of getting an exclusive pass for TwitchCon to watch all your favourite GPL stars in action.
