What is the Kings League? Gerard Pique explains success of ‘real-life video game’

“How has your involvement in this project affected your personal and family lives?” came the question from the press seats at the Estadio Metropolitano.

There was silence before an answer came from Ibai Llanos, Spain’s most famous streamer and president of Kings League team Porcinos.

“Well, for some of us, we all know what’s happened,” said Llanos, drawing nervous giggles from the audience made up of the players and coaches who would take part in the ‘final four’ stage of the Kings League and Queens League at the stadium the next day.

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Alongside Llanos on the stage, Kings League president Gerard Pique grimaced. Kunisports president Sergio Aguero reached down from the row behind and squeezed Pique’s shoulder. Kings League CEO Oriol Querol smiled.

“The question is for everyone, better for some of you lot to answer,” said Pique, appearing to be angered by the clear reference to his recent very public break-up with former partner Shakira.

Even if he was truly annoyed by the line of enquiry, the former-Barcelona-player-turned-web-entrepreneur knows better than most the value of good content. So does Llanos, who was streaming the event live to his more than 15 million Twitch followers, 11 million YouTube subscribers and 16.8 million followers on TikTok.

The almost two-hour-long pre-match show was full of banter. When Pique was asked what stadiums he would like to bring the Kings League to in the future, he said the “New Bernabeu” because “I always loved playing there, it was just one stroll after another”.

This brought more chuckles as everyone turned to look over at Iker Casillas. The former Real Madrid player and president of 1K FC just shook his head, like the embarrassed dad who does not quite get what the kids are up