What are the arguments for or against increasing the 1 million dollar worlds cash prize?

Naristracrates·Sep 20, 2016·3 votes·993 views

Personally, being a casual player and watching the e-sports scene like a hawk, I think I would enjoy it even more if there was more money on the line. Also, I think these players, with the amount of work they put into this game, I think the prize pool should increase at some point.

First question.

DOTA2 has these micro transactions that goes for the prize pool at their main tournament, as I understand it (I don't play DOTA). Why doesn't Riot do the same thing? I am just curious.

The first thing I am thinking of is that if Riot increases the prize money, it would be expected that the money continually increase. I know they have a lot of money, but eventually it might not make that much financial sense for Riot. But really, that's the only thing I can think of besides they just want more money.

Can anyone shed light on this? Thanks.

12 Comments

oSEXYPLATYPUSoSep 20, 20162 votes

cus if riot gives more as a prize then they cant pocket as much

I hate my ADCSep 20, 20162 votes

Meanwhile, NBA players get paid upward to 20 million for a season and the NBA finals had less people watching than the LCS.

https://cdn.meme.am/instances/23426452.jpg

oSEXYPLATYPUSoSep 20, 20161 votes

well that is an issue for the league players and the company like riot... and it wasnt like that in the beginning of pro sports. they pro players world wide need to unionized ( which i dont know how it would happen with different laws per country ) and have a players union that is able to make sure players get a fair share of income ect.

WatchDogs LegionSep 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=I hate my ADC,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=3AAQI3ti,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-09-20T22:21:34.411+0000)

Meanwhile, NBA players get paid upward to 20 million for a season and the NBA finals had less people watching than the LCS.

https://cdn.meme.am/instances/23426452.jpg

sometime I wonder how NBA player get pay so much for just playing a Sport game that doesn't benefit anyone but for entertainment same for all Sport thats earning million

ThePartyLeaderSep 20, 20162 votes

Doesn't riot still pay a salary to all LCS players. . . I don't think anyone else does that you rely purely on sponsors and tournament money. I could be wrong though.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoSep 20, 20162 votes

there is a very weird structure they have technically all the league pro players are employees of RIOT instead of independent contractors like in the nfl ect

III BAKURYU III Sep 20, 20162 votes

What difference is it for you for the players getting a bigger prize pool? Are you going to get some of the cash or something?

You could argue that yes 2nd place is much much lower than 1st by about $750K difference but it just makes winning and being 1st the much more important.

I think it's also the same with regular sports such as NBA-NFL where even if a player/team doesn't win the superbowl or make it out of the first round of the playoffs the players still get an extra pay upgrade from just making it to the playoffs.
The players get paid their regular salary ontop of Worlds $ bonus.

 The prize pool will increase in time.  Right now League of legends/Riot/LCS/Worlds etc just isn't stable yet, yes Riot has had the LCS officially since 2013 but that isn't long enough opposed to other "sports" that has been around for much much longer 1900's, 1930's etc etc.

Right now companies from ads or products just aren't taking the risk right now to support LCS/LPL LCK(League) because it is "New".

Um Montecristo talks about the problem with salary and just overall the problems about all the in's and out's of League right now and why the prize pool for Worlds or just tournaments in general is so low. The Video is called ( Monte's Musings: Relegations, Franchising, and the Team Revenue Problem in eSports) - Just type that in youtube and you should understand the reasons on it, um I also didn't leave a link where you might get "scam" or something so it's much better if you just copy and paste.

TheBrainSlugSep 21, 20162 votes

Riot doesn't care about the game or players. They care about personal wealth.

EpikFeederSep 21, 20161 votes

It will change eventually. If not, another game will give winners say 10 million, and everyone will move to that game. People always follow the cash :p

The LexerSep 22, 20161 votes

DOTA almost does that now... and they make much less than Riot

DraqoneSep 21, 20161 votes

I actually think it'd be great if Riot payed every team that qualified for worlds a certain amount extra (on top of what they make now).

The teams could then use that money however they want. I'd say pro LoL team needs better infrastructure and staff more than LoL pro players need higher salaries.

ShikigamiSep 22, 20161 votes

RIot pays player salaries. Smaller teams and such can make sustainable income, growing the scene overall. It's cool to see our teams fighting for a spot at the top of NALCS, but for the smaller teams they have little or no sponsor support. Overall, the salary of most players combined outweigh the Dota2 prize pool, I saw a reddit post about it a while ago but lost it.