Players from various esports disciplines are still waiting for prize money they are owed from the World Series of Video Games (WSVG) tournament, held in October last year. The event advertised a total prize pool of $50,000 spread across three main disciplines – StarCraft 2, Hearthstone and FIFA 15 – but as yet around $32,000 remains unaccounted for, with players and teams still awaiting payment. With January agreed as the final deadline for the payouts, the organizers are three months late at the time of writing.
The SC2 portion of this tournament had a $20k prize pool, though it is unknown how much of the unpaid prizes were supposed to go to SC2 players. JonSnow was the champion, claiming the $10k grand prize and has yet to be paid his tournament winnings.
I'm honestly surprised this tournament happened at all. As a reminder, their opening ceremony looked like this (warning, loud noises): I'm pretty sure one of the Hearthstone casters got straight up robbed there, too.
Hopefully this "new" partnership policy of demanding promised funds beforehand will finally establish itself in the esports scene, after all these years the scam is still too strong...
On April 14 2016 04:44 Solar424 wrote: I'm honestly surprised this tournament happened at all. As a reminder, there opening ceremony looked like this (warning, loud noises): https://youtu.be/c_AC_uU9Bdw
That video is hilarious. Thanks for posting it!
SPONSOOOOORSSS! *static drowns out all other noise*
Well.. I hope they get their prize money but I doubt it. SC2 players REALLY need to set up a union to force organizers to be more responsible tbh... maybe Team Liquid should organize a player Union?
On April 14 2016 05:28 phodacbiet wrote: Well.. I hope they get their prize money but I doubt it. SC2 players REALLY need to set up a union to force organizers to be more responsible tbh... maybe Team Liquid should organize a player Union?
Would a union force sponsors to hold money in escrow? Seems like a job Blizzard should be doing.
On April 14 2016 05:28 phodacbiet wrote: Well.. I hope they get their prize money but I doubt it. SC2 players REALLY need to set up a union to force organizers to be more responsible tbh... maybe Team Liquid should organize a player Union?
Would a union force sponsors to hold money in escrow? Seems like a job Blizzard should be doing.
That's what I was thinking. Even though most organizers probably operate on sponsors promising to pay money AFTER the event, rather than before. But yeah, Blizzard should be doing this, but frankly, I don't think they care. They should, but they dont.
On April 14 2016 05:28 phodacbiet wrote: Well.. I hope they get their prize money but I doubt it. SC2 players REALLY need to set up a union to force organizers to be more responsible tbh... maybe Team Liquid should organize a player Union?
Would a union force sponsors to hold money in escrow? Seems like a job Blizzard should be doing.
That's what I was thinking. Even though most organizers probably operate on sponsors promising to pay money AFTER the event, rather than before. But yeah, Blizzard should be doing this, but frankly, I don't think they care. They should, but they dont.
Well the new wcs system essentially makes all the offline events associated with wcs, so I guess they did combat it in a way. This tournament had like 5 or so sponsors listed on the liquipedia page, getting all of them to pay up front would be difficult, yeah. Sad to see.
On April 14 2016 05:28 phodacbiet wrote: Well.. I hope they get their prize money but I doubt it. SC2 players REALLY need to set up a union to force organizers to be more responsible tbh... maybe Team Liquid should organize a player Union?
All a union would do is lockout lower level players from ever having a chance to make a name for themselves, it would destroy the skill level of the sport a la every Major NA sport. Players need to make informed decisions and if they make a shitty one learn from it.
They did pay for the flights to Maldives + a week at the hotel resort. It was a really fun trip, and the water was nice. But yeah, if they paid me that'd also be pretty cool.