Prize pools in esports continue to grow to significant amounts, and yet, players can often fi🀅nd it difficult to receive their payouts months and even years after an event. Windigo, an organization no longer in operation, has only now confirmed that its former players have received their share of a $500,000 prize pool from the WESG Finals held in 2018.
Speaking to HLTV.🌊org, Artur Yermolayev, a founder and owner of Windigo, described how he was happy that the issue had finally be settled in a positive way. The event took place in October of 2019 in Chongqing and the players expressed frustration at what they described as a lack of updates from the tournament organizer regarding their payment. In a recent statement, a WESG representative blamed the payment issues on bank regulations and Covid-19.
Although this case ended on a delayed but ultimately positive note, the growing esports industry and prize pools are ripe for similar problems like this across virtually all video games with a competitive component. Only recently, Valve took legal against a Singapore-based tournament organizer GESC who owed more than $750,000 in both prizes and wages. These were in relation to two 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dota 2 events, both GESC Indonesia and Thailand.
The delay in payment can at times be purely a problem of financial regulations and the rules associated with paying foreign players who reside in one country while competing in another. While laws relating to taxation and how money can be distributed is no simple task, esports are not 𝓰new, they are simply far larger in scope from their humble beginnings.
Looking back to 1998 when 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starcraft dominated the esports scene, a mere $7.8 million were awarded across 536 tournaments in that year, whereas in 2018, that number wa🍷s $155.9 million and expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2022. While꧑ it may not be easy to pay international players, it is something that has been done for over two decades now.
Instead, excuses like blaming Covid-19 for payment relating to a game from 2018 reveals theꩲ range of unorganized and unprofessional events as esports continue to grow. While players need to hone their skills to remain the best of the best within their specific games, now they too must tread carefully when it comeꦇs to these types of events, because they are only professional players if they are getting paid, and it is one more thing to worry about.
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