A little more money in progaming can only do good. For our athletes between tournaments, it can mean more time playing, less time fulfilling advertising contracts. And for us, the viewers, higher monetary investment means greater personal investment. It was money, lots of it, that turned this year’s Dota 2 International into the “eSports Super Bowl” – and now a similar crowdfunding initiative is working its magic for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Several weeks of crowdfunding are responsible for one of the largest prize pools in Counter-Strike history, said Valve in a press release published on the DreamHack site.
Last month’s Arms Deal update launched eSports weapon collections for CS:GO – paid-for packs of themed skins, the proceeds of which contributed directly to future competitive events.
The 2013 DreakHack SteelSeries Championship, hosted at the famous LAN festival in Jonkoping, Sweden, will be the first of those. But it won’t be the last – Valve say that the initiative is “designed to help fuel prize pools at other upcoming CS:GO events”.
Which is ace. More money means better-funded, more-practiced teams, means more viewers, means more sponsors. Counter-Strike might never match the attention of the weekly-updated MOBAs that now define eSports even as they push back its borders, but it wouldn’t be too bold to suggest the FPS is on the up, would it?
Thanks, CS Redditors.