Why are EVO payouts so low?

I know we’re not in moba territory yet, but we have a lot of sponsorship and the amount of entrants is like 5times what it was 5 or 6 years ago (2009, I think we broke 1K for first time). LI JOE finished 5th out of 5,107 players and he walks away with a little over $3K? Infiltration finishes first and gets 50K? Sure, 50K is a lot of money but not for coming in first out of 5K plus players. SonicFox made more money for each of his two ESL season wins then his evo win last year. Evo is supposed to be the largest tournament in the world, whats with the pathetic prizes?

Im guessing evo cost alot to put on and what else is gonna pay for it…srk traffic low…sites a deadmans wonderland these days…hottest threads are how to pee with a hard on lately

Do you have a link to where the payouts are? I know Fox made out pretty good because Warner Bros had a 50k pot bonus. But Monster is right, EVO is expensive as shit to put on. It’s in Vegas for a whole weekend.

5th place is only 2% of the SFV’s 51.070$ and another 5% from the 50.000$ Capcom put into (normally only 15.000 for premiers etc.).
You think that’s not much? Play a game without pot bonus.
Sponsoring is, as said, needed to have the event running and some others still make deficits.
The prize pool is purely based on registration fees and added pot bonus.
If you want more, you need someone big investments/sponsorings. Wayyy bigger. Or higher registration fees.

50k is pocket change now? K.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s still lower than top level play in other competitive genres.

Of course, part of that is that a lot of other genres are team based so the winnings get split, but still.

Venue is expensive, pots are largely dependent on corporate sponsors, and the organizers need to turn a profit. As shitty as it sounds, EVO is more of a PR win than an economic one. While the money is far from insubstantial, the biggest get with a solid showing at EVO is the added notoriety and chance of sponsorships where you really can turn this fighting game thing into a legit career. Most companies would rather sponsor the individual players rather than add to the prize pot that may be won by anyone. Hence the Capcom CPT pack and Iron Galaxy’s Shadow Jago drive to add additional funds to prize pots, because it’s the most practical way to increase earnings while not just straight up asking for money to give to winners.

Also, this is why money matches are a thing. A technically illegal thing, granted.

Is it pocket change? Of course not, but compared to other games…games that aren’t even as popular, yes. They should be rewarded with more.

You’re forgetting that fighting games are still considered a niche genre compared to mobas and FPS games. $50k is possibly the highest 1st place I’ve heard of for a fighting game tourney, though I don’t keep tabs on stuff like that too often.

WIth that said, if ever/once people figure out you can make a lot of money winning a fgc tournament, that’s when the scene’s going to completely go to shit.

What do you mean? Because of the influx of people?

It’s not that far behind the BIG prize pool Moba games either honestly as far as what your first place finishers take home. Breaking down a 1million $ moba prize pool looks something like this. First place gets usually half the pool. So 500k. Its a team based game but on top of it being a 5 person team. There are usually extra members such as subs, coaches and the like. Plus depending on the contract with the team the team sponsors can take a cut. Then there are usually taxes which for things this high are often 30% or more. (for international players their home country often taxes them a second time)

A first place finish in a 1 million prize pool game that is team based each player often only walks with well. around 50k Roughly 1/10th the winnings. Of course a lot of these apply to the 50k evo first place finisher as well. But the numbers are in the 10s of thousands in difference. Not 100s.

But of course some of these Moba tournaments are getting to be insane in their prize pools. Dota2 just did one for 10 million. So 10 times the cash puts each person at 500k take home. But I think valve also said they would foot the bill for taxes so they don’t effect the prize money. You could add 30% to that and the winning team each member probably took home 6-700k+

So sure, we are behind the really insane prize pool tournaments. But its not really that bad for most of them and fighting games still have a long ways to go before we reach that popularity.

I’m trying to figure out why people give a shit about the prize pot size when they and 99% of us will ever see that money. Like really? The fuck is up with peoples priorities nowadays?

oh yea, if you did get your wish,which does not benefit you unless you are actually a top turd, registration fees will rise. So, good luck with that.

Capcom isn’t the size of Riot or Valve who make money hand over fist and no outside sponsor is going to throw in that type of money. Sony already provides more than I expected. Also, the investment is risky.

There’s also not a team, coaches and managers to split with.

I always wondered why those fuckers have coaches to begin with.

and managers.

Don’t forget that Capcom Cup usually has a pretty huge prize pot.

I’m assuming with how big Evo has become that it is also becoming very expensive with the venues and amount of games that are being played now. Hence, why we haven’t seen six figure 1st place prizes as of late.

yup… capcom cup is the real deal. 120k for 1st place finish.

So Mr. Wizard can be as fat as he is.
Capitalism, baby!