read that as "ESEA Pizza Breakdown" somehow

prize pot was larger then IM pot at a 5 team lan this weekend which only cost $15 to enter

(not that I play esea for money)

Why are invite teams rewarded with the $3,000 larger prize pool but Open and IM (the two largest divisions) see none of it? Am I missing the logic?

Is their reasoning that invite teams were somehow affected by the bitcoin mining more than the teams in Open and IM?

For some invite teams, the cost of traveling to the LAN still outweighs their winnings. Open/IM teams don't have that issue. As long as you're getting your money back and enjoying the platform, I don't see an issue with it. The highest level of play should always result in a larger prize pool. I'm pretty stoked about this. Invite guys might actually make enough money to take me to In n Out at this LAN.

It only affected CS puggers, since it was offseason and we dont use the client to pug, that's a shit argument and you're just being pissy.

I 100% agree that invite prize pool should be higher. ESEA should establish prize pools that make it affordable for invite teams to make it to LAN. This above and beyond money they have accrued via bitcoin mining should be divied amongst the divisions based on how many teams there are, and the money should be evenly dispersed. rather than ignoring 90% of the league and paying out to the top 10%, it should be evenly dispersed.

My Math:

ESEA Open: 69 teams; 66% of paying TF2 teams = $2,453.58

ESEA IM: 25 teams; 24% of paying TF2 teams = $891.25

ESEA I: 10 teams; 10% of paying TF2 teams = $371.36

If that's the case, then it's all fine. I was under the impression all ESEA leagues were seeing increases.

Nobody in TF2 was using the cl

Nobody deserves any of the money generated during the bitcoin fiasco other than those that were negatively impacted by it. You also just put every penny of that money into TF2 and didn't account for the multitude of divisions for other games. If it was broken down evenly among divisions/regions, you'd be looking at essentially no increase in prize pools for anybody.

I don't think the reason that TF2 got any sort of increase in the prize-pot has to do with the bit-coining. As Turin stated, it only really affected people that play CS:GO for the most part.

I think the bonus for TF2 came from the fact that TF2 as a game has grown (this is the 1st 100 team season in how long?..no honestly, I'm new, I don't know), and hence, they gave us more money.

This is the biggest season ever, AFAIK.

This is true.

damn

dont forget our fee is 50$ (lol)

Wow

To explain: One of my goals with the Invite prize pot was to reduce our dependence upon sponsors. That's why the lower end prize pots have increased. so dramatically.

It's true that Invite players now pay a $50 league fee and that is substantial, but at the same time with the raise to the 4th place prize pot from $1200 (and even lower before) to $1500 we're finally at a place where an Invite team that takes fourth will roughly break even from their trip to Dallas. You might pay a $50 league fee, but at least from that you have the security to know that if you make LAN it's essentially something that is paid for. You'll probably still lose some money on the trip, but with $250 per player it'll mostly pay for everyone's airfare and won't be a gigantic out of pocket expense.

This game will never have tons of team sponsors again, but thankfully we don't exactly need them with our current model.

My math:

ESEA Open: Average players
ESEA IM: Better players
ESEA I: The best players who have to pay to travel to lan

Under the current system the 4th place in invite will probably loose money while at least the 4th place in open will get 20 bucks or something that they can buy a bigmac for them and a friend.

If you are playing this game to make money you are playing the wrong game anyway.

How much further would the prize pool have to grow for ESEA to consider expanding TF2 to Europe like they did with CS:GO?

So you're saying all invite teams should drop to Open because that's where the money is...

There's a reason professional sports offer the most money to the top teams. It gives them an incentive to perform at the highest level.

I had premium when the bitcoin fiasco happened, hope that class action makes me rich $$$ (it won't)

after recent events, this is where i start telling you to sleep more

Snaz, there is a reason why the guys in the NFL are payed more than those in college football...

that's because college football is organized slavery, but that's a point for another day.

perhaps a better analogy is the MLB versus AAA/AA/A/rookie league salaries

all of these leagues are much larger but much lesser skilled than the highest one- hence they get paid more

but the idea that "we should get more money because there are more teams in our division that has literally 0 requirements to play in" is pretty dumb and if you cant see why im not sure what to say

To be fair that is a pretty bad example because athletes in college are bound to NCAA regulations, therefore they cannot receive any kind of monetary gains or gifts, doing so will obviously have them banned.

But the point being is that $1500 is still not enough and I fortunately had some experiences from last season.

Reasons why lan is expensive and earnings should be increased(might be really opinionated)

Reason #1: If you have more than two Canadian players, you are kind of fucked unless you get first. Averages at least $400 if not more per person. And that average flight price is kind of off, the flights I've seen in most cases have been at least $300 if not more, but this is given that none of your players live in Dallas or some region within Texas. SO that easily equates to $1800. Of course, this will definitely vary from team to team.

Reason #2: Even if you account for a average flight of $250, there is still the $180~ hotel fee you have to account for. Granted that you can split it easily among your team, but paying $30 to sleep on the ground or with another guy is not exactly THAT comfortable. Then again I didn't exactly sleeping with tri ;) ;)

Reason #3: Correct me if I'm wrong, but if CS:GO consists of having a 4 teams lan final, then why should their 4th place have the opportunity to have a free trip? I understand this might be a incentive for tf2 players to try harder and that they have a high prize pot, but why should tf2 players face not have this kind of offer?

But overall, I honestly had a fucking blast at lan and would do it again if I didn't have real life obligations to take care of. Plus like the legendary Carl "Enigma" Yangsheng, I can say "I didn't lose" because my parents gave me the money and I really can't even work even if I want, but thats another story.

PS: Don't get too many canadian players on your team, in other words haha tyler your team is fucked

8 csgo teams at lan. 4 of them being from europe

Thanks for the correction, LOL, there goes all of my credibility

I would take a free trip to an expensive college education any day...

I already agreed invite should make more money. And ESEA structures their payouts based on that structure. We are discussing the bitcoin money. But the conversation has already passed.

Can we buy b4nny a crap ton of these and just have him throw them at the CS kids every time they scream like children?

http://store.valvesoftware.com/product.php?i=S0225