When Epic Games announced they are committing $100 million towards competitive Fortnite in 2018, this was the spark that many aspiring professional players needed. The immense amount of financial support that Epic Games pledged lit a fire for multiple players, as the Fortnite World Cup Finals knowing they could potentially become a multi-millionaire at such a young age caused a lot of players to dedicate their lives to the game. This all kicks off this weekend as we are set to conclude season 9 and enter season 10.
With the $30 million Fortnite World Cup Finals set to kick off this coming weekend, we could see one of these young professional players breakthrough and indeed become a multi-millionaire. Up until this past weekend, the World Cup held the title of the largest esports prize pool but as many expected, Valve's legendary tournament "The International" surpassed this number and looks to make the push to $40 million. With these two tournaments at the top of the esports prize pool mountain, how does the Fortnite World Cup compare to other top esports top prize pool tournaments?
Dota 2 - The International
Valve has become synonymous in the esports scene for having their yearly showcase of Dota 2 titled "The International", each year the mega cooperation sets a base prize pool for the tournament then allows fans to purchase a battle pass that unlocks them unique items centered around the tournament.
Every purchase of the battle pass gets directly funded towards The International's overall prize pool, year after year we have seen fans go all out for this tournament and the prize pool since The International 2014 has held the largest prize pool. Only recently surpassing The Fortnite World Cup this past weekend, The International currently sits at $30,345,915 total prize pool.
With a possible reality of it reaching the $35 million or even $40 million plateau, it will become a shock to the gaming world of another esport can surpass this figure.
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League of Legends - World 2018
Perhaps the world's most popular esport, League of Legends has become a global trend over its year's as an esport, more notably in Asian countries such as South Korea and China. Similar to The International, League of Legends annual year-end tournament simply labeled "Worlds".
As each Worlds is held each year sometime towards the fall, the prize pool of the tournament sees a dramatic increase, last years tournament featured a $6.45 million prize pool for competitors to battle it out for. With this years prize pool yet to be announced it is without a doubt going to see an increase and should soon break the $10 million plateau.
Counter-Strike Global Offensive - WESG 2016
Much like the previous games mentioned, Counter-Strike Global Offensive or CS:GO has become one of the worlds most popular esports. As one of the best spectator esports, with fans being able to watch from a very casual perspective with it from a beginners eyes is just another fps, to the levels of strategy and timing that these top professional players need to take into factor it is in a class of its own.
While Valve opts to do crowdfunding for its other flagship title, Valve has chosen to simply put up a base $1 million for every CS:GO major that is held. In today's times this prize pool is nowhere close to the top of all esports prize pool, WESG which was a Chinese tournament held every year has held the title of largest CS:GO prize pool for quite some time now.
With a $1.5 million pool, it does not attract a lot of top teams as one may think. The stress of traveling to China to compete against the lesser competition is one that many teams opt-out of. Whether or not Valve choose to raise the major prize pool is unknown as of now, what is known is that WESG will hold the prize pool title for the time being.
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Call of Duty - Call of Duty Championships 2019
The beloved fps shooter has seen a turbulent last couple of years in regards to event viewership prize pools but Call of Duty esports has perhaps the most passionate players in all of gaming. With this year's Call of Duty Championships set to replicate the highest prize pool the esport has seen, with a staggering $2 million it will for sure draw the attention the players rightfully deserve.
With franchising being implemented this upcoming season, with the title being Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019 many eyes will be on this year's Championships. From investors to team managers many will have one last event to spectate to make the decision to pursue franchising or not.
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Photo via MLG
The Fortnite World Cup is without a doubt the biggest esports tournament of the year and throughout the tournament, we will have constant live updates of every match! So make sure to stay tuned to our Twitter for all the winners throughout the event!
Gamescom 2019 is fast approaching and we may hear more about the future of Fortnite. Read more about Gamescom here.
Written ByNick Farrell @NickFarrell91