Finalists of the largest esports tournaments win record amounts this year. Both the Fortnite World Cup champion and the winners of The International earned more Wimbledon stars.
OG esports team from Belgium — twice champions of The International
Over the weekend, The International 2019 Dota 2 ended with a record prize pool of $34.2 million.
The victory was snatched by the Belgian team OG — champions of last year. They got almost half of the amount, $15.6 million. And these are the biggest prize money in the history of esports, Engadget writes.
Since there are five esports players in the OG team, each of them will receive $3.1 million. A little less — $ 3 million — was won in the Fortnite World Cup solo event by American Kyle Giersdorf at the end of July.
Both figures are surprisingly large when compared with traditional sports:
- for winning the Masters (golf) in 2019, the prize is $2 million per person;
- Indy 500 (auto racing) — $2.6 million per person;
- Wimbledon (tennis) — $2.9 million per person;
- Fortnite World Cup (Fortnite) — $3 million per person;
- The International (Dota 2) — $3.1 million per person.
OG also became the first to win The International twice in a row. This year, Team Liquid lost to them, earning $ 4.4 million for second place ($890 thousand each for an esports player). A total of 18 teams participated in the tournament.
Also on the topic:
- Fortnite World Cup brought the finalists $30 million in prize money. What does this mean for the esports market?