MIBR management reveals how long CSGO teams wait for prize payouts
StarLadderSenior Vice President of Immortals and former CS:GO analyst Tomi ‘Lurppis’ Kovanen revealed on Twitter how long teams have to wait on average to receive their prize pool winnings from tournaments, and who is affected most by the delays.
While the competitive Counter-Strike scene may not have that single annual tournament with an engorged prize pool like Dota 2’s The International or the Fortnite World Cup, there are still millions of dollars up for grabs spread out across the whole year.
As leagues continue to be created and evolve, like the ESL Pro Tour and the BLAST Premier series, players can expect more cash to be injected into the prize pools going forward as the scene continues to grow and expand.
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However, despite the growth within the pools themselves, it appears the scene is still struggling to grow when it comes to a timely release of the winnings to its recipients. Lurppis, a former CSGO analyst and current SVP of Finance and Business Development at the Immortals Gaming Club, says that prize money payments are still a “real issue.”
While the industry has gotten a lot better over the past years, prize money payments remain a real issue.
In 2019, average time for prize payout in days from end of an event for MIBR was ~150 days, with many events still unpaid today, and continuing to increase the average.
— Tomi (@tomi) January 17, 2020
Lurppis states that MIBR, the Brazilian CSGO roster and brand that is owned and operated by Immortals, on average received their prize payouts five whole months after tournaments ended in 2019, and that several events still hadn’t paid out weeks into 2020.
The long waits for payments from tournament organizers mirror the issues brought up by freelancer broadcast talent towards the end of 2019, when caster Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer called out StarLadder for late payments.
Lurppis brought up the issues with talent in his recent tweets as well, saying “TOs just need to do better— this isn’t any different from the reported issues with payments to talent.”
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He did acknowledge that for big organizations like Immortals and well-paid players like the MIBR roster, the problems with prize pool payouts are “less of an issue,” but that it could be “hugely problematic for upcoming players on low (or no) salary.”
This is less of an issue for large organizations like IGC, or well-paid players like those on MIBR, but potentially hugely problematic for upcoming players on low (or no) salary.
— Tomi (@tomi) January 17, 2020
Even if players are being well-paid, they are still losing out on a significant portion of money, as he writes that “players usually get 90% or so” of prize money, meaning “this only directly hurts players.”
Prize money is largely an irrelevant source of funds for teams as players usually get 90% or so of it.
For large teams cash management won't be an issue, so instead this only directly hurts players, who get the money they earned much later. https://t.co/VhL5NjRy4a
— Tomi (@tomi) January 17, 2020
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Finally, Lurppis tore into the notion of tournament organizers being unable to pay on time because they are waiting for sponsorship money, saying it’s “poor management” and “sincerely [hoping] they go under” if they operate like that.
If any TO actually operated like this in 2019, I sincerely hope they go under and no longer operate at all in 2020. https://t.co/yShwBgj0OY
— Tomi (@tomi) January 17, 2020
MIBR is scheduled to compete in the upcoming ESL Pro Tour and the BLAST Premier series, and will compete in the Challengers stage in front of their home crowd at the ESL One Rio major in May.
