Gamers8 announces $5 million prize for top esports orgs
Gamers8The organizers of the Gamers8 festival have announced that they will offer $5 million to the best-performing esports organizations at the event.
The initiative is part of the Gamers8 Club Awards and aims to determine “the best and most successful multi-gaming club in the world”, as well as “support the global gaming community,” according to the organizers.
During the Gamers8 festival, which will run between July 6 through August 31 in Saudi Arabia, esports organizations will earn ranking points based on the tournament placements of their players (in individual tournaments) and teams. At the end of the eight-week event, the organization with the most points in the overall standings will earn $1.5 million.
The awards ceremony will take place on August 30-31, bringing the curtain down on the gaming and esports festival, which will have $45 million on offer.
Over $30 million will be handed out to the top teams and players of Gamers8’s esports tournaments, featuring a wide array of titles, from R1 and Fortnite to CS:GO and PUBG. With a $15 million prize pool, the Dota 2 tournament, called Riyadh Masters, will have the most money on the line.
The 2023 edition of the Gamers8 festival, called ‘The Land of Heroes’, aims to be “bigger in every way” than the 2022 event. In addition to esports tournaments, there will be music concerts, festival activities, and the Next World Forum conference.
Despite the sizeable prize purse, the festival has come in for severe criticism from multiple quarters in the esports community for Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations. Because of that, Moist Esports, the organization founded by streamer and content creator Charles ‘MoistCr1TiKal’ White, declined an invitation to compete in last year’s Rocket League tournament.
The Gamers8 festival is organized by the Saudi Esports Federation, which Saudi royal Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud chairs. He is also the vice-chairman of Savvy Games Group, which acquired ESL and FACEIT in January 2022 in a $1.5 billion deal.
