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One of a number of changes announced by Riot Games last month to increase revenue for competitive League of Legends teams and help the long-term health of the esport was adding crowdfunding to the prize pool for the annual World Championship. Beginning with this year’s tournament, 25 percent of all Championship skin (this year it’s Zed) and Championship Ward sales go towards the prize pool.
With the group stage concluded and the quarterfinals upon us, Riot shared an update on the crowdfunding progress so far. Spoiler: it’s a lot.
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To be exact, that’s $2.015 million from the Championship Zed and Ward sales and $2.13 million from the original prize pool, so it’s nearly doubled.
The money will be spread across all of the teams in the tournament, rather than the winner taking all of the extra crowdfunded money. Here’s how the split will take place:
- 1st place: 40%
- 2nd place: 15%
- 3rd/4th place: 7.5% (15% total)
- 5th-8th place: 4% (16% total)
- 9th-12th place: 2.25% (9% total)
- 13th-16th place: 1.25% (5% total)