Not only is the prize pool historic, but how about a $1m USD second place prize? Regardless, Valve’s Compendium sales have allowed them to create a hype machine to rival hype machines, while pocketing over $10m USD in exchange for a few models and a new game mode.

A pretty good trade-off, I think. So when will Riot or Blizzard hop on board with the microtransaction crowd-funding train? Definitely looking forward to see how they end up promoting their leagues’ finales end this year.