Warzone pros complain about “participation money” in $300k tournament

Call of Duty: Warzone pros make a lot of money playing a game, but some aren’t happy about an upcoming prize pool. Unimpressed with “participation money,” streamers like Aydan and Super Evan questioned the $300k World Series of Warzone.

On September 8, Call of Duty’s official Twitter account revealed the prizing breakdown for the $300,000 World Series of Warzone, which is scheduled for September 15.

Like former WSOW and Twitch Rivals events, the tournament’s prizing is on a fairly flat curve — with $40,000 going to the first-place team and $1,600 going to each of the squads from 26th to 35th. Additionally, $100,000 is reserved solely for the event’s five organizer-selected captains.

It’s still a lot of money being handed out, but Warzone’s highest all-time earner, Aydan ‘Aydan’ Conrad, was not impressed — and neither were many of his fellow pros.

Giving out participation money 😴 https://t.co/KFZg5jsStJ

— NYSL Aydan (@aydan) September 9, 2021

As Aydan tweeted in response to the prize-pool graphic, the tournament seems to be “giving out participation money.” And, for good measure, he tossed on a sleeping emoji, likely symbolizing that this decision is a snooze.

And Aydan wasn’t alone in his response to the prizing breakdown. In the replies, he and zColorss discussed how the captains’ $100,000 should be added to the placement purse.

Separately, SuperEvan — August’s highest-ranked player — tweeted about the prizing as well. Evan’s tweet focused more on the top end of the rewards, rather than the participation money: “The winner gets $40k? Lmao right.”

$300k tournament and the winner gets $40k? Lmao right

— XSET SuperEvan (@SuperEvan__) September 8, 2021

Both Evan and Aydan have made over $200,000 from Warzone tournaments, so they’re no strangers to prizing. In the replies, other smaller names agree with the concerns, questioning the $100,000 given to the tournament’s five biggest names and why the best performers take home such a relatively small cut of the pie.

World Series of Warzone events have featured five pre-selected captains, who choose their own teams and then draft other, non-captained teams to play under their banner. And, based on how those teams perform, the captains receive a cut of $100,000.

Overall, the streamers seem concerned that this prizing breakdown gives too much to both the tournament’s five biggest names and to its worst performers. No word yet on whether or not CoD and Twitch will consider shaking it up in the future.

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