Top 5 Tournaments with the Largest Prize Pools in the History of Counter-Strike
Competitive Counter-Strike has been around for over 20 years and has grown to significant proportions. Of course, this wasn’t always the case, and large prize pools only started appearing recently. In the past, the prize pool was almost the main source of income for esports players, and every team fought to reach the top in any event. Nowadays, players enjoy comfortable salaries, and financial motivation is no longer the primary ideology for participating in tournaments. As a result, some teams can afford to skip events even with substantial prize pools. However, money is still a very pleasant bonus, rewarding your efforts, and if a championship lacks substantial prizes, top teams simply won’t agree to participate. This has led to an almost yearly increase in prize money, and sometimes tournament operators even pay just for attending their competition. Despite the emergence of numerous new tournaments, the balance between prestige and prize money is still maintained. In this article, we will go through the most “expensive” tournaments in the history of the game.
5. IEM Rio Major 2022 – $1,250,000
- 1st place – $500,000
- 2nd place – $170,000
- 3rd-4th place – $80,000
- 23rd-24th place – $10,000
The Intel Extreme Masters series tournament by ESL, which earned Major status and was held in Brazil’s most famous city. The prize pool of the tournament was quite solid, becoming the first to exceed $1,000,000. VALVE decided to increase the prize pool of Majors by adding $250,000. This was related to the change in the tournament format, where the first round of the Swiss system also started to be considered a Major, not just the matches in the Legends Stage. Previously, eight teams arriving at the main Counter-Strike event could leave without earning a single dollar, which was somewhat unfair. Of course, we are only talking about participation prizes here, not earnings from stickers.
The tournament turned out to be very exciting with an unexpected underdog winner. The event is most memorable for the Brazilian fans, who created incredible scenes at the arena. Many players recall their performance in Rio as the craziest experience they have faced in their careers.
4. BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 – $1,250,000
- 1st place – $500,000
- 2nd place – $170,000
- 3rd-4th place – $80,000
- 23rd-24th place – $10,000
A significant tournament for the community, as it unexpectedly became the last in the history of CS and the first conducted by the tournament operator BLAST. BLAST is known for its high level of production and original approach to organization. Apparently, the teams decided not to stay on the sidelines and also put on a great show with many favorites getting eliminated early. After determining the playoff participants, almost no one doubted that Vitality would lift the trophy in front of their home fans in Paris. Speaking of the trophy, BLAST seemed to have overdone it, and the last CS Major champions entered history holding a “piece of cake” instead of a solid cup.
As for the prize money, there were no changes, and the prize distribution was the same as IEM Rio 2022. This was certainly surprising, considering the status acquired due to the release of CS2 and BLAST’s reputation for large prize pools.
3. PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 – $1,250,000
- 1st place – $500,000
- 2nd place – $170,000
- 3rd-4th place – $80,000
- 23rd-24th place – $10,000
The community learned that the first Major for Counter-Strike 2 would be held in Denmark and would have to wait almost a year when the news of the beta release came out. Given such a long wait and that the championship would be on a new version of the shooter, everyone expected a significant increase in the prize pool. However, as we now know, this did not happen, and even the next Major in China will have the same $1,250,000 prize pool.
The event itself passed quite routinely and did not evoke any “special” emotions despite its significance. The main news was the failure of the Russian organization 9Pandas to attend the tournament due to visa issues, being replaced by GamerLegion. Otherwise, the event was no different from the Majors in Paris or Rio, except that Rio’s unexpected champion, Natus Vincere, made an appearance.
2. WESG 2017 – $1,500,000
- 1st place – $800,000
- 2nd place – $300,000
- 3rd-4th place – $150,000
- 23rd-27th place – $0
The legendary WESG series of tournaments, which were a projection of the Olympic Games in the world of esports. The main condition for participation was having 5 players of the same nationality in each team, which is why the tournament always stood apart from the rest. Separate mixes were formed for this event, but it could not be said that they consisted only of the “best” representatives of each country. To get to the main event in China, teams had to go through regional qualifiers held simultaneously with club competitions. Not all organizations were willing to let their players go, thus teams already having a full roster of players from one country had a huge advantage.
This tournament was won by the legendary Swedish stack Fnatic, the second place was taken by the Turks under the now forgotten tag Space Soldiers, and the third place went to the Russians. Due to the low popularity of the tournament and the lack of any significant status in the CS world, the next event had almost half the prize pool. In 2019, the championship was canceled altogether due to COVID, and it has not been held since.
1. PGL Major Stockholm 2021 – $2,000,000
- 1st place – $1,000,000
- 2nd place – $300,000
- 3rd-4th place – $140,000
- 15th-16th place – $17,500
If COVID brought only negative consequences for WESG, it granted this Major the status of the tournament with the largest prize pool. At the beginning of 2020, the Major also had to be postponed, but the prize pool was preserved and added to the first VALVE event after a year-long lockdown. Additionally, this tournament became the first to be held in front of a live audience after the partial lifting of COVID restrictions.
The champions were NAVI, and besides the million dollars, VALVE gave them a gift in the form of a separate champions capsule with autographs. This practice was later extended to other Major champions, but at that time it was a highly unexpected innovation. Rumor has it that each NAVI player earned $1,000,000 from these stickers, in addition to the already substantial prize money. There is no doubt that for VALVE, the Stockholm Major was the most “expensive” in terms of prize payments to the tournament winners.