Pro players finally get paid for ALGS LAN after complaints
Apex finally paid professional players after many publicly complained about not receiving their promised Apex Legends Global Series rewards.
The community indicated on social media that the players who got the payment fastest frequently had the most complaints to PGL, one of the organizations in charge of the ALGS Championship events.
The issue with the payment delay first arose when a Moist Esports player, Ben “Wxltzy” Walton, said that he and his team had not received their prize money from the ALGS Championship LAN.
“I’m really bouta play in London before I get paid for Raleigh that’s crazy,” Wxltzy posted on Twitter.
Full Squad Gaming’s Jake Lucky posted about Wxltzy’s story, pointing out that after the Australian player complained about not receiving $18,000 from the teams’ most recent LAN win, they were paid within 24 hours.
Lucky said that this occurrence transpired after the issue received some public attention.
Pioneers’ player Casper “Gnaske” Præstensgaard said on Twitter that he had finally received his championship prize money after only five and a half months.
However, he also expressed his frustration saying, “Fuck you @pglesports, for making me spend hours solving this shit and the endless disrespect I received from your staff.”
According to him, the company only took action after he provided details about the legal actions he planned to take.
Payment rules
ALGS rules from the previous season required players to sign “a Prize Winner Declaration and Release” within 90 days of their tournament to receive their prize. And they must also wait up to three months for the award to be delivered.
However, the terms have ambiguous implications regarding the date of payment. Many are confused about whether the three months start after the date they sign the declaration or after the original 90-day period in which players must claim their prize.
And many players have complained about waiting six months or longer for payments.
According to Gnaske, this waiting period also ultimately resulted in players actively losing revenue due to changing conversion rates.
“During this time, the currency conversation [sic] rate dropped heavily which lead me to lose around 2850 USD…” the Danish player tweeted.
Others, including current DarkZero Esports and former Cloud9 coach Jamison “PVPX” Moore, said they were not compensated for past events, such as the Split Two playoffs in Sweden in May 2022.
What is behind all of the payment delays is currently unknown. It could be anything from foreign prize laws to problems with currency conversion to simple organizational red tape.
But only one tactic—complaining—has so far been effective in getting pros their reward money.
Esports with the largest prize pool
Apex Legends has one of the largest prize pools in esports. With a prize pool of $2,000,000, the ALGS Championship 2022 has ranked first in their stat.
ALGS Split 2 Playoffs is ranked second with $1,000,000. And the third is ALGS Championship 2021 – EMEA with a $690,550 prize pool.
However, Apex Legends’ prize money pales in comparison to other esports games.
For instance, League of Legends has paid more than $90 million to players since its launch and is predicted to reach the $100,000,000 milestone soon.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or CS: GO for short, had a prize pool of over $21 million in 2021, and by the end of 2022, it is anticipated to have increased substantially.
Dota 2 is also one of the most well-known and lucrative esports games. The game’s pinnacle event, The International, had a $40 million prize pool in 2021, breaking the previous tournament-winning record.
Arena of Valor has totaled $50,000,000 in reward pools since its inception. This makes sense, given that the Honor of Kings World Champion Cup 2021, one of its 14 competitions, earned almost $7.7 million.
Additionally, Arena of Valor is breaking new ground this year with its 2022 World Cup, which awards prizes worth up to $10,000,000. The reward money for the winners is a hefty $3,500,000.
