Crowfunding is no new concept when it comes to eSports. In the past Valve’s Dota 2 International has raised almost $20 million, and now Halo is getting their piece of the pie. In what promises to a successful competitive year for Halo, 2016 marks the World Championships which have already raised over $500,000 from crowdfunding. Halo 5 has received mixed reviews, but the one thing we can all agree on is that Halo makes for an exciting eSport. Reviews aside, Halo’s latest installment has debatably been the most successful to date, and the same can now be said for its competitive side and the Halo World Championships.
The World Championship, designed by 343 Studios, put forward a $1.5 million prize pool and has now been aided by a whopping $500,000 from crowdfunding sources. How did they do it? Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, Halo 5 includes microtransactions in the form of requisition system, or REQ. As with all microtransaction systems REQ points allow the players to purchase in-game content, and the points are either earned by playing the game or bought with real money. These REQ packs offer gun modifications, permanent or one time use items in the game.
This model has been adopted by other major eSports organizations, namely Valve, which offer a similar concept with in-game purchases. Naturally a portion of all sales go towards the the Halo World Championships and what this means is in just over a week players have already raised the prize pool to over $500,000. Valve offered a 25% cut from their in-game purchases and compendium for the Dota 2 international, and a similar figure has been implemented with this crowdfunding initiative. While Halo may not be as popular as Dota 2 or Counter-Strike: Global Offesnive, this is a major leap forward for the console based game
Starting in December 2015 the Halo World Championships will run until its final showdown in March 2016. The tournament invites the world’s best 16 teams (Eight from North America; one from South America; Four from Europe, the Middle East and Africa; one from Asia and 2 from Australasia). The reason behind the in flux of North American teams stems from the origins of Halo which has always been centric to the North American region. The main focus of the World Championship, and its large prize pool, is to broaden the reach of Halo and include more regions in what is hopefully the expansion of the rebirthed eSport.
Source: The Daily Dot
Last Updated: November 5, 2015
