Blizzard is now crowd funding their esports.

[Kenneth]

An official post on the World of Warcraft website, found here, detailing the upcoming Arena and Mythic + seasons also included some interesting news about the prize money. Blizzard is adding two toys in the spring to their shop and "a portion of the sale of these toys will contribute to the prize pools for both WoW esports programs."





The proceeds contribute to the final LAN's prize pools for AWC and MDI which both get announced later in the year.

I found this very interesting as it is a huge step in WoW esports. Dota 2 does crowd funding as well and because of it end up with the biggest prize pools in all of esports. The big let down to this is that the items that both contribute to the crowdfunding are toys. I think almost any other item in WoW would be more enticing than a toy for real money. Mount, pet, transmog, etc. People on Twitter were calling for tabards with the teams on them but the issue with that is it doesn't fit into the WoW universe. The only other thing like that is the Blizzcon Bear which apparently they had to do some funky lore stuff so it "fit" into the game.

What do you guys think about Blizzard choosing to use crowdfunding?

Are you going to support it?

[bezerker08]

What arseholes. They cut HOTS and now want their subscribers to pay for the esports? Activision really is taking over.

[artemarkantos]

I SAID GIVE ME YOUR MONEY..please

[Scumstation]

it seems like they just want to see if it's what people want. Vote with your wallets and all that jazz if you want an e-sports scene. there seems to be quite a stir in blizzard/activation currently, shareholders appear have been a big influence on the company as of late but blizz are looking to see if people genuinely interested in their games as an e sports competitor.