Are gaming tournaments illegal?

What are the top eSports tournaments around the world for each genre of gaming and what are each of their payouts?

• I'm curious about the top tournaments for sports games, fighting games, RTS and FPS games (and any other genres). Cash payouts for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for each tournament would be good to know as well.

• Answer:

  For Fighting Games The Evolution Championship Series (Evo for short) represents the largest and longest-running fighting game tournaments in the world. [1] The lineup for 2011 Super Street Fighter 4 (PS3) Tekken 6 (PS3) Mortal Kombat 9 (PS3) Marvel vs Capcom 3 (PS3) Blazblue: Continum Shift (PS3) These tournaments will pay out through top 8. • $25,000 Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition 2012 • $23,000 Mortal Kombat 9 • $15,000 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 • $15,000 for Sega’s Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showndown event (BYOC event) • $11,000 King of Fighters 13 • $9,000 Street Fighter X Tekken • $5,000 Soul Calibur 5 Satellite Tournaments / Evo Season Evolution is open to all to join, but you can get seeded by attending their satellite tournaments. In 2011, there were 10 satellite tournaments (independently run) where players could earn prize money and seed points [2]: 1/14/2011 - West Coast Warzone, Orange, CA 2/26/2011 - GVN Winter Brawl, Philidelphia, PA 3/11/2011 - Final Round XIV, Atlanta GA 4/29/2011 - PowerUp 2011, Cincinnati, OH 5/27/2011 - Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament, Chicago, IL 5/2011 (exact date TBA) - OzHadou Nationals 9 (OHN9), Sydney, Australia 5/2011 (exact date TBA) - East Coast Throwdown, Atlantic City, NJ 6/4/2011 - Montreal Annual Tournament VIII, Montreal, Canada 6/10/2011 - CEO 2011 Championship, Orlando, FL 6/17/2011 (tentative date) - Nor Cal Regionals, Milpitas, CA Price Structure at Evo 2011 Evo awards cash prizes to the top three places at a rate proportional to the number of attendees. Ten dollars from the registration fee of each participant will go into a tournament prize pool, which will be awarded to the top finishers at a 7/2/1 split. For example, if 300 people enter a tournament, the total prize pool for that tournament will be $3000 ($300 x 10), paying out $2100 to first place (70% of $3000), $600 to second place (20% of $3000), and $300 to third place (10% of $3000). [3] Estimated Payouts [4] Street Fighter IV AE - ~91 pools of 16 1st - $10,192 2nd - $2912 3rd - $1456 MVC3 - ~67 pools of 16 1st - $7504 2nd - $2144 3rd - $1072 MK9 - ~32 pools of 16 1st - $3584 2nd - $1024 3rd - $512 Tekken 6 - ~14 pools of 16 + $5000 pot bonus from namco [5] 1st - $5068 2nd - $1448 3rd - $724 Price structure for Evo 2012: These tournaments will pay out through top 8. • $25,000 Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition 2012 • $23,000 Mortal Kombat 9 • $15,000 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 • $15,000 for Sega’s Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showndown event (BYOC event) • $11,000 King of Fighters 13 • $9,000 Street Fighter X Tekken • $5,000 Soul Calibur 5 ------ [1] http://www.evo2k.com [2] http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/709548/evo-championship-series-announces-2011-tournament-season-schedule/#ixzz1bBIi7lTh [3] http://evo2k.com/player-guide/tournament-format/ [4] http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads%2Fhow-much-money-do-the-1st-place-finishers-get-evo-2011.142514%2F#post-5650698. Hardest info to find. Not exact, but you get the idea [5] http://evo2k.com/2011/06/15/namco-teams-up-with-evo-to-bring-ttt2-exclusive-sc5-content-and-more-cash-to-the-pot/