YXo Criticizes PGL Major Stockholm 2021 Prize Pool Distribution

Ukrainian commentator for WePlay Esports Oleksiy 'yXo' Maletskiy criticized the method of distributing the prize pool among the participants of the upcoming Major tournament. In his opinion, the difference between what the winner will receive and what the silver medalist will earn is too high. In Aleksey's opinion, the maximum difference in the prizes received is permissible only within 2.5 times. In PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the $ 1,000,000 main reward is more than three times the $ 300,000 2nd place prize.

A similar situation was at The International 2021, which Alexey, of course, could not help but recall. There, the main bounty was $ 18,200,000, while the vice champion earned $ 5,200,000.

According to Maletskiy, such a distribution policy can be called "winner-take-all", and therefore yXo is not imbued with sympathy towards this method. On his Twitter account, he wrote the following:

Your opinion is interesting. What's on the іnta, what's the pagejump between the second and first places more than 3 times. Do you think this is optimal? In my understanding, 2.5x is the maximum. I never liked the winner-take-all scheme, especially when you hit the field for 24 teams.

Yesterday, the organizers of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 released information on the distribution of the prize fund among the championship participants. The distribution of the prize money is as follows:

• 1st place - $ 1,000,000
• 2nd place - $ 300,000
• 3-4th place - $ 140,000
• 3-4th place - $ 140,000
• 5th-8th place - $ 70,000
• 5th-8th place - $ 70,000
• 5th-8th place - $ 70,000
• 5th-8th place - $ 70,000
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500
• 9-16th place - $ 17,500

In addition, recently it became known that the game pairs of the first game day were somewhat modified. This happened due to the fact that Virtus.pro announced a change in the roster in which they will play at PGL Major Stockhom 2021. The team received a RMR point penalty, and therefore they swapped opponents with Entropiq.

PGL Major Stockholm 2021 will be held in Stockholm. The venue for the event in Sweden will be Avicii Arena. The matches of The New Champions Stage will be held there. 24 teams will come together to share a total prize pool of $ 2,000,000, which has become a record in the history of CS: GO. The winner, in addition to the financial means, the way of distribution of which, by the way, has not yet been announced, will earn 1,800 ESL Pro Tour rating points, as well as 4,000 BLAST Premier units and an invitation to BLAST Premier World Final 2021. The prize fund of the latter will be $ 1,000,000.