EPTFirst of all, the numbers themselves
GSL $1,158,340
MLG $205,250
NASL $200,000
Blizzard $168,000*
IPL $155,000
Dreamhack $124,800
IEM $111,000
*assumes $40,000 for Blizzcon based on 2010 numbers
The first thing that struck me was the fact that there was a little over 2 million dollars to be made from playing SC2 this year just counting the tournament pot and not including any player salary, sponsorship deals etc. Now, it is common knowledge that there have been multiple tournaments with huge prize pools but still this number left me in awe. The fact that these tournaments are spread all over the world and are largely independent of developer based support makes it even better.
Secondly, GSL handed out (will hand out) over 1 million dollars in prize money and accounted for over half the prize pool. This leads to mixed thoughts as contrary to popular perception Korea has a larger prize pool. However, despite accounting for such a large share of the prize pool, it is still hard to make money off SC2 due to the top heavy nature of the prize structure.
More interesting than the above observations is the fact that MLG has the second largest prize pools for the year 2011. Now, MLG has been constantly criticized for their low prize money and people tend to point to other tournaments for prize pools. However, all-in-all, MLG ends up having the 2nd highest tournament pot in 2011 and highest non-Korean prize pool. The number seems low due to the prize money being split across multiple tournaments making the individual prize pool smaller but MLG prize money does look a little more favorable to me now with these numbers.
Blizzard has invested $168,000* in tournament money this year. I have seen Blizzard get flak for not supporting e-sports monetarily but the numbers suggest that they have the 4th highest prize pool (which may yet end up being 2nd highest if Blizzcon has a surprise waiting in its prize pool). They might not be as active as Riot in pushing their game financially into e-sprts scene, I do think they are doing their part to a certain extent in this regard.
Also, despite Europe overshadowing NA in weekly and daily cups, NA has a much bigger holding on the major tournaments with IPL, MLG, and NASL dwarfing Dreamhack and Assembly prize-pool. Of course, the online nature of IPL and NASL early rounds balance out things quite a bit and it might not be entirely correct to say that they are predominantly NA.
Last but not the least, TL organized events ranked 10 in the total prize pools with a total prize pool ~$40,000.
