Team Liquid, one of the most successful organizations in esports history, is teaming up with tournament platform Community Gaming to launch a $20,000 series of competitions this summer, the companies announced Friday.
The North American series will feature four events split evenly between Teamfight Tactics and Hearthstone. Prize money will be paid out in USDC, a crypto stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, on Ethereum layer-2 scaling network Base.
The series aims to showcase the efficiency of crypto payments in esports. The ability for cryptocurrency to be used for automated prize money payments after events is often cited by proponents as a reason for the industry to adopt the tech.
"Late payments and high fees are common occurrences in the esports industry,” said Community Gaming CEO Chris Gonsalves, in a release. “Community Gaming’s automated payment system running on Base ensures fast, secure, and transparent payments.”
The tournament series is part of On-Chain Summer II, an annual initiative by Base network creator Coinbase to introduce more users to blockchain technology. The Teamfight Tactics events will take place on June 29-30 and July 13-14, with Hearthstone competitions to follow on July 27-28 and August 17-18. Each will pay out $5,000 worth of prize money.
"Esports is a billion-dollar industry. Imagine how much money is lost in order to pay fees and intermediaries, but should be going directly to the players,” said Base creator Jesse Pollak, in a release. “By using USDC on Base, more money will go directly into the hands of the winners."
Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Andrew Hayward.