14 DAY TRIAL // The team at publisher Hi-Rez working on the upcoming World Championships for the Smite MOBA is announcing that it is capping the prize pool for the event at 1 million dollars (900,000 Euro) in order to try and deliver a better distribution for the money associated with the eSports activity.
The company explains on Reddit that it is trying to make sure that the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena title remains interesting in the long-term and that means giving more players some rewards so that they can make progress in their careers.
Hi-Rez states, "Overall, in Season 1, the Top 4 teams in the Smite Pro Scene took home over 90% of the total prize pool distributions given out during the year."
Cognitive Prime won the first World Championships for Smite, early in 2015, and took home a big prize of 1.3 million dollars (1.1 million Euro) and the rest of those who took part got a much smaller slice of the pie.
The cap only applies to the PC version of the eSports event and Hi-Rez says that it has other plans for the Xbox One competition, which it will reveal at some point in the coming months.
The studio also wants to create more events associated with Smite to have more community winners and will offer guaranteed rewards for those who will be part of the official Pro League.
Smite needs to differentiate itself from the other big MOBA titles
The move to cap prize pools will be a little weird for gamers who are impressed by news that the money that will be given out to those who take part in the The International for DOTA 2 will get a share of the 15 million dollars (13.5 million Euro) that the community has contributed.
But the development team at Hi-Rez needs to find a way to make its own title different and the move to make Smite more include might be a good way to expand the audience in the coming years.
Smite is competing with DOTA 2 from Valve but also with League of Legends from Riot Games and with Heroes of the Storm from Blizzard.