Professional video game tournaments have attracted more attention, competition, and rewards than ever before. In 2013 League of Legends Championship sold out Staples Center and the 40,000 seat World Cup Stadium in Seoul a year later. At the Valve's Dota 2 tournament the prize pool is $10 million, which is bigger in terms of a total payout than the Players' Championship golf event and more than most NFL player's salary. This payout would not be possible if it wasn't for eSports doubling their revenues to almost $700 million in two years, but to get the pool up to $10 million for the Dota 2 tournament fans chipped in too.
Fans that buy The Compendium, a gamer word for a sports program that gives background on the pros, help raise the prize by taking proceeds from the program and donating it to the pool, so the pool is still growing. The first place team will get roughly $5 million, which is easily the biggest award in competitive gaming history that has tens of millions of viewers.
Because gaming is team focused and competitive a few colleges have begun to add eSports to their varsity athletics programs and even create scholarships for the ultimate gamers. Kurt Melcher, director of eSports, said "I think [League of Legends] is a sport. To me, anything that has a mass behind it that is competitive and collegiately can provide value to the students through a team setting in a competitive situation, adds value to the collegiate experiences. That's the benefits of athletics in college." Melcher lead the efforts to get Robert Morris University to be the first of to add eSports to the athletic program.