In summer 2023, there was a major eSports tournament exclusively for women in the shooter Apex Legends for $100,000: This was supposed to be a historic milestone. Even half a year later, the players are still waiting for their prize money.
What kind of tournament was it?
- The tournament was called “HER Galaxy $100k Apex Legends Open”
- The tournament lasted 3 months, from April to June: More than 400 women in over 140 teams participated in the tournament.
- In the end, the team “Cuties” (Valefhaa, MelaniiTV, Kathleenstreams) won a prize of $40,000 – but unfortunately, it never arrived.
Even after 180 days, the money hasn’t arrived – Organizer ignores women’s inquiries
What is the problem? As reported by Dotesports, the organizer has never paid out the prize money. Worse still: they didn’t even collect the account details from the participants to transfer the prize money.
Contractually, payment was supposed to be made no later than 180 days after the end of the tournament, which was December 22, 2023, but still, no money has been transferred.
Now there are fears that the organizer might invoke a second clause stating that if participants do not provide their account details and relevant documents are missing, the prize money will not be paid out.
As Dotesports reports, there seems to be some trouble with the organizer, Galaxy Racer:
- Almost all employees were reportedly laid off back in November
- The company had to have received money from an investor round, but seems to be somehow deaf to “distributing tournament winnings”
It looked so promising:
“Historic tournament” now feels like a scam
How do the participants feel?
The participants feel disrespected because their inquiries have been ignored for months.
The winning team was thrilled about the $40,000 won:
Dotesports quotes the participant “Woomy”, who says: The tournament was incredibly intense, as they played through rounds for weeks and invested hours just to reach the finals.
Now it feels like Galaxy Racer wants to save face while simultaneously cheating the participants. This is especially bitter because the tournament was marketed with the large prize money as “historic” and a “milestone for women in eSports”, but is now turning into a serious crisis. There had already been trouble regarding the tournament back in May: Apex Legends: Player says her team was excluded from a women’s tournament for $100,000 because one member is transgender
