The IEM Cologne Major has a prize pool of $1.25 million, but the real money lies elsewhere.

The IEM Cologne Major will be one of the biggest Counter-Strike 2 events of the year. Starting on June 2, it will be held at the LANXESS Arena in Germany and will feature a prize pool of $1.25 million.

This puts it in the top 10 Counter-Strike 2 tournaments with a lot of awards. But there may be a major source of income for the parties involved.

IEM Cologne is a huge tournament that lasts for three weeks. Stage 1 runs from June 2nd to June 5, with the eight qualified teams advancing to Stage 2. They join the eight seeded teams in two groups of eight, competing from June 6 to June 9. Stage 3 turns into best-of-three games, with the top eight teams advancing to the single-elimination bracket.

These eight teams will join the directly seeded teams: Team Vitality, FURIA, Natus Vincere, FURIA, Falcons, MOUZ, Aurora, MongolZ, and PARIVISION.

The first place team will receive $500,000 in prize pool. The second place team receives $170,000. Third and fourth place teams receive $80,000. Fifth through eighth place teams receive $45,000.

However, that’s not the only way teams make money at IEM Cologne. The event will use Valve’s new sticker revenue sharing system. Sticker tablets will be sold during the three weeks of the tournament, allowing players to support their favorite teams in the game.

The StarLadder Major Berlin saw eleven million in revenue from sticker sales in 2019, proving to be a very profitable endeavor for the right teams. PGL Stockholm and Antwerp raised a combined $70 million. Last year’s BLAST.tv Paris Major reportedly grossed $110 million, not even including the Vitality Champions capsule. Looking at how the revenue from sticker sales was divided, each Contenders team received $4.5 million and $250,000 per player, the Legends received $3.5 million per team and $200,000 per player, and the Challengers received $2.6 million per team and $200,000 per player.

At the IEM Cologne Major, the sticker revenue model has major changes. Tournament organizers now keep 5% of the 50% pool, previously reserved for organizations. The remaining 45% are allocated to groups, which are divided based on their Valve Region positions. The top ranked team gets 2.85%.

This still allows lower level teams to see a fair amount of money. Why is that important? Because you need these new and smaller teams to stay active in the esports scene. Often, teams that can be considered hundreds in the world do not receive enough prize money or funding to develop, removing many teams from the ecosystem.

This has been a major topic of conversation in the esports industry, with FlyQuest even pledging to donate to underrepresented teams and esports scenes in need of funding earlier this year. Some scenes have felt the pressure, with the high salaries of Dota 2’s top players dominating the scene.

Counter-Strike is often recognized for its support of small teams and Tier 2 tournaments. Having money for participating teams beyond the prize pool encourages teams to invest in their players and encourages those players to push themselves to succeed. You will find the best tournaments and most talented teams in the mix.

Instead of franchise leagues that cater to teams that are paid to participate and leave others out of competition and without support, the Counter-Strike sports scene has the idea that or anyone they should be allowed to qualify for majors if they are good enough.

One Reddit fan said: “The longevity of the Tier 2-3 scene is primarily driven by a decentralized tournament cycle and high revenue from skin markets. Unlike commercial leagues, this open ecosystem allows smaller entities to sustain operations through niche funding and regional betting cooperation.”

This is definitely something that the esports scene needs right now as the hype starts to die down and the money comes out.