If you have not read the article on Q2 2017, click here. As it provides extra context to the situations these teams are in, plus it lays the groundwork as to why your calculations may differ to mine, as I follow a set of guidelines which is outlined at the beginning of the Q2 article. Rather than bore you with them again, I decide to just get straight into the prize money. Below is it in video form if you prefer that medium, or you can just keep scrolling to read.
Q3 2017 — CS:GO Prize Money
10. Ninjas in Pyjamas — $90,750
Moving all the way up from 20th place in Q2, to 10th place in Q3 is NiP, and I’ve got to say it’s because of Roster changes. With REZ, NiP won $10,000 at ESL One Cologne 2017, then $50,000 at Dreamhack Valencia where they took 1st place with Friberg in the team. Then at DH Masters Malmo they lost to G2 but managed to win $22,000, with ELEAGUE rounding off their prize money for Q3 with $8,750. In the end, NiP managed to obtain $90,750 in prize money for Q3 2017.
9. Virtus.Pro — $110,306.15
In 9th place is Virtus.Pro, who have had some of the worst results and placings in their stint as a team, ever. Yet, somehow, VP have mustered a lot of prize money, enough to move from 13th place to 9th, and it all came off the back of one placing. This being, the PGL Major in Krakow, where VP placed Top 4 and gathered $70,000 (which accounts for 63.4% of their prize money for this quarter. Other than that, there isn’t much more to say about VP, they did place 4th at ESG Tour Mykonos losing 2:1 to SK and grabbing $24,056.15, but all other results are either last placings or bottom four at a LAN. These results have allowed Virtus.Pro to win $110,306.15 in prize money for Q3 2017.
8. Team Liquid — $116,862.31
Funnily enough Team Liquid has stayed in the same place as they were in Q2 2017. Mainly two tournaments gave them their exorbitant amount of prize money, these being their Top 2 placings at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 and ESL New York 2017, handing out $48,112.31 and $50,000 respectively. Liquid hasn’t really attended a lot of LAN tournaments in Q3 2017, only four in fact, so these are very good results considering they haven’t had many opportunities to play for the big bucks.
7. G2 eSports — $118,750
In 7th place is the French superteam, G2, and just like Team Liquid G2 have only attended four LAN events this quarter. However, they only really had one crazy result, which was at DH Master Malmo where they took 1st place and garnered $100,000, which accounted for 84.2% of their total prize money for this quarter. This is a huge disappointment for the team which has consistently been in the Top 3 spots for the previous two quarters.
6. North — $141,000
Rounding off the bottom five of the top ten earners is North, who have finally surpassed their rivals, G2, in prize money. Q3 was North’s most successful quarter thus far, raking in $141,000 is no easy feat and North had to put in a lot of work to get here. At the PGL Major Krakow, North became legends by securing a 5th-8th placing which net $35,000. Then they met rivals G2, at the final of DH Masters Malmo 2017, losing 2:0, but gaining $50,000. With their final event for the third quarter being, DH Montreal 2017, which the team won by defeating Immortals, giving the Danes an additional $50,000. Overall, North had some solid placings, which gave them large amounts of prize money. So even though G2 has bested North every time they’ve faced them on LAN, North has finally a victory, in the form of more prize money in one quarter.
5. Mousesports — $145,780.07
Starting off the top five is unbelievably… Mousesports. I didn’t really think Mousesports was that big of a team on the radar, but here they are in the top five for one quarter. But don’t celebrate or rejoice too early Mousesports fans, 82.5% of their prize money for this quarter came off their miracle run and victory at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, which net the team $120,280.07. In addition, Mousesports attended 7 offline LAN events, 5 of which had prize money. So even though they are in the top five teams, it seems to be somewhat of an anomaly and they only had one good result which was Mykonos where they beat Liquid in a Best-of-Five. Either way, hopefully Mousesports won’t be a one hit wonder and can continue their success and surprise at another tournament.
4. FaZe Clan — $155,750
What would the top four be like without arguably one of the best, if not, the best team in the world, FaZe Clan, who managed to rake in $155,750 in cash. Honestly, I’m not at all surprised by this, and I think no one is, the expectation of this team is to place in the top five for prize money every quarter and in only one quarter has FaZe disappointed us, which was Q1 2017 where they finished in 6th place. Back to Q3 2017, FaZe had overall disappointing results, they attended four LAN events, in which only two of which they finished top four, winning only ESL One New York 2017 worth $125,000, which made up 80.2% of their prize money for the quarter. I guess from here you can do some simple subtraction and see how the other $30,750 came from the other three events, which averages at $10,250 per event. In the end, I still have high hopes for this team, just like last quarter, as they have Olofmeister and GuardiaN who are definite upgrades over Kioshima and Allu, and if they continue they may make top five for prize money for the entire year.
3. Immortals — $191,750
I will miss this team, as the departure of HEN1, LUCAS1 and kNg means that this rising star roster has finally come to an end. I guess for now we can just appreciate how two Brazilian teams are in the top three best earners for a quarter, which is pretty amazing considering these guys came from impoverished backgrounds and a poor country. I just wish these players had more discipline, because I really believed in time they could’ve accomplished a major victory or at the very least, some more trophies, kind of like a mini-SK Gaming. But good things come to an end eventually.
Before Immortals broke apart, they attended six events for this quarter, placing top two at two of them. One of these was the all-important major where Immortals had a star studded performance, falling flat to Gambit at the end 2:1, but raking in $150,000, which is 78.2% of their prize money for the quarter, as well as their largest amount of prize money for the year thus far. This team also made it to the final of Dreamhack Montreal 2017, even though kNg had Visa issues and “…no sleep for three days”, they managed to lose 2:0 to North, which led to the famous incident which imploded this roster.
How funny is it that Immortals greatest moments led to their demise? Either way, this team had one of the best quarters I’ve seen for a rising team, it’s very comparable to the 2016 OpTiC Gaming roster in terms of success, and if you don’t believe that… “Prove it, or I’ll k*** you!”
2. SK Gaming — $206,006.15
Not surprising to be in the top two for this quarter is SK Gaming, who is arguably also the world’s best team, and probably the most consistent team for the entire year. Now this is not their most successful quarter, but $206,006.15 is nothing to scoff at, especially in the context of them hitting top two, but I feel like SK Gaming could have done more had it not been for their poor performance at the PGL Major where they placed 5th-8th, where if they performed up to standard they probably would’ve been top four, or even won the event. Alas, the better team won on that day and I can’t blame the Brazilians for losing admirably.
SK Gaming in this quarter attended seven LAN Events, winning two, placing top four in four events with their worst result being 9th-12th at ELEAGUE Premier 2017. Their biggest event was ESL One Cologne 2017 where they won $100,000 which made up 54.96% of their prize money for the quarter, and their next biggest take was at the PGL Major which gave an additional $35,000. Their last two significant events were ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 and ESL One New York 2017 which gave $24,056.15 and $25,000, respectively.
Had SK won ESG Tour Mykonos and New York 2017, we could’ve been looking at a total of $402,230.07 in prize money for SK Gaming, which still would’ve only placed them second for this quarter.
At the end of the day, this team is legendary, and if this success and consistency rolls in 2018 as well, we may be looking at the best CS:GO roster of all time… FalleN and company, truly are some of the best I’ve ever laid my eyes on in any eSport and for sure deserve all the success they’ve had so far, and this is coming from someone who didn’t like SK from way back when they were Kabum and Keyd Stars.
1.Gambit Gaming — $528,013.91
In first place is… GAMBIT GAMING! I mean it’s no surprise really, they did win the most important event of the quarter and arguably the most important of the year. I can’t really say much about Gambit, mostly because the team isn’t the same without Zeus and well also because since this they haven’t achieved anything like their victory at the Major. In the third quarter, Gambit attended three LAN events, one of which was of course the PGL Major, where they won by defeating Immortals 2:1 in the final, grossing $500,000, which makes a total of 94.69% of their prize money for the quarter… At DH Master Malmo they did finish top four, but that was followed by 5th-6th at ESG Tour Mykonos which combined gave the other $28,000 from this quarter obviously.
I think this is an anomaly in terms of a performance, and we probably won’t see them in the top five ever again, let alone first place for a quarter. I will say this though, they currently are in 5th place for prize money for the whole year thus far, so if they manage to continue to earn an additional hundred thousand or two, they can potentially remain in the top five, but that’s a big ask from a team which appears to have gotten rather lucky, plus FaZe and North are just behind them for total prize money for the year and they seem to be more dangerous as a force.
In the end, the numbers are the numbers and I cannot change them, so whatever you see here is what happened. I can only hope that teams continue their success as it makes this a whole lot more exciting for me to look at every quarter and every year, so here’s to hoping your favorite team manages to bank a lot of cash and grow the scene even further.
Some extra facts about Prize Money in Q3 2017:
- Two of the top 3 teams came from Brazil, which was barely even a major region in CS:GO a mere 3 years ago. It just goes to show, skill, hard work and time can make you successful if you’re willing to put in the work.
- Gambit earned 5.8x more than NiP did who placed 10th, and they earned 25.44x more than Renegades did, who placed 20th.
- The gap in prize money between 1st place and 10th place was $437,263.91, and the gap between 1st place and 20th place was $507,263.91 which is more than the top prize of winning a major in 2017.
- The largest change in placement was both Nip and Gambit who moved up equally 10 places compared to the last quarter. Liquid and FaZe were also the only two teams to not change their placing between quarters.
- OpTiC only earned $10,000 due to losing the majority of their players, leaving only Mixwell to create a new roster.
- The top 10 teams earned a total of $1,804,968.59, whereas the total for the top 20 teams was $2,297,708.32!
That’s all for now, wait for my article on Q4, and then my final article wrapping up the total for the whole of 2017. If you are interested in that, follow me here on Medium, or subscribe to my YouTube Channel, or follow me on Twitter!
-KARMAAA
