For a scene to stay interesting, and for players to stay motivated, prizes are needed. To this day, except for QHLan tournaments, the only prize has basically been the prestige of winning tournaments. People will respect you as a dueller if you win a dueltournament, and that's always a good feeling. But when you've won tournaments, and you're amongst the top 5 duellers for example, what keeps you going? What keeps you motivated?

I played Rikoll the other day in the Besmella tournament, and I won dm4. I only did this because Rikoll didn't focus, didn't CS, didn't care. The other day, LocKtar played Lacsap (Xterm), hung over enough to be even SHAKING. He complained after the game that he was SHAKING because he was so hung over. Milton doesn't even sign up for dueltournaments. Old duellers have quit, dag, griffin, reppie, mutilator, interceptor, many who has been very good has quit playing.

So what could keep these players motivated?

Money could. It's just that simple. Prestige just isn't enough for those players anymore. And who can blame them? They've already proven themselves. They're no longer newcomers who wants to proove that they can fight against the top of the top and succeed. Money however, motivates. If you are a player who feels like you can win the 1st prize - that you can actually end up in FIRST PLACE in a duel tournament, you will be motivated to concentrate, you will be motivated to practice, you will be motivated to be in your BEST shape at your game days. You won't show up drunk, you won't show up hungover. You will have a very different WILL to win the tournament, than if there was no money involved.

This isn't a suprise to anyone. It's been said a gazillion of times.

There's a guy who tries to change all that. He wants to make this REALITY. His name is Zingao, and he's hosting the new Hymn of Hope tournament. He's throwing money into the tournament prizepool from his own pocket. This is a GREAT thing, and everyone should be thankful for this gesture.

Now he has opened a donation feature so that people who wants to help can help in a very easy way. Donations are great, since paypal is so easy to use, and since you can donate whichever value you see fit.

So why should one donate? What's in it for me?

Seriously, this question pisses me off. Sure, as the regular quaker, you might not expect yourself to make top 3 in the tournament, so you are not likely to taste the sweetness of the prizepool, but if everyone's mindset was like that, only a handful of players who feel like they have a shot at winning the tournament would donate. It's not even about that...

I'll tell you why I donate. Imagine in a good world, where people weren't selfish assholes, every player would donate say... 10 euro. That's 2 beers on the club. That's a meal at some fastfood restaurant. That's 10 euro, basically NOTHING. Even the cheapest student can afford 10 euro. Anyone can skip those 2 beers, and help out in such a GREAT way. Imagine in this good world, that everyone donated 10 euro. Let's say the tournament ends up with 128 signups. That's 128x10 euro = 1280 euro. And then Zingao adds money from his own pocket. That's a good 1500 euro prizepool. From only donating 2 beers to the qwscene. Can you imagine that? ONLY TWO BEERS each /month and we would have a tournament with a 1500 euro prizepool. I can't believe how easy it is, and how anyone can argue against this and NOT want the same thing.

This would not only motivate EVERY SINGLE dueller to practice harder, it would motivate the top players to WIN. WINNING would mean EVERYTHING. The difference between second place and first place would be in the hundreds of euros. Winning would be so important, that people would focus every game, top players wouldn't show up drunk or hungover, and trust me that Milton would sign up. If you can make 2000 euro a month from your regular day job, and then an addition 1000 euro from quake, one would definetly be motivated to win.

Just these 200 euro that Zingao puts into the tournament for the season 1 has motivated lots of players. Circle/darklord are back, interceptor is back, Milton is thinking about signing up, BuLaT is back... people are showing up for only 200 euro. Imagine if we donate more and the prizepool gets bigger... Imagine how many people would be interested in this money. Don't you think dag/griffin would seriously consider starting again if they feel they can get good enough again to have a shot at this money? Don't you think Mutilator would come back? Don't you think other div1 players would practice harder to get good enough to have a shot at the money?

All it takes to make this dream come true is for EVERYONE OF YOU to drop your hopeless mindset of hopelessnes and contribute with 2 beers a month. Of course, anyone can donate any value they want. 1 euro helps too, and so does 100 euro, but in my eyes 10 euro is a reasonable and realistic amount to donate. That's two beers a month. Can you sacrifice two beers a month? Or two packs of cig? Or skip the fastfood one day and eat something cheaper that day? Can you do that?

I know I will. The only thing I want in return is for the top players to be more motivated to win.

The question is: what will you do?

Think about it.

Sincerely yours,
Andeh

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