Gale Force Esports receives inadequate prizing after winning a Battlefy event

Update: Battlefy released a statement announcing that all the players will now receive prizing, and that future "HTC Vive Community Nights" are now cancelled.

A recent Battlefy tournament promised a tremendous prize pool for the victorious party in their "HTC Vive Community Night," but unfortunately, the promises never came to fruition.

The Gale Force Esports lineup consisting of Bani, Boink, clockwork, eMIL, Muma, and shrugger competed in the May 21st edition of Battlefy's "HTC Vive Community Nights" on the proclaimed date, playing for a rather impressive prize pool. As listed in both Battlefy's email to all competitors and the official site, the team finishing in first place was set to receive one HTC Vive per team member, culminating in six sent out in total to the victor.

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In addition, each player was set to receive $100 for a victory, with second-place promised $50 each and third $25. While the competitors reported that their money came in just a day after the event, Battlefy reportedly backed down on the first-place prizing, noting that a miscommunication occurred at some point regarding how many Vives the organizer would receive. Originally slated to have six, Battlefy later claimed they only received two, and would raffle them out to the competitors.

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Players repeatedly asked the organizers for confirmation throughout the day regarding the prizing, as many reported they felt the prize was "too good to be true." The Battlefy team never backed down from the statement, reiterating that the Vives would be shipped out and that players were only responsible for any complications that might arise regarding customs.

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The tournament organizer later apologized, noting the mistake. Instead of compensating for the mistake, though, the tournament organizer offered only extra raffle tickets per each victory, and Gale Force Esports never received the promised HTC Vives. While players did receive the stated money, the lack of an HTC Vive—which retails for just under $800—is a significantly smaller prize than what was noted in all announcements prior to the tournament's occurrence.

Battlefy plans to run another "HTC Vive Community Night" on May 28th, but the original premise is presumably abandoned for that event as well (in which each member of the victorious team is to receive an HTC Vive alongside the monetary prize).

over.gg reached out for a statement from Firestorm, who works with Battlefy in business development. Firestorm confirmed the occurrence, noting that no extra prizing could be offered as compensation.

Just $100. I can only really award what I have to work with and the sponsor's budget for this tournament series is a certain amount as you can imagine so they aren't able to do more either.

Personally, I didn't necessarily want a Vive, but I know my 5 teammates did. The only reason I'd want go through any effort pursuing this issue is that it seems to be a systemic thing in Overwatch that organizations and tournaments are failing on the professional side of things, and it would be pretty embarrassing for this to be swept under the rug. It's a shame, because the tournament itself was at least run with a map draft system, and appropriate bo3/bo5 series for the bracket and Grand Finals.

The advertising for any tournament should be truthful, or you're just deceiving people into playing your tournament. When you go through the effort of confirming the prizes twice, there shouldn't be any confusion. Another thing that irks me is the lack of compensation in any form, Vives excluded. You would think anything from an increased prize-money handout to any form of HTC product would be offered in lieu of what happened, but we've only received the $100.