X10 Criticised After VCT Champions Skin Bundle Split Figures Revealed
The first season of the VALORANT Champions Tour attracted a wealth of organisations from all corners of the globe, as they dukes it out for a place at the finals in Berlin to be crowned as the first World Champion for a new era of esports. To celebrate the teams that made it to the final sixteen, Riot Games introduced the Champions Bundle to the VALORANT store, where fans could crowdfund for the competition by sporting the glowing golden skins on their weapons.
After surpassing an impressive $15million worth of purchases in-game, each team was set to reap the just rewards, although it was down to the discretion of each individual organisation as to whether the players who got them to Champions would get a slice of the pie.
According to a report from Upcomer, the final amount has now been dished out, and some organisations have been much more generous than others, with some sides being heavily criticised for taking the lions share.
VALORANT Champions Skin Bundle Reportedly Raises $18.7million
Click to enlargeRiot Games' Vandal and Melee skin was widely well-received by the competitive community, with 50% of the proceeds from the bundle going directly to the team that qualified for the 2021 Champions event.
Having been previously announced to have raised over $15million, Upcomer's report suggests that the final figure from the bundle was recorded at $18.72million, leaving $9.36million to be split between the 16 teams, whilst Riot Games keeps the rest. The final sum meant that a whopping $585,000 was sent to each individual organisation on top of their prize money allocation which varied with different levels of success.
How Much Did The Players Keep From The VALORANT Champions Skin Bundle?
With esports having a history of keeping contracts under lock and key, especially the financial settlements of each agreement, each organisation often change the percentage of the pie that can be earned by the players. Upcomer's report detailed alleged ways in which orgs and their players split the crowdfunding sum, leaving some fans to be shocked.
According to the report, the most generous teams where Vivo Keyd (giving players 80% of the funds - approximately 93,000 per player), Cloud9 (75%), and Furia (60%). Both Sentinels and Team Envy, now OpTic Gaming, split their prize evenly, whilst the likes of Fnatic, Team Liquid, and Vision Strikers gave the players a minority sharing of 20-30%.
However, the report also alleges that the Thai organisation X10 CRIT kept 100% of the proceeds, leaving their players with diddly squat. The details match with earlier reports of the players leaving the organisation having been left disappointed by contract issues, with the entire roster now signing with XERXIA.
X10 management have previously been adamant that they did reward players with a 10% share, and a pre-arranged 90% of their winnings - albeit they did not specify whether this sum was a one-off for Champions, where they earned a collective $40,000 from their 5th-8th placing, or their entire season's prize earnings of approximately $109,500.
Having seen the sums be published to social media, some fans joked that "X10 really needed to pay some bills, eh?", whilst others were more taken aback, saying, "x10 don't give a f*ck lol". Another fan added, "No wonder why X10 left for Xerxia."
Movistar Riders Head Coach Lucas Rojo took to Twitter to add, "Some orgs out there STEALING money out of players. Skin revenue is not prize money. X10 receiving 100% of the Champions Skins is an absolute disgrace."
Having now found a new home at XERXIA, the former X10 CRIT roster will be looking to qualify for Masters once more, as the APAC Qualifiers kick off on March 10.
