The third edition of World Cyber Arena will be just a bit smaller than its predecessor, though the prize pool continues to rival everything outside Blizzcon.
China’s WCA events are known for leaving the community with mixed feelings. The lavish prize pools - $195,000 in 2014 and $220,000 in 2015 – attracted the attention of the media and the game’s most prolific names, but the grand finals execution was always lacking. With poor stream quality, questionable formats and lackluster production overall, the WCA brand never earned the prestige that should’ve come with the enormous cash pots.
This year, WCA are taking a little step back when it comes to Hearthstone. The prize pool is “only” at $150,000 (1 million CNY) and a total of eight players will compete as opposed to the 33 in 2014 and 29 in 2015. Said eight players will come from the four regional qualifiers – one for China, Pacific, Europe and the Americas – which will be held throughout the year and will have a separate prize pools of their own of approximately $13,500. Combined, the total prize pool for WCA 2016 goes just north of $203,000.
With the current distribution of the $195,000 grand finals prize pool, WCA’s new champion will bank close to $75,000. Thus far, WCA’s trophy has been exclusively won by Asian players with LiBo winning 2014 and DawN triumphing the following year.
