Riot Game has revealed that some of the proceeds from sales of the Inkshadow Event Pass and Inkshadow Yasuo skin will go toward the MSI prize pool.
The President of Esports at Riot Games, John Needham, has teased more opportunities for teams in LoL esports to make money in a recent blog post.
While the post specifically talks about features that could to the League of Legends World Championship in 2023, it seems that Riot is also dipping its toes in giving fans more options to show their support for MSI.
A new announcement confirmed that fans of League of Legends esports will get to send some of their money toward Mid-Season Invitational teams by purchasing in-game content.
MSI prize pool bolstered by in-game bundles
Riot Games has revealed that a quarter of the money fans spend on the Inkshadow Event Pass, the ongoing event on the League client for the international tournament, and the Inkshadow Yasuo skin will go into the MSI prize pool.
The developer is also launching a new bundle for the event called the MSI 2023 Esports Premium Bundle. The esports-specific bundle will include the event pass, and the Yasuo skin along with an exclusive chroma for the skin and an emote. Half of the proceeds from that bundle will go into the MSI prize pool.
The setup for MSI 2023 is similar to for Valve runs its DOTA 2 esports prize pools in which a portion of the in-game battle pass sales goes toward its world championship tournament’s winnings.
Riot Games has had a percentage of MSI-specific in-game content sales go toward its prize pools since 2019. The developer has not released figures on how much was added to the international tournament’s prize pool from the in-game sales, but the event does guarantee $250,000 as a base for the pool.
MSI begins on May 2 with the Play-In Stage and will run to May 21 so fans have 19 days to buy the bundles and skin to have their money befit the top performers at the event.