A StarCraft 2 tournament in 2011 may have inadvertently made its losers millionaires thanks to Bitcoin. The tournament had a prize pool of about $1,000, but also included 25 Bitcoins for some of the losers, which wasn't worth much back then but is a fortune now.
Bitcoin has become one of the most valuable forms of currency available. The value comes partially from its limited availability; only 21 million Bitcoins were made and only a little over 18 million have been actually mined and put in circulation. As of today, Bitcoin is valued at about $47,000. The price of the cryptocurrency skyrocketed in the last few years, taking it from something with a triple digit value to quadruple digits. In 2020, Bitcoin went from about $7,000 to over $30,000 in a matter of months. The cryptocurrency is still rising and will likely only continue to grow, possibly until it hits a six digit figure.
As pointed out by Lee Sharpe on Twitter, a StarCraft 2 tournament unintentionally turned its losers into potential millionaires. The StarCraft tournament held in 2011 was hosted by the StarCraft Brood War clan AoV and originally had a prize pool of about $700 before being increased to $1,000. The tournament awarded $500 to its first place victor, $250 to second place, $150 to third place, and $100 to fourth place. Fifth to eighth place got 25 Bitcoins each, something that wasn't as highly sought after in 2011.
The 25 Bitcoins offered up to each of the four players were valued at about $41.25 total at the time, according to Liquipedia tournament data. Now, they could buy an expensive house, a nice car, and much more with the prize money, if they've held onto it. The four winners of the prize were Sziky, Kolll, Hejek, and Jumper. It's unclear what happened with their Bitcoin, but if they still have it, they're probably going to be set. As Sharpe also pointed out on Twitter, it seems that whoever organized the StarCraft 2 tournament was an early adopter in the cryptocurrency and had 100 Bitcoins lying around. The total valuation of that would be $4.7 million today, so hopefully the organizer didn't blow all of their Bitcoin.
Given Bitcoin is still rising at a rapid rate, if it hits $100,000 in valuation, these StarCraft 2 players could turn what was once $41.25 into $2.5 million. Needless to say, this isn't something anyone could've predicted in 2011. This was likely just a way to pad out the prize pool rather than someone actually believing this would be worth it to these players in the long run.
Source: Lee Sharpe