idc about money but here are my thoughts:
- it is an off-season event and will never be held into the same standard as a masters. why do you think they'd offer a really huge prize pool to entice orgs if it was already prestigious on its own?
- gameplay quality is ass, they couldn't even provide proper equipment such as proper monitor arms that players are used to in competitive play
- the qualifiers are scuffed as hell being online and not even streamed, with ping differences affecting some teams' performance.
- the timing of the entire thing being squeezed in between stage 1, masters london, and stage 2 (and even enc qualifiers) makes it way harder for teams to prep, especially for the ones who played in london
ALSO it not being properly managed is also a factor. there were a few instances where coaches were having their shit stolen in the middle of the game in the coaching room during the group stage, while during the bbl vs edg match the coaches' pov got switched so the edg coach can see bbl setup and vice versa, which definitely affected those games.
this is not to discount the teams who won/did well in this tournament (i'd say 100T needed this win as momentum for stage 2, nrg too as they had a hard time in london, and ns to regain their footing after flopping in stage 1) but saying that this win is equivalent to a masters win is disingenuous imo.