The New Year finds us one step closer to the grand finale of the Intel® Extreme Masters season: the World Championship in Katowice (March 12-15). Thanks to Newegg™, the leading tech-focused e-retailer in North America, and esports fans from around the world, the World Championship now boasts over US$300,000 in prize money!

Since the beginning of December, selected purchases made through the online Newegg portal (newegg.com/iem) have made a significant contribution to the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship overall prize pool. As of mid-December, Newegg raised more than US$20,000. Today, we are proud to say, this number has increased to a total of US$50,121!

“Nothing like this has ever been attempted in esports,” says Michał Blicharz, Managing Director Pro Gaming at ESL. “Thanks to Newegg we have managed to build a real bridge between our partners and the gaming community who want to support their favorite events. The prize money for the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship increased by 20% through the contributions of fans, so we can safely say this experiment was a success and we will explore similar projects in the future.”

The money raised will be divided between the two Intel Extreme Masters games: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm® and League of Legends® - and so, the games’ prize pools will receive 33.3% and 66.7%, respectively.  That puts the StarCraft II prize purse at US$116,707 and the League of Legends prize purse at US$183,414.

Running as part of the Intel ESL Expo, the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Katowice comprises just one part of the esports festival that weekend.