Ethereum trading card strategy game Apeiron has announced a huge $1 million prize pool for its very own world championship.

Apeiron Guild Wars 2024 will see the top 12 guilds—the Ronin Network game’s version of a clan—battle it out to reach the in-person finals, which is slated to be hosted in Hong Kong in Q3 2024. On this stage, players will showcase their skills for a share of the sizable prize pool.

A total of $1 million worth of prizes will be awarded to participants based on where they place within the tournament, with specific allocations yet to be finalized. Only half of the prize pool will be in dollars, while the other half represents the monetary value of Apeiron NFTs being offered as prizes. That said, the event organizers have confirmed that additional bonuses may be provided by event sponsors.

“Fostering a competitive scene for Apeiron is crucial,” Frank Cheng, CEO of Apeiron developer Foonie Magus, told Decrypt. “By cultivating a competitive environment through tournaments and live streams, we not only keep existing players engaged but also drive mass adoption by showcasing the game's depth and excitement to a broader audience.”

We've seen various attempts by crypto games to build out sustainable esports scenes, with monster-battling game Axie Infinity holding events and funding community promotions, while card game Parallel is pumping $500,000 into future events.

Fantasy Top recently gave out rewards that, if analysts are right, could be worth millions of dollars—but the game demands a rich understanding of Crypto Twitter and the surrounding culture. Apeiron’s vision is to rival the Web2 esports scene.

“If you look at Web2 esports, it's been challenging to find a way for it to be sustainable. From our perspective, our robust Web3 tokenized economy completes a positive feedback loop with our competitive scene,” Cheng said. “Players come in to compete, thereby stimulating the economy which then itself provides the resources to make the competitive events happen. Our goal is to kick-start this loop with big events such as the Apeiron Guild Wars 2024.”

Most games with a thriving esports scene and million dollar prize pools have had years of community building and game balancing to solidify it as a competitive sport—but not Apeiron. Instead, the game is only in open beta and players are still figuring out its mechanics. That's an added challenge for the team.

“Our game designers and developers are invested and skilled players of the game themselves, and have a strong grasp of the ‘meta’ with the internal data metrics to back up their opinions,” Cheng told Decrypt. “They will be monitoring the game’s balance up until the tournament begins to make sure that there are no strategic outliers.”

As a relatively new game, however, that provides an opportunity for dedicated players to commit time to Apeiron and establish themselves as one of the best, possibly making their way into Apeiron Guild Wars 2024.

Preliminary rounds for the tournament will begin May 21, finishing June 25. Guilds will compete for a slot in a Guild PvP online leaderboard which will run until July 2nd with additional invitational tournaments taking place later in July. The top 12 guilds will advance to Apeiron Guild Wars 2024.

Edited by Andrew Hayward