It may appear as if on the hair, but imagine that someone would have put a consolation price at a gaming tournament 14 years ago, which would now make you a blast.
Four players can actually say that - they reached places 5 to 8 with one-T tournament and received a consolation price of25 Bitcoin each.
At that time, a Bitcoin was worth almost $ 1.70, i.e. the equivalent of 1.25 euros. At that time, every player would have received a little more than 30 euros for the cryptocurrency. Nowadays, the profit amount is just under 1.9 million euros (as of March 18, 2025).
We found three of the four players and asked them what happened to the Bitcoin and whether they are now millionaires thanks to their profit.
A small eSport tournament gives away consolation price that would be worth several million euros today
That happened:Between March 26 and April 23, 2011, theAoV iC CupInstead of, an eSport tournament, for which 56 players in the game Starcraft: Brood was qualified to dust off a small prize money.
So the prices were distributed:
- 1. Platz –500 Dollar
- 2. Platz –250 Dollar
- 3. Platz –150 Dollar
- 4. Platz –100 Dollar
- 5. To 8th place -25 Bitcoin each
The tournament found a winner with the Korean "Scan" after almost a month (viaLiquidia). A few days in advance, however, the four top 8-placed people, who were able to pick up their consolation price in the form of 25 BSScoin.
It was the German Anton "Kolll" Emmerich, the Poland "Hejek", the Hungary Szikszai "Sziky" Miklós and the US-Taiwaner rode "Jumper" Srisawat. They were all justified for the prize money and would be millionaires according to the current status, but everything should be completely different.
Not all four wanted to have the price
To find out what happened to the Bitcoins, we spoke to three of the four top 8-placed people and came across a few unexpected events. For example, Sziky and Hejek have never tried to accept the bitcoins because the price did not justify the effort for them.
Sure, hardly anyone opens a Bitcoin wallet for 30 euros, especially not 14 years ago when the functioning of the cryptocurrency was still completely unknown.
But it saw it completely differently:He reported to the organizer of the tournament to get the 25 Bitcoin. He referred him to another person who was the Bitcoin sponsor, but he was never answered.
Just a few days ago, the then organizer in Jumpers Twitch stream appeared in the chat and revealed that the Bitcoin sponsor was probably a rather dodgy figure and then dipped again with the profit.
The only connection that we could discover into a possible sponsorship is an entry in the tournament announcement, in which a certain "ten excavator" is called by a Bitcoin betting provider. Since the appropriate page has been offline for ten years and no person was found under the psyudonym, the exact circumstances can no longer be reconstructed.
Unfortunately, we could not find out whether Kolll has ever tried to redeem the Bitcoin, since the German has literally disappeared from the Internet after retiring from the eSport.
Hence the call in this way:Kolll, if you read this article, get in touch with us!
The three players we could speak to do not assume because the German Starcraft professional was only 16 years old at that time and there is no evidence that he has ever picked them up.
In addition, according to the organizer, it would not be possible, since the Bitcoin win was not covered by the sponsor. Unfortunately, the organizer did not respond to our demand.
That has become of the four BTC "losers"
Kolll retired from the eSport a few months after the tournament because he was switching to Brood's successor -- unfortunately did not do. Previously, he took part in the World Cyber Games 2009, the eSport Olympiad, and won a few minor cash prizes.
Sziky was able to win over the following ICCUPs and is still considered one of the best Brood War players. He has won almost $ 12,000 in prize money over the years and is also in other strategy games such asactive.
Hejek Streamt Starcraft: Brood was and also takes part in smaller tournaments. Just like Jumper, who gained a university degree in psychology in the United States and moved back to his homeland in Thailand to stream and coach Starcraft full -time.
So none of the four has become rich, but that somehow fits into the picture with Bitcoin. Many have repelled their Bitcoin too early and have never been rich. Others have lost access to their wallet or forgot the password. But that is exactly what causes some exciting stories as that of the four Starcraft players who could be millionaires these days-if everything had turned out a little differently.
Have you ever painted a gaming win?
