The IEM Cologne Major is set to be one of the biggest Counter-Strike 2 events of the year. Starting on June 2nd, it will take place at the LANXESS Arena in Germany and feature a $1.25 million prize pool.

This puts it in the top 10 Counter-Strike 2 tournaments by prize pool. But there may be a bigger source of income for participating teams.

IEM Cologne is a massive tournament spanning three weeks. Stage 1 runs from June 2nd to June 5th, with the eight qualifying teams advancing to Stage 2. They join eight directly seeded teams in two groups of eight, competing from June 6th to June 9th. Stage 3 turns to best-of-three matches, with the top eight teams advancing to a single-elimination bracket.

These eight teams will join directly seeded teams: Team Vitality, FURIA, Natus Vincere, FURIA, Falcons, MOUZ, Aurora, The MongolZ, and PARIVISION.

The team that places first will get $500,000 of the prize pool. The runner-up team gets $170,000. Third and fourth-place teams get $80,000. Teams that place fifth through eighth get $45,000.

However, that’s not the only way teams make money at IEM Cologne. The event will run Valve’s new sticker revenue-sharing system. Sticker capsules will be sold over the tournament’s three weeks, allowing players to support their favorite teams in-game.

StarLadder Major Berlin saw $11 million in sticker sales revenue in 2019, proving it to be a lucrative endeavor for qualifying teams. PGL Stockholm and Antwerp collected $70 million combined. Last year’s BLAST.tv Paris Major allegedly made $110 million, not even including Vitality’s Champions capsule. Given how sticker sales revenue was split, each Contenders team received $4.5 million plus $250,000 per player, Legends earned $3.5 million per team and $200,000 per player, and Challengers got $2.6 million per team and $200,000 per player.

For the IEM Cologne Major, the sticker revenue model has some big changes. Tournament organizers now retain 5% of the 50% pool, previously reserved for organizations. The remaining 45% is shared among teams, split based on their Valve Regional Standings positions. The highest-ranked team gets 2.85%.

This still allows lower-ranked teams to see a fair amount of money. Why is that important? Because you need these newer and smaller teams to remain active in the esports scene. More often than not, teams that aren’t considered the biggest in the world don’t earn enough prize or sponsorship money to thrive, removing many teams from the ecosystem.

This has been a huge topic of discussion in the esports industry, with FlyQuest even promising to donate to underrepresented teams and esports scenes that need funding earlier this year. Other scenes have felt the pressure, with the high salaries of Dota 2’s best players draining the scene dry.

Counter-Strike has often been respected for its support of smaller teams and Tier 2 tournaments. Having money for participating teams beyond the prize pool encourages teams to invest in their players and inspires those players to push themselves to qualify. You’ll get all-around better tournaments and a lot more talented teams in the mix.

Instead of franchise leagues that cater to teams that paid to participate and leave others out of the tournament and without support, Counter-Strike’s esports scene has the mentality that anyone should be allowed to qualify for a major if they’re good enough.

Said one fan on Reddit: “The longevity of the Tier 2-3 scene is primarily driven by the decentralized tournament circuit and the high volume of liquidity from skin markets. Unlike franchised leagues, this open ecosystem allows smaller orgs to maintain operations through niche sponsorships and regional betting partnerships.”

This is definitely something the esports scene needs right now as the hype starts to die down and the money fizzles out.

The viewership numbers from the RLCS 2026 Paris Major were shockingly low. Like, really low. It’s easy to immediately assume that Rocket League is dying, the old esports mantra. But what’s actually going on?

Well, it’s not dying. But the excuses people have for the reduced viewership actually do point to one thing: it’s not popular. And it’s not retaining interest.

The RLCS 2026 Paris Major is still underway, with the best-of-the-best Rocket League teams from around the world gathering in France to shoot balls around while driving cars. There is really no denying that Rocket League is a fun game. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s simple to understand, but the pros have some crazy tricks up their sleeve that raise the hype.

But does it make a good esport?

So far, the most-viewed match from the Paris Major was a Group Stage clash between Team Vitality and Karmine Corp. It reached a peak concurrent viewership of 179,000. It’s not horrible. Again, not dying. But it’s nowhere near the viewership numbers we saw at the RLCS Boston Major a few months ago, which had over 1.6 million hours watched on the opening day compared to Paris’ 800K.

Esports Charts did a deep dive into these numbers and seems to think there is one key difference: Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart. The popular gaming streamer was a commuter caster at the Boston Major, bringing the Rocket League esports action to his 10 million-plus followers on Twitch and 6.3 million on YouTube.

Jynxzi was not a co-streamer this time. At least not yet. We will get Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein for Paris, a French creator who is excited to co-stream the event from his home country. This could boost the viewership, sure. But that’s the thing…

The RLCS Paris Major isn’t cooked. No, the RLCS Boston Major was carried. Now that there is no content creator boosting numbers, we can see what the true viewership is for Rocket League’s biggest event of the year.

And it’s safe to say that Boston’s numbers were inflated.

Esports Charts noted that even the RLCS Twitch channel was dramatically lower this year, going from 64,800 at the last major to 26,000 this time. Nobody was drawing people in, enticing them to check it out.

Rocket League is not alone, of course. Most esports rely heavily on content creators to co-stream events to mainstream gaming audiences.

FlyQuest made some cringe video last month that attacked co-streaming, claiming that it was damaging the esports industry. Well, except their own content creators and stuff, of course! But streamers aren’t taking away from the esports industry. There’s nothing to even take. They are adding to it. They are bringing viewers in. Temporary viewers, but viewers just the same. Tournaments have started to rely on this rather than invest in their own broadcasts or create a structure that actually improves permanent fandom growth.

Without co-streaming, most tournaments would see pretty underwhelming viewership. In 2025, co-streaming surpassed official broadcast for esports tournaments in hours watched. Even larger esports like League of Legends rely on co-streaming, which became a huge topic of debate during the Mid-Season Invitational last year. Without popular streamers, the numbers would suffer. (Even with co-streamers, some LoL events, like the LCS, can’t seem to get any attention at all.)

You can say that co-streaming and content creators are saving esports. But I beg to differ. They aren’t harming it or anything. They’re not taking away views. It’s not like those who tune in to these co-streams would watch the legit broadcast on their own without their favorite streamer encouraging them. Be real.

So no, there is no harm done. It just shows how flimsy the esports scene is. It would fly away in the wind if it weren’t for the streamers holding the strings. Esports is just not large enough to support the kind of money that’s put into it. The numbers are all inflated. The hype is displaced.

Without streamers and their fans begrudgingly tuning in, these esports broadcasts would see a shocking dip in viewership. Like the RLCS. The fans don’t stay after. They don’t become die-hard Rocket League fanatics. They are Jynxzi fans. That’s it.

There is a reason that Evo is desperate to add content creator showmatches this year. It needs the numbers. Of course, the FGC does not want it. They’d rather die than try to appeal to mainstream gamers. But other esports titles know that it’s a necessary evil. It’s the only way to pretend esports is growing. That esports has that many die-hard fans.

But the numbers are not real. And there is only so much time that esports can buy until it has to admit that these viewership numbers are not here to stay.