Though you may not like it, I’ll bring up Heroes of the Storm again.
The HGC league had an estimated cost of 6 million, per year.
It’s difficult to justify such a cost by just going: “But community engagement!”
Everything has a price, and 6 million a year is a hefty price for community engagement when it doesn’t actually engage a very big part of the community.
I suspect it’s the same with WoW. That AWC and MDI tournament format has to cost millions of dollars to run each year. It makes sense to seek ways to reduce those costs, and I think selling in-game toys where part of the sales go to the prize pool is a good way to go about it.
Good friggin’ riddance. 