Tournament gave 25 bitcoins as prize to last places

[White pawn]

Instead of looking at situations like these and wondering if the winners had held on to their bitcoins, it should rather show up our how far Bitcoin has come over the years and the level of adoption that has been attained in less than two decades.

It should also motivate you to hodl. Bitcoin enthusiasts today look back with regret if they had bought Bitcoin earlier and held on for 5-10 years to reach the ATH they aspire to sell at, but they struggle to hold for a few months or years even with the knowledge of the historical price chart.

I agree with your point. Instead of wondering what the winners of the 25 bitcoin did with their winnings, we should  marvel on how far bitcoin has come over the years despite having little or no support from governments and financial institutions.
The winners of the last place prices probably would not have envisaged that the price they had gotten for being in the last place could someday be more valuable than all the other prices combined.
Now, 1 bitcoin is a whole lot to giveaway to even the first place of the competition.

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[romero121]

This shows how bitcoin have grown over the years from the scratch. When we introduce bitcoin or when someone wants to learn about bitcoin these threads will help. Particularly for the users who find the volatility of bitcoin big issue. It makes me get goosebumps, because if the first prize winners have kept hold of their winnings it would've turned $10 whereas the last position winners could've turned millionaires if they've kept hold of the winnings. Now we've just one bitcoin worth of prize on special promotions, what a pity 

[hatshepsut93]

People who got bitcoins could have immediately sold them and people who got USD could have bought bitcoins with them. So I think there's nothing remarkable about Bitcoin transactions of the past.

And some people like to show Bitcoin price 10 years ago and today and then build a case that the same rate of growth will happen over the next 10 years. This is unrealistic, because Bitcoin market is reaching saturation, nowadays most of people have heard about Bitcoin, many have considered investing in it. Large bull markets that are responsible for most of Bitcoin's performance are becoming smaller and smaller if you look at the relative increase of their peaks.

Bitcoin will not increase your wealth by 100 times in a few years, and that's okay.

[AmoreJaz]

This shows how bitcoin have grown over the years from the scratch. When we introduce bitcoin or when someone wants to learn about bitcoin these threads will help. Particularly for the users who find the volatility of bitcoin big issue. It makes me get goosebumps, because if the first prize winners have kept hold of their winnings it would've turned $10 whereas the last position winners could've turned millionaires if they've kept hold of the winnings. Now we've just one bitcoin worth of prize on special promotions, what a pity  

it goes to show that you can never really know the future of a certain asset especially a new one. it can very well goes to the opposite fate for btc, like it can go to being unusable if the technology didn't hit it off in the market. so you can't blame those people who got bitcoins to just sell off right after receiving it.
but if one of those lucky winners just kept his bitcoins, and still remember today his keys and all, i would say, he's one very lucky guy!

[OgNasty]

It really is asking for pain to go back and look at all the opportunities in Bitcoin in the early days.  I couldn't tell you how many hundreds, likely thousands of BTC I paid out to random graphic artists or developers for tiny tasks.  I'd like to think they all held and got rich, but I'm sure they cashed out immediately as that's what people did back then.  Nobody wanted to risk holding the bag if BTC fell to zero.  A shame.  Even I, who strongly believed Bitcoin would be valued in the thousands one day, let people get to me and talk me into selling thousands of them early on to "not be stupid" and "cash out something while you can."  It was easy to fall into that trap of thinking before it became clear Bitcoin was on a path to mainstream acceptance. 

[famososMuertos]

I'm sure someone brought up this story a while ago, if it's not the same, the point was the same, without a doubt, seeing some things in the past tense in reference to bitcoin leaves you pensive or maybe crying, lol, anyway, here's a contribution with similar cases:

The Worlds First Sudo-Anonymous Poker Tournament.
1000GTD

I enjoy playing online poker ( Texas Holdem ) and so I've decided to run a tournament with Bitcoins ! No 'real' money will change hands. We are playing for electric bottle tops only. I don't encourage gambling and this will probably be a 'one-off' event for fun. Poker is a skill game anyway, like chess

Introducing...

The 1st ( and only ? ) Bitcoin Forum - Online Poker Challenge Event.

" The Worlds First Sudo-Anonymous Poker Tournament ? "

A Password Protected - Private Game using the Free Open Source - PokerTH - http://www.pokerth.net/

Sat. 20th March 2010 at 3pm ET

50 Bitcoins + 5 Bitcoins Buyin | 1000 Bitcoins added to the Prize pool | 10-Max Table

10,000 Starting Chips, 10 Starting Blinds, Blinds will double every 10 hands !

4 places will be paid. 1st 750 Bitcoins, 2nd 375 Bitcoins, 3rd 250 Bitcoins, 4th 125 Bitcoins ( based on 10 players )

I will be playing and hosting the game and providing the 1000 Bitcoin added prize pool. You are trying to win my Bitcoins !

...//...,,,

Thank you.

BitcoinFX.

^{Link:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80.20}

This other user on my local board organized a poker game and prize 4BTC(+/-)

Topic in Spanish, 2012.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=72258.0

[JeromeTash]

It's kind of amazing how people looked at Bitcoin back then to a point that the winners at the top places received dollars while the bottom ranked ones had to settle for Bitcoins
The actual winners are those who held the Bitcoins they won and sold at least after 6–7 years

[dezoel]

Not really that shocking, I remember when faucets gave 1 bitcoin for free, and you could claim once per day, which means in 25 days you would have this much without ever working or being in a tournament. I remember you could mine bitcoin on your laptop and make more than 25 bitcoins in a few months at most, probably less.

When you go back in time, there was a guy who sold 2 large pizzas for 10k bitcoins as well, very famous thing. So at the end of the day, if we look back at the history of bitcoin, we can clearly see the growth, it's not really a news and it has been known for many years, in fact it's one of the reasons some people don't even invest anymore because they feel they are too late.

[eaLiTy]

~
Bitcoin really said "fuck you, Starcraft" in the upcoming days. Imagine listing the dollar as prize in the first three places, and then for the poor little guy who came fourth, 25 useless "BitCoins". "He can't spend them anywhere!" they must have said.  

It is the other way around, giving out BTCitcoin was a promotion to the world when barely anyone knew about the cryptocurrency space, so no, it was not an useless gesture to give out 25BTC for the person who came fourth but an introduction to the gaming community about BTCitcoin which was huge back then.

Never underestimate these gestures which was huge back then as a laughing stock after a decade .

[tabas]

Players at that time were likely not interested in BTC but given this is 2011, they were probably using the paper wallet to award the prize of 25BTC each. It was $41 If they still have them in 2017, they will be scrambling to find those paper wallets inside thier drawers.

In 2011, I think there are only a few exchanges and one could be GOX, so if it's on GOX then they probably sold or lost the BTC already.

Going back on that date, BTC is still like a nonsense thing for most people not until the ATHs came from and I believe it all kicked in on 2017 and that's where the mainstream goes into it eye to eye. And if it's kept on mtgox or somewhere else, there's no way that they can retrieve it anymore and most likely it's just forgotten.

Not only them, but anyone in their situation who is given 25 bitcoins as a reward will spend it right away. Even if they intended to keep it, when the price must have risen in two years, they will sell it quickly. This is just one example of how bitcoin has grown in the last decade. Bitcoin enthusiasts are confident that it will grow even more in the coming years.

This news should serve as a guide to learning how to hold for a long time, but it will only be applicable to the bitcoin community's optimists and courageous members. Those who do not believe in bitcoin development will still sell everything and prefer to keep their money in fiat if they are paid in bitcoin today.

Those people that are working and getting paid in bitcoin, they'll sell for sure but a portion of it is aware of them that they must keep a bit of it in preparation of future pumps.
Someone who's working with a job and is getting paid with bitcoin is likely an enthusiasts if not, then likely forced to just accept it but then the knowledge will start from there and will eventually know the importance of keeping some. Well, as for the players who have received it, just like them who most likely sold it, I've admitted it already that I might even sold it at the quickest possible time if I can.

This shows how bitcoin have grown over the years from the scratch. When we introduce bitcoin or when someone wants to learn about bitcoin these threads will help. Particularly for the users who find the volatility of bitcoin big issue. It makes me get goosebumps, because if the first prize winners have kept hold of their winnings it would've turned $10 whereas the last position winners could've turned millionaires if they've kept hold of the winnings. Now we've just one bitcoin worth of prize on special promotions, what a pity 

It's actually a good idea to give such threads or topics to the new ones for them to realize on how big bitcoin have grown over time. I have thought of doing this to those people that have mocked and laughed at me before when I've told them that I'm a bitcoin optimistic guy and sees the great future of it.
Although there's some hate that's being done on me during that time, it's also making me think that it's better to spread love and just give them space.

People who got bitcoins could have immediately sold them and people who got USD could have bought bitcoins with them. So I think there's nothing remarkable about Bitcoin transactions of the past.

And some people like to show Bitcoin price 10 years ago and today and then build a case that the same rate of growth will happen over the next 10 years. This is unrealistic, because Bitcoin market is reaching saturation, nowadays most of people have heard about Bitcoin, many have considered investing in it. Large bull markets that are responsible for most of Bitcoin's performance are becoming smaller and smaller if you look at the relative increase of their peaks.

Bitcoin will not increase your wealth by 100 times in a few years, and that's okay.

That is true but the purpose on why I've made this thread is that a decade ago there were tournaments in esports that have given prizes in bitcoin for the last prizes. But it can't be helped and discussions about showing the value before and then is always there. There's no difference though and just as you've said, majority agrees that if all of us have accepted that as a prize, we have probably sold it asap.

It really is asking for pain to go back and look at all the opportunities in Bitcoin in the early days.  I couldn't tell you how many hundreds, likely thousands of BTC I paid out to random graphic artists or developers for tiny tasks.  I'd like to think they all held and got rich, but I'm sure they cashed out immediately as that's what people did back then.  Nobody wanted to risk holding the bag if BTC fell to zero.  A shame.  Even I, who strongly believed Bitcoin would be valued in the thousands one day, let people get to me and talk me into selling thousands of them early on to "not be stupid" and "cash out something while you can."  It was easy to fall into that trap of thinking before it became clear Bitcoin was on a path to mainstream acceptance. 

I understand that feeling and I've felt that even before. When it's like bitcoin has reached $1k for the first time and people over the internet talking about selling before it's too late, well, the vibes is just contagious. It really can't be helped when we've just held even just around 5 or 10 btc before and how much more for people like you who have held around from hundreds to thousands of it. It also hits me hard.

I'm sure someone brought up this story a while ago, if it's not the same, the point was the same, without a doubt, seeing some things in the past tense in reference to bitcoin leaves you pensive or maybe crying, lol, anyway, here's a contribution with similar cases:

4 places will be paid. 1st 750 Bitcoins, 2nd 375 Bitcoins, 3rd 250 Bitcoins, 4th 125 Bitcoins ( based on 10 players )[/b][/center]

That's even on a larger scale of prize but that's earlier. I wonder if BFX is still holding that lot of bitcoins in current time.

It's kind of amazing how people looked at Bitcoin back then to a point that the winners at the top places received dollars while the bottom ranked ones had to settle for Bitcoins
The actual winners are those who held the Bitcoins they won and sold at least after 6–7 years

That latter part is for real. Even it won't take that long but someone who had bought bitcoin at the bottom and sold somewhere at the top or near to that, they're clear winners and I think many have build up that plan when we've approached 2021. Too many newbies by that time and they're wiser I guess than the early adopters who were still like walking in the shadows without guides.

Not really that shocking, I remember when faucets gave 1 bitcoin for free, and you could claim once per day, which means in 25 days you would have this much without ever working or being in a tournament. I remember you could mine bitcoin on your laptop and make more than 25 bitcoins in a few months at most, probably less.

When you go back in time, there was a guy who sold 2 large pizzas for 10k bitcoins as well, very famous thing. So at the end of the day, if we look back at the history of bitcoin, we can clearly see the growth, it's not really a news and it has been known for many years, in fact it's one of the reasons some people don't even invest anymore because they feel they are too late.

Those were the earliest times for bitcoin. Gavin had made a faucet IIRC that gave out 5 btc per claim and the price of bitcoin during those times weren't really great so we see quantity over quality. But these days, a person would even dream of having just 1 btc.

[jayce]

Not really that shocking, I remember when faucets gave 1 bitcoin for free, and you could claim once per day, which means in 25 days you would have this much without ever working or being in a tournament. I remember you could mine bitcoin on your laptop and make more than 25 bitcoins in a few months at most, probably less.

When you go back in time, there was a guy who sold 2 large pizzas for 10k bitcoins as well, very famous thing. So at the end of the day, if we look back at the history of bitcoin, we can clearly see the growth, it's not really a news and it has been known for many years, in fact it's one of the reasons some people don't even invest anymore because they feel they are too late.

Well it's not shocking for us obviously, but to anyone who is completely new on crypto and read that article, his jaw will drop. Regarding why people don't want to invest on bitcoin, I think it's not because of its growth, but they still don't trust bitcoin. It's just strange when you see bitcoin grows and you decide to not jump in because it's late. Nah, as long as it grows, it's still profitable then. It's similar with blue chip stocks, with their stable growth and quite high price, people still want to invest on it. But why some people prefer stocks over bitcoins? It's just because they don't trust bitcoin. If the issue is too late to join, then they still can invest on other stable cryptos with its cheaper price like ETH or BNB. Trust is still a big barrier for the mass adoption of bitcoin.

[AbuBhakar]

Way back then, that 25 Bitcoins is just like a reward token that worth a few dollar. You can compare to casino utility token like BFG, OWL and FUN which usually just a reward coin for playing. Those 25Bitcoins is surely sold immediately or bet on the casino and consider as nothing since Bitcoin back then is not that worth much.

Some casino still offer this kind of reward especially on Betfury. They reward BFG tokens as consolation prize and USDT and other coins to major winner.

[Mauser]

Right now, we usually see prizes coming from crypto casinos and I rarely see it become a prize to any tournament whether it's an actual physical sports or e-sports.

Most of the older users here must have seen this before. It's funny if you compare the 25 bitcoin to today's prices, but the question is did the winner actually kept all his coins? Or maybe he has sold them straight after. Comparing such an old prize to today's prices is a bit misleading, because the 1st place winner could have bought a lot more bitcoins with his 500 USD. It's one thing to get bitcoins as a price money, and something completely different to make the decision to keep them for so long. Now with hindsight it's always easy to make the right decision. You are right that in esports we rarely see crypto currencies being used to pay the winners. I am not really sure why, it's a bit sad because it would further boost the popularity of crypto currencies. But any winner could easily use his price money and buy bitcoins the day after the tournament. There is really no excuse to say now that I wish I had won bitcoins 10 years ago. Everybody can buy them and doesn't need to win a tournament first.

[tabas]

Way back then, that 25 Bitcoins is just like a reward token that worth a few dollar. You can compare to casino utility token like BFG, OWL and FUN which usually just a reward coin for playing. Those 25Bitcoins is surely sold immediately or bet on the casino and consider as nothing since Bitcoin back then is not that worth much.

Some casino still offer this kind of reward especially on Betfury. They reward BFG tokens as consolation prize and USDT and other coins to major winner.

Those other altcoins that have been also cheap before they become popular and then added value came eventually do happens for most and, it's all thanks to bitcoin for which started all of it. But I wouldn't be too optimistic with these utility tokens compared to bitcoin, there's too much discussion to be said on how it's entirely different although I see people that are optimistic on it and that's because they're invested on those mentioned altcoins. But that's it, those that you've mentioned also got their "once upon a time" price journey.

Most of the older users here must have seen this before. It's funny if you compare the 25 bitcoin to today's prices, but the question is did the winner actually kept all his coins? Or maybe he has sold them straight after. Comparing such an old prize to today's prices is a bit misleading, because the 1st place winner could have bought a lot more bitcoins with his 500 USD. It's one thing to get bitcoins as a price money, and something completely different to make the decision to keep them for so long. Now with hindsight it's always easy to make the right decision. You are right that in esports we rarely see crypto currencies being used to pay the winners. I am not really sure why, it's a bit sad because it would further boost the popularity of crypto currencies. But any winner could easily use his price money and buy bitcoins the day after the tournament. There is really no excuse to say now that I wish I had won bitcoins 10 years ago. Everybody can buy them and doesn't need to win a tournament first.

With what we're speculating about those winners, it's most likely sold. They're gamers and probably have seen the worth of it to be good as in-game assets that they can purchase through it. But who knows if one of them have kept even just 1 bitcoin until 2017's bull run or until now, nobody really knows. Soon, if there are enthusiasts and gamers that would like to sponsor, we might even get to see some discussions in the future about 0.001BTC as prize and then how could it be valued by then.

[KingsDen]

I am not sure if this was already posted but it will give especially the newbies some idea on how bitcoin grown in over time, and how it looked like before. So, based on the image below it was the last prizes for the participants of Starcraft tournament from fifth to eight place got 25 bitcoins each.




The tournament held in 2011 where the price of bitcoin was still low where it's like from $0.3 to $3.
For context: Tournament's Last-Place Bitcoin Prize Could've Made Starcraft Losers Millionaires.

I wonder if any of those players that have won bitcoin kept a few or if there's a source where they've given statements on how they've kept or spent it after wards. If you'll ask me, even I, I might sell those if I saw it went up to $50 or $100 earlier in those years.

I looked at the scenario deeply and simply had a beautiful smile and then compared the situation to what we have now. It is just like giving anyone $500 now or giving them bitcoin equivalent to $50. Honestly no one will value the bitcoin because with $500, you can simply and easily buy bitcoin worth of $50 and still have your $450 dollars remain with you.

At everytime, people always measure the value of bitcoin with the current price it is to fiat. That is why someone bought pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins. 1 btc was around $0.45 dollars then if I am not mistaking.

[m2017]

~snip

It surprises me that this story with the awards from the tournament appeared in the english section only now. Or maybe there have already been similar topics here? Personally, this story has been known to me for a relatively long time, because it was published in the local section. If I am not mistaken. I'm sure I saw it somewhere on the forum. I think 25BTC for 5th-8th places will haunt the minds for many years to come. Especially newbies.

My thoughts on this screenshot are as follows. No one knew and could not even imagine in those years that btc would rise in price so much and gain world value. Undoubtedly, now it looks funny when the winner of the 1st place, what's there, all the winners received a thousand times less (even taken together) than the outsiders of that tournament.

[nullama]

I am not sure if this was already posted but it will give especially the newbies some idea on how bitcoin grown in over time, and how it looked like before. So, based on the image below it was the last prizes for the participants of Starcraft tournament from fifth to eight place got 25 bitcoins each.




The tournament held in 2011 where the price of bitcoin was still low where it's like from $0.3 to $3.
For context: Tournament's Last-Place Bitcoin Prize Could've Made Starcraft Losers Millionaires.

I wonder if any of those players that have won bitcoin kept a few or if there's a source where they've given statements on how they've kept or spent it after wards. If you'll ask me, even I, I might sell those if I saw it went up to $50 or $100 earlier in those years.

I'll be just giving the estimates for the last ATH and in today's time but we can conclude that most of them were sold already too early.
25 bitcoins * $69,000 = $1,725,000
25 bitcoins * $24,500 = $612,500

Right now, we usually see prizes coming from crypto casinos and I rarely see it become a prize to any tournament whether it's an actual physical sports or e-sports.

I wonder if the 1st place winner used those $500 to buy Bitcoin and still keeps those bitcoins as of today.

That would be a true winner 

[Odusko]

This is a pointer to what we should expect in the future from Bitcoin, back in 2011, bitcoin's value was far less than $100 which is the lowest cash price in this situation, and at that time throwing 25BTC was far easy than $50 or even $20 cash.
But unknowingly for them that it was a fortune in disguise, if it is held for the long term it has been nearly 10-11 years since 2011 when the contest took place and the Bitcoin amount has multiplied significantly, but the highest cash prize in the context which is $500 has lost it purchasing value significantly due to inflation, this goes a long way to show how bitcoin has evolved and proven to be the hedge over inflation.

[Farma]

If anyone curious with the original thread of the tournament, here's the link https://tl.net/forum/bw-tournaments/190866-aov-iccup-starleague

The winners who get 5th to 8th places are Kolll, Sziky, Heme and DeSka, those 25 Bitcoins are worth for $41.75 which is make sense 25 Bitcoins are appropriate reward for 5th to 8th places https://liquipedia.net/starcraft/AoV_iCCup_StarLeague

Anyway I don't find any information if they've sold their coins or not, but I believe they're either sell or lost the private keys because they're high likely only know the games and don't care with Bitcoin.

Well, after seeing this tournament, I think the people who got 5th to 8th place will rethink where bitcoin is, and wish they hadn't sold it then until now.
I hope that among them, there are those who don't care about the prize but at that time and still keep the private keys they have. If they forget the private keys, then they will definitely think hard about it 

[tabas]

I looked at the scenario deeply and simply had a beautiful smile and then compared the situation to what we have now. It is just like giving anyone $500 now or giving them bitcoin equivalent to $50. Honestly no one will value the bitcoin because with $500, you can simply and easily buy bitcoin worth of $50 and still have your $450 dollars remain with you.

At everytime, people always measure the value of bitcoin with the current price it is to fiat. That is why someone bought pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins. 1 btc was around $0.45 dollars then if I am not mistaking.

And it was a different mindset before for those that have heard bitcoin but the enthusiasts know what's best for them and they'll surely keep those bitcoins or would probably asked the gamers to exchange those bitcoins that they've taken. No one expected it to be this big and if we're in their shoe, we perhaps have sold either - in case that they did.

~snip

It surprises me that this story with the awards from the tournament appeared in the english section only now. Or maybe there have already been similar topics here? Personally, this story has been known to me for a relatively long time, because it was published in the local section. If I am not mistaken. I'm sure I saw it somewhere on the forum. I think 25BTC for 5th-8th places will haunt the minds for many years to come. Especially newbies.

My thoughts on this screenshot are as follows. No one knew and could not even imagine in those years that btc would rise in price so much and gain world value. Undoubtedly, now it looks funny when the winner of the 1st place, what's there, all the winners received a thousand times less (even taken together) than the outsiders of that tournament.

I'm not sure if someone has posted this already but it seems that no one has made a thread for this topic before at least for this board. We can just extract the lesson that nobody knows the future of bitcoin but while many are full of uncertainty. We're all here having that positivity that we're looking up to that the time will come for which the price of bitcoin will be even greater.

I wonder if the 1st place winner used those $500 to buy Bitcoin and still keeps those bitcoins as of today.

That would be a true winner 

Yeah but I don't think so. 
I'll spend that quickly if ever I've won such amount before from a game tournament.

This is a pointer to what we should expect in the future from Bitcoin, back in 2011, bitcoin's value was far less than $100 which is the lowest cash price in this situation, and at that time throwing 25BTC was far easy than $50 or even $20 cash.
But unknowingly for them that it was a fortune in disguise, if it is held for the long term it has been nearly 10-11 years since 2011 when the contest took place and the Bitcoin amount has multiplied significantly, but the highest cash prize in the context which is $500 has lost it purchasing value significantly due to inflation, this goes a long way to show how bitcoin has evolved and proven to be the hedge over inflation.

No one knows the future and that's for sure and back then we don't know if something this big would come out from those consolation bitcoin prizes but then, we've seen the present and it has grown big. There were for sure more sad stories about selling bitcoin earlier because of many reasons and circumstances that has happened in the past.

Well, after seeing this tournament, I think the people who got 5th to 8th place will rethink where bitcoin is, and wish they hadn't sold it then until now.
I hope that among them, there are those who don't care about the prize but at that time and still keep the private keys they have. If they forget the private keys, then they will definitely think hard about it 

Nobody knows if they've kept all, a few or sold all of it. I hope that out of nowhere even just one of them would fill this thread and discuss the story how it was spent.


Guys, there's also another interesting story and thread that I've posted that's the same as these folks who has received bitcoin during the early days of bitcoin.
Thread: A painter received $50 worth of bitcoin on June 2013.