Smite World Championships. © Hi-Rez Studios

Even if you're the most casual of eSports fans, you can't have missed the headlines generated last year by Valve's huge Dota 2 tournament, The International . Each player on winning team Newbee became a millionaire overnight thanks to the massive overall prize pool of almost $11m dollars, largely funded by fan purchases of its Compendium .

It was no surprise then to see Hi-Rez, the studio behind rival MOBA Smite , adopt a similar strategy for its World Championship back in January, raising a seven figure sum of its own through a similar crowdfunding technique. The strategy is not without its problems though. It leaves some players very rich indeed, and in the case of The International, others completely empty handed. As we've highlighted before , Riot Games intentionally avoids such astronomical sums to prevent any sort of bubble around one competition.

That bubble is only going to get bigger this year though : crowdfunding is underway already for The International 5, and the Compendium has cruised past $15m with a month still to go. It's perhaps for this reason then that this week, Atlanta-based Hi-Rez Studios announced that it was introducing a new funding approach for Season Two of pro Smite, spreading out a not insubstantial prize pot across events throughout the year.

It's capping the prize pot for the 2016 World Championship at $1m, and distributing the rest across other high profile competitions throughout the calendar, including a $105,000 LAN this month. It might sound like numbers being pushed around on the spreadsheet, but it actually has very real ramifications, both for pro Smite players and fans who tune in to watch top tier tournaments.

"In Season One of Smite the eSports prize money was distributed almost entirely via one single World Championship event," Hi-Rez chief operating officer Todd Harris explains to Red Bull. "In Season Two we have decided to distribute the prize money across a greater number of major events throughout the year."

Harris admits that the slant to a huge prize for the winning team alone – $1.3m of the $2.6m pool was split among the five players on COGnitive Prime (now Cloud9), meaning each took home more than a Superbowl winner – was not entirely healthy in retrospect.

"Crowdfunding is awesome, so we wouldn't change that at all. But we were honestly shocked by the amount of money that came in for that first World Championship event. Many of the pro players and teams asked us to consider changing our strategy with regard to prize pool distribution. With a single World Championship event it was a windfall for the very top teams – but it was also an incredibly unpredictable way to earn a living.

"In that scenario you play all season and get a big payday only after a year of playing, and only if you are the very best in that particular event. In talking with players they expressed a desire for a more predictable income stream and cash flow throughout the year. We chose $1,000,000 for the World Championship because it is still a very significant amount of money and compares favourably against other major events in both eSports and traditional sports."

Harris is keen to stress that drip-feeding the same amount of money into the scene is not the same as backloading it for the World Championship. It's all about living up to the old adage, 'Do what you love and the money will follow.' Hi-Rez wants that to be true for all top Smite players, not just the top team. Feast and famine does not breed the most competitive scene in any sport.

Smite World Championships. © Hi-Rez Studios

"It comes down to cash flow. Most of the top eSports players told us they aren't actually motivated by one giant payout; they are striving to be the best in the world want to make a decent living pursuing what they love," he says. "They need to pay for their apartment and living expenses month to month like everybody else, and it is hard to manage those monthly expenses with only a once a year mega-prize."

Harris also hopes that the new strategy will help newer teams breakthrough – something made more difficult by the presence of a handful of successful teams sucking up all prize money – as well as even a second tier competitive league, something that Riot has managed with League of Legends . "We believe this approach encourages newer teams to enter the Smite eSports scene," he says. "I do think that with more regularly distributed prizing at the Pro level we will see more second tier and third-party tournaments."

Hi-Rez' switch isn't a wholesale switch to Riot's business model however: the company is keeping crowdfunding and spreading it throughout the year, and Harris rules out the possibility of paying top Smite teams salaries, as is the case with LCS. "We wanted a system that was still performance-based," he says. "The teams need to stay dedicated and continue to play at a high level, but with more steady and predictable income."

Smite World Championships © Hi-Rez Studios

The move has been welcomed by the managers of the top Smite teams we spoke to as well. "My thoughts have been the same for 15 years," says Michael O'Dell, owner of Team Dignitas. "I want to see as many gamers get paid as possible, so I am not a fan of a top heavy prize pool. I want to see the guys who competed and the guys who came 32nd get something." COGnitive Gaming owner David Fry agrees. "Just being able to know my players will get a decent financial gain for the hundreds to thousands of hours they have to log to continue to play at the competitive level with the leading teams in the Smite professional scene is good news. It might make a few of the parents of the players I work with feel a bit better about their futures too."

Fry also says it's a boon for viewers. "The level of competition you gain by having the push that you want to stay in the professional scene, you want to keep earning money for all your hard work and you're dedicated to it will be amazing."

Intriguingly though, Harris hints that if the strategy works for Smite on PC, it could help create a whole new competitive scene – Smite has recently launched on Xbox One .

Smite World Championships. © Hi-Rez Studios

"I'm very optimistic about competitive Smite on Xbox One," he says. "It's still in closed beta but we've already seen community organised tournaments with over 100 teams signing up."

Harris says that with this approach, things could look very different for Smite in a year's time.

"The Smite PC scene will continue to grow, with more participating regions and teams," he predicts before dropping a bombshell to close off the interview. "The even bigger development: MOBA eSports finally arrives on console." We can't wait.