When it comes to developers experimenting with esports, Hi-Rez Studios leads the pack. The company’s newly announced $100,000 Paladins Founder’s Tournament is only the most recent experimentation, with console releases and prize pool limits marking a history of sound innovation. This new tournament, however, may be the most impactful.

It’s not that beta tournaments are unheard of. Many popular esports titles today got their start in the beta. The big difference, and the reason Hi-Rez is raising the stakes, is all in the prize pool.

Compared to the most popular esports today, $100,000 is a massive amount. StarCraft 2’s biggest beta tournament, for example, only awarded $3,450. And after launch, SC only had tournaments with prize pools worth more than $100k because it leaned so heavily on the pre-existing Korean infrastructure from the game’s predecessor. Games without that often took much longer to develop—League of Legends, for example, took two years following release to attain a prize pool that high.

Hi-Rez’s tactics, then, are literally breaking the esports meta. This move not only serves as great advertising for the studio’s upcoming game, but it also establishes “early adopters” that have an increased chance to stick around, even when other games like Overwatch poised to be rivals. Hi-Rez is very upfront about its intent to win the war on class-based shooters:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“In order to encourage and reward the players and teams that come on board to Paladins early, we are announcing today the Paladins $100,000 Founder’s Tournament.”[/perfectpullquote]

This move comes at a time where many of Paladins’ competitors are still setting up shop. Overwatch, in comparison, has shut down its beta until mid-late January. By that time, Paladins will already have its qualifiers rolling for this Founder’s Tournament.

This tournament also poses as perfect advertising, because while most of the competition is in closed beta, Paladins’ allows people to purchase access for $20. This eliminates most of the problems that beta tournaments have.

In short, Hi-Rez is trying to sell Paladins to esports teams that are interested in class-based shooters. And their six-figure pitch is, frankly, quite convincing.

As a bonus, Hi-Rez has used this tactic before, albeit a less extreme version. Their initial title, Smite, had a $200,000 Launch Tournament. Notable teams that made their presence known there include TSM, Dignitas, SK, and Cloud9. To date, those powerhouse teams are still involved in Smite (though the SK roster was sold to Fnatic).

Similar team commitments to Paladins would put it light-years ahead of the rest of its competition. With many rival games still floundering, Hi-Rez has made the perfect move to push out Paladins far earlier than expected. The experiment is working—full steam ahead.