Topic: Tournament gave 25 bitcoins as prize to last places (Read 594 times)

I'm a gamer and this is especially true. In my circle of friends alone we got steam money cycling where we sell games, sell in-game items, and pretty much everything that you've earned from playing games and transacting for them with real money, in that way we wouldn't have to spend pocket money for games anymore, which is certainly a good thing, and a massive blunder for those starcraft players if that's what they did with the 25 bitcoins they earned lol. Although these are the same people that got their greatest paychecks from the last crypto bull run, with some of them even earning a single bitcoin from literal nothing all because they held, played, and grinded their asses off till their earned their keep. So besides the fact that they are gamers, I think you should also include the consideration that bitcoin way back then was worth literal snot, and to the people of that time period, they'd much rather spend that money instead of keep it and collect dust, and possibly lose access cause this is bitcoin that we're talking about, I've seen people lose access to their wallets for a shorter amount of time, so what more would these people?

There's a lot of things at play here besides "they are just gamers, of course they're going to spend it", that's some hasty generalization right there unbacked by any sort of evidence whatsoever.

That's right, most of us upon receiving that consolation prize might not keep it and just sell it as-is because Bitcoin has no place before in everyone's pocket and it's still new to everyone's ear. Well, for these scenarios, what we can learn is about the value of Bitcoin that has been treated as a consolation prize now has grown a lot.

A sad twist for this piece of history then. Those winners don't even keep a few bucks from having it after winning as a consolation prize. But on the brighter side, they've just donated this to the community as it's considered burned and lost Bitcoins forever.

I've been looking for this thread as I've seen someone posted that in socials and he's right with what he's said. I can't imagine how much enthusiasm that this guy has. Because before when you talk like this in front of people, you'll be just laughed by them not knowing what you're saying and even asks you what you're talking about. He's even talking about 10 bitcoins and $10k at that time. While even having less than 10 right now is a wealth that one can keep and have a life changing transformation in our lives.

I bet that these people have been ROFcrying and still regretting that they've talked sh*t about Bitcoin and never even got a handful of it.

It's likely that they have never kept them and that's sad on their part. That only shows on how Bitcoin was treated as if it's nothing even if it's given to them as a consolation prize.

I'll even use it to buy a new game or some items that will make me happy and that's for sure. But past is past, the lesson is there and I don't think we'll ever see another tournament that will give Bitcoin as its prize whether it's a major or consolation.

It's much like that these are cypher punk things and those winners will have to figure out how they're going to keep or sell them. But then, no one cares, no one even moved them as said.

But they didn't , and that's the point. Back then bitcoins were worth shit, and to get these as a prize for winning a mini starcraft tournament's like getting a participation trophy for that one competition you joined as a kid for the lols but secretly hoped you'd get the first place. It's upsetting but you know why you got it. Pretty sure there's an interview/reddit deep dive made by someone back then about one of the winners (particularly Jumper) of that 25 bitcoin prize, if I'm not mistaken (and don't quote me on this) they spent the tokens and hadn't seen a dime of it ever since, they're regretful of course, as I would assume but not so much that they'd swear off of crypto anymore, although it's a massive bummer realizing you could've loaded up and became a millionaire had you just saved what practically is the worth of 25 bucks back then.

Makes me think of the mini tournaments held as well these days with crypto as prizes, most of them for their own utility coins that have little to no outside purpose besides their network, much like what bitcoin is back then. Will they flourish? Will some of the winners keep their coins only to lose their seed phrases/passwords? Will they spend it and eventually be remorseful when they find out they could've cashed out, saved, and sat on a million dollar paycheck in the future? Ahh, it makes me all excited and giddy about the future of Esports and cryptocurrency.

These were gamers we're talking about. If they see the price of each bitcoin go up even by a dollar or ten dollars, they'd immediately sell those for equipment or gears in game. The chances of them still having those bitcoins are pretty slim, and if ever they still have them, they'd probably be famous by now since they are millionaires.

If I was one of those people in that tournament, I wouldn't believe it if I find out that me losing a tournament would have made me a millionaire.

That's the best prize in that tournament if they only knew back then, if they only managed to save those bitcoins until now, surely they have been living a decent life nowadays with that money and those who won the 1st to 4th places wish that they had been the ones who won the last places. It's really good if they can find someone who took part in the tournament and won those 25 bitcoins, I wonder how they are now and how they spend those bitcoins after they finally convert them to fiat. Just like the Pizza guy who accepted to be interviewed these guys right here also deserve such exposure and documentaries if they also want to.

Plenty of people did, see below about the people who got the potential for bitcoin, plenty of people didn't, but there were plenty of people who understood in 2010 and 2011 that bitcoin was going to be worth a whole lot of very little and that it was something of a binary out coming.  As time progresses, one way increases in likelihood more and more.


But the negative comments related to bitcoin in some of these are just golden, and are still repeated now, nearly 14 years later, see e.g.:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/i-am-pretty-confident-we-are-the-new-wealthy-elite-gentlemen-12156

https://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2011/06/bitcoin-is-economic-singularity.html

https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/bitcoin-releases-version-03



Things like this from tomhudson on slashdot:
"... except I didn't have to even read that to figure out the system was insecure. The description from Wikipedia was sufficient. In other words, if someone who is not familiar with the system can spot the main flaw in 2 minutes or less, then it's garbage.  ...
Summary: Bitcoin is worthless."


AC: "So it's slashvertising AND garbage. Three cheers for kdawson"

"The first thing the client did was try to connect to a webserver on port 80, probably a version check. The second thing it did was try to connect to a an IRC network. Can you say, botnet?"


"I see no reason this would be preferable to any number of already-available systems for valuing goods (like, say, US dollars), unless you're an anti-government paranoid."

Probably lost but I still like to lie to myself that those that got them still have their bitcoins or that they've probably sold this already but not when the price is in the five digits, they've probably got an access to it when it was still around 100 USD or a bit higher and they saw that it's a big money for them and they don't mind not hodling on to it or if they're lucky that they still got those bitcoins, they'd be talking about it right now but I don't see the players that have participated from this StarCraft tournament showing in public that they've sold their bitcoins at five digit price so they've probably sold it a long time ago or you could be right, that they've forgotten about it and is rolling around crying because they remember they've got a bitcoin but they forgot where they've put it.

I can imagine what these players felt when they've got bitcoins as consolation prices, they're probably stupefied or something like that and that they want to cash it in quick for a real money.

I am pretty sure most of those coins are lost. If you search the block explorer for that day and you find an address which sent 25 BTC to the 4 participants you will see that they were never spent.

They probably just delete the email or threw away that piece of paper with the private key and it’s gone forever. Bitcoin was like less than $1 back then and not worth it setting up a wallet, finding an exchange to sell just to get $20.

This isn't something surprising. Because then it was placed based on the Bitcoin price, and wasn't it popular? We can't complete this with the current situation. The world has changed a lot, so everything is changing. For me, even if I won that bitcoin when it was placed, I may sell it when the price becomes double. I can't imagine holding on till now unless I totally forget about Bitcoin. Maybe after 10 years, some people still can't imagine Bitcoin was $50K and we haven't bought it. Everything will change from time to time. 

During the times before, we've seen that it's just like a consolation of the last placers but then no one knows that it would be a great value in the future. And just as what everyone is seeing it right now, we may not be able to predict how high it can go but if you are holder and you believe that there will be of a greater value soon, you'll hold. The limit that it has got, the total number of bitcoins that are lost forever, they'll never get replaced. That's why the longer the time passes by, the rarer that these Bitcoins that we're holding will be and the institutions are craving to have it soon because they want us to sell these to them but not for now and the time will come when the price is higher. 

Absolutely people need to understand the value of the coin. This thread is the perfect example and motivation for the people to buy the coins and hold it. Bitcoins have really done great in the past few years and have given a lot of returns in return. So people need to understand that Bitcoins are limited in numbers and very rare. So just buy and hold to earn maximum profit.

After a year, I don't think that there's a need for me to create a new thread encouraging people. I just want to use this thread as a motivation that situations like this will keep us holding and in accumulation. It's the logical thinking that in the past, we can accumulate Bitcoins in many quantity but as time passes by, the more it grows, the higher value it gets then the lesser Bitcoin in quantity we get as we purchase. That's the reason why we have to keep on holding but some taking profits are necessary during the bull run. If there are folks that have been discouraged that they've never bought at the dip, it's never too late. Situations like this were already part of the history so as these days that we have and we will have are gonna be part of it too in the future.

None could've taken it with the best understanding. Maybe if someone have known about its technology, there was possible chances that the person have kept them secure. In another thread found a person questioned about $100 cash or bitcoin and the answer is $100 in cash. This is happening in 2023, what could've been the scenario almost 12+ years back.

I hope the winner has kept this prize till now. I believe the goal of giving prizes in the form of Bitcoin was to introduce Bitcoin to new people. In the same context, I remember the faucets that were giving reasonable amounts of Bitcoin in 2015 and 2016, as well as other crypto currencies that heavily raised in value later, like Dogcoin. Actually, these ways could have built a fortune for some people, but at that time, there was only a small portion of people who knew that Bitcoin and the crypto domain as a whole would reach this point of value and popularity.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 

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.

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 

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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

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:

---

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

Topic in Spanish, 2012.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/como-regalar-bitcoins-72258

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. 

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!

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.

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 

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.

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.

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.

It is for sure that no one anticipates that bitcoin will be something else in the next decade and that's why those players have probably sold it just like me if I'm on that tournament to receive the prize. 

Yes, that's still to show the lesson that it's visible how bitcoin has came that far over more than the decade of its existence. With such situations, this isn't just one of the best stories to be inspired of being a holder. I might post the other stories that I'll ever find and encounter in the nearest future.

Thanks! This is even greater information for posting the actual thread of the said tournament and having them named, those players that have been in that placed.

No doubt on that, we even got the faucets that have distributed 5 bitcoins for the early claimants. The value wasn't a lot during that time but yeah, that's it. These earliest days for bitcoin and people who have known it have given the opportunity. But if we look at that opportunity, majority of them wouldn't have thought of keeping it.

I don't think it's about the market's up and down but it's more of about uncertainty that since it's the early time for bitcoin. No one is expecting it to grow as much as it is right now. So, as long as it has a value and price to be sold, I'd definitely sell it. It's not about being naive or unbelieving but it's about the reality on those times.

And we really can't say if all of them have held for a long time, it's really likely that they've sold just as after they've received the 25 bitcoins.

Yeah, it's like a consolation on them and then just probably thought of what the heck they can do with these bitcoins since it's likely that there were just like few exchanges back then.

Yes, there are those people like the Winklevoss Twins and the other early adopters. But knowing that they're gamers, I myself is a gamer and don't really think of matters like this. Those gamers might be younger back then and all they want to have is to play and never think of investments or assets like bitcoin just as they've received them. And as for those people that have completely forgotten their wallets and still wrote back then their seeds, they probably never expected it to grow in today's time or even for the past years.

Just like with what I am saying, you're likely to sell those on that particular time. Nobody knows what will be the future would like for bitcoin. Yeah, 1 bitcoin is more than enough today and how much more for 25 bitcoins but that's back then and the value was lesser and only about two digits.

It's either sold as soon as possible or they've lost it just like what the others are saying. Nobody cares on how to keep their private keys but salute to those that have kept them for more than a decade and bought it wisely before it's grown a lot. We even sold on $1k, $10k, $20k not knowing that by 2021 bitcoin would reach another milestone and ATH of $69k.

Seriously? Wow! Did you bought back then when you've heard bitcoin during that time?

It's possible that the organizer is already aware of bitcoin's existence thus, it's given as a consolation prize. I'm also thinking on how much the organizer or donator of that prize have got by that time. Maybe just more than a hundreds or even a thousands. It would be an amazing search if there will be like authors or news agencies to follow up news like this and have it covered as a content just like what they've covered with laszlo's story.

That's true story. The same as the other contests held in the forum where a lot of bitcoins were given away and just as I've said with these receivers of 25 bitcoins, no one has ever thought on how quick the phasing and growth will be.

It was even thought and said for many times as a scam currency. That's why many have heard of it as much as the early adopters but never obliged because they've heard and followed the rumors that tend to spread negative vibes so, they've missed the opportunity of their lifetime.

You're welcome, this is just one of the many old but gold stories in the community. Props to the organizer or donator who have given it as a prize as I think he's got one goal for that time and that is to give some exposure for bitcoin. And many in our community today is doing it so that many people that are still not aware of bitcoin will have an idea to search for more information about it.

I didn't know about Bitcoin back then, and I haven't heard this story, so thanks for sharing it. Of course, very few people could imagine where Bitcoin would end up in a matter of several years, but it's cool that someone tried giving BTC away as prizes, even if it was for the last prizes. It might be among the very early cases of using Bitcoin. But like the op and some others, I don't think I would have had the patience not to sell the minute it starts costing something measurable.

I have already seen this. I think not here but on social media. The point is very clear. It is the growth of Bitcoin through the years. Bitcoin was once treated as a cheap digital innovation. The demand was not strong. Only a few people knew about it and were willing to buy with a good price. So it was assigned as a last prize. It was even given away. In fact many Bitcoins were forgotten for not having enough worth.

If we look at how Bitcoin grew from a prize for the last placers to worth tens of thousands, it was so quick. There must really be something in Bitcoin.

It reminds me to the signature design contest held by Yobit several years ago, which the 1st winner got 1btc, 2nd got 0.5btc, and 0.25btc for the 3rd^[1]. It might not as big as 25btc at current prize, but it obviously makes me amazed on how bitcoin growing time by time. Luckily I won the 1st prize but yeah I didn't hodl it.

We believe that bitcoin will grow, but who knew it takes so quick! It's pity on the last winner of that tournament, which they might be disappointed to not win the bigger prize, and in the second time, they regret didn't keep the amount. But perhaps they hodled for few months until its price rise a bit and got small profit, but who doesn't that lol.



[1] https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/new-yobit-sig-design-contest-1-place-1-btc-2-05-btc-3-025-btc-1402351

Maybe the organizer of the starcraft tournament was already into bitcoin before and saw potentials on it? They then say that maybe it was a good idea to include it in the prize but to make things interesting, they only award it on the last placers. They probably know that not many people knew Bitcoins that time but if some of those last placers know then they won't feel totally bad about it.

Bitcoin is not a secret anymore and many people are now into it but we are only wondering on why it wasn't included as one of the prizes even as a consolation prize only. Hmm? What could be the reason? But I think that was also the reason. Bitcoin is not rare anymore and anyone can just use their money or their cash prize to buy it.

Yeah, I remember that. I was talking about that with my friends recently, this might be the first time when I heard about BTC maybe. How much time has passed since then...

It is iconic but it was hosted in 2011. In that year, blockchain and cryptocurrency was smaller than now and Bitcoin is like a shit coin in eyes of the crowd. I am sure if you had sent bitcoins to someone in 2011, most of they would have either not cared about it or sold it instantly to get a few bucks.

I am so sure that if I receive 25 BTC in 2011, I would not care to save it, its private key and likely I lost it in the air too. Like people claimed 50 BTC from the first Bitcoin faucet by Gavin Andresen.

It's unlikely that they kept their coins theg must have sold as soon as the price rose.
Back then the traction of Bitcoin wasn't like it was today, just look at it the same way we view altcoins, as soon as the price of an altcoin that we are in possession of rise, I'm sure that 75% - 90% rush to sell to make profit that was how Bitcoin was back then most persons didn't believe Bitcoin would become what it is today. Even most of the people that claim that they were able to hodl theirs are those people that just abandoned their wallet without even having a single hope if it's going to worth something or not. If it was me I would sell off mine as soon as a single unit becomes $50 -$70

How I wonder what would be my life if I find this tournament that time and participated and become last place 

what would be the feeling of that least winner if he find the value of Bitcoin today considering if he forgot the bitcoin and just recover it today.

this would be the biggest prize ever given if being held today in a single tournament .

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25 bitcoins , lol even if its 1 bitcoin is more than enough to take home today .

It would also be hard for me to hold them even if the price goes above 20$. There will be more wealthy bitcoin persons if people knows that bitcoin will come this far. Though there are people who hold them and store them future, like now, there was no strong community back then, so I think almost everyone sold their bitcoin from that tournament.

My theory is majority of people who got rich from bitcoin they forget their wallet and later they restore it LOL 

Oh yeah, the Starcraft tournament... I wish I knew Starcraft in 2011. 

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. 

This is very old one and some users have posted about it earlier also but we can't regret or keep saying that it was lucky time for them if they have received btc as winning even on the last position also but we don't know if any of them stored their coins or sold them with few dollars only so maybe it was normal for them.Like we have faucets giving away 5 btc so if we were aware at that time and still hold it we would have been at different level.But still we can go to some profitable situation if we hold it long term.

They might've sold it the same year.
There is a high chance that those who got Bitcoins at that time doesn't know the capabilities of Bitcoin. I mean they don't have a time machine so they don't know at that time that this will be the future of Bitcoin thus, when they got the Bitcoins they might sell it a few days after.

Nevertheless, I feel a bit of regret on that one, but I guess even the organizers of that tournament don't know what will happen to Bitcoin 5-10 years from now that's why they just made it as a consolation prize. I agree with what you said though that maybe the ones who got those Bitcoins aren't involved in cryptocurrency at all, and just focused on games.

As a matter of fact, many people have been placed with this early days opportunities having bitcoin that could have amount millions of dollars by now, but the question is, even at this present days, people investing or earning bitcoin now may not all wait till after about years to past before they sell them out, which means people hodl and once they realizes little from their investment, they sell out, an average investor will only buy and hodl within the period of four years but it's rare to have someone holding for two halving to occur which is about eight years then sell, it would have turn a huge amount indeed.


Some sell because of fear whenever it's going dip, while some sell whenever it got a new ATH, but the fact is people still don't hold for that too long, they sell and buy again and the process continues,if you had bought at $30 and sell at $100 then i think you have realized something good, but after then, it may went down and still surge high to about $230 for instance after like 7 years, you may now be also saying, you would have hodl all these while, but getting in is never too late for bitcoin investors begin it will always have value.

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.

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.

Honestly me too, lol.
Getting to a price of $50 per unit is a particularly dramatic mental struggle given that there isn't much reference to bitcoin's potential for the next 10 years to encourage someone to HODLing.

However by now, this story has become some of the references anyone today has to hold onto bitcoin any longer if they're looking for the price.

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.

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Link to another the same and interesting story of getting paid bitcoin earlier(2013): A painter received $50 worth of bitcoin on June 2013.