Mobile esports startup Skillz is hosting a $100,000 Solitaire Cube tournament.
It’ll be the largest solitaire tournament ever hosted, according to the site. Players can participate in the tournament on the Skillz app, where they’ll play Solitaire Cube, an iteration developer Tether Studios calls a “modern version of the classic” game.
Skillz thinks 40,000 players will sign up for the tournament, hoping for a chance to win the $10,000 first prize.
“The popularity of solitaire made it a natural fit for Skillz, a platform that makes esports accessible to everyone,” Tether Studios CEO Tim O’Neil said in a statement. “When we built Solitaire Cube, we never imagined we would one day host the largest competition in the most popular game of all time.”
Related: Leffen plans to give some of his Melee Evo winnings to lower-placed players
Everyone plays solitaire. Mobile tracking platform App Annie reported that 17 million people play solitaire online every day, which Skillz says makes the card game more popular than Fortnite.
The prize pool will be spread across the top 1,000 players, Skillz said. It was important for the solitaire tournament to be inclusive of winners, since the game is so widely-played.
“In keeping with our mission, we designed this event to be accessible to everyone,” Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise said. “Only 24 teams had the opportunity to win prizes in the League of Legends World Championship, but for a game like solitaire with billions of players, the tournament structure needs to be more inclusive.”
Players can join the tournament through the app, which is downloadable on iOS and Android devices.
Unequal distribution of prize money was brought up during this year’s Evo event, after TSM Super Smash Bros. Melee player William “Leffen” Hjelte promised to pass on a portion of his winnings to lower-placed participants in the event.
“Right now, the top players get way more money-wise than anyone else, in both sponsors and prize money,” Leffen wrote on Twitter. “I’ve always hated that so few can play full-time because of this. Melee has given me so much, so it’s only fair I give back.”
Skillz’ Solitaire Cube prize pool is spread across 1,000 players, but the majority of the money will be awarded for the top 20. Folks that have placed between first and 10th will earn at least $2,000—it starts at $10,000 for first and scales down from there, according to the prize pool list sent to Dot Esports. From 11th to 20th, players will earn at least $1,000. Places 50 to 1,000 earn a range of $250 to $1.
