The total prize pool for ASUS Cup Spring 2006 is a nice round number of 1’000’000 Russian Rubles (or ~37’000 U.S. Dollars), which surely will be enough to secure the immediate future of the victors in every discipline. And when it comes to Counter Strike, its no less then half of that money, 500'000 Russian Rubles.

Total Prize Pool	500’000 RUB	(~18’500 USD)
1st	160’000 RUB	(~5’900 USD)
2nd	110’000 RUB	(~4’000 USD)
3rd	70’000 RUB	(~2'	600 USD)
4th	50’000 RUB	(~1850 USD)
5th-8th	27’500 RUB	(~1000 USD)

Nice fat checks will go into pockets of forty lovely young men, ensuring their financial stability and independence at least for the celebratory night out. And although the prize pool increase is not as significant as other disciplines (percentage wise) it is still a hefty 6'500 dollars addition.

Another thing that makes ASUS special is how relatively easy it is to get into the payoff zone. "All" you have to do is get in the playoff stage, and you are safely packing a thousand green ones. ASUS decided to sidestep the way of WEG and such, and to stick to what it really is- a "player first, show second" environment. Here's what Dmitriy 'c58’d1monn' Kuznetsov, the manager of the ASUS series, had to say:

Very few are capable of placing in Top 3, but when it comes to Top 8 a lot of people stand a chance to get their money’s worth. This is completely different concept (then WEG): we either feed a selected few gosus, or give the taste of glory for amateurs striving for recognition... We also try to encourage people from other regions who spent money on traveling here to come.