8 Strangest Things Ever Won At A Video Game Event

6. Gold Bars - Counter Strike

Now I know I said before that this was going to be about prizes that were more than just cash payouts, but when your prize purse sees the winning team get actual gold bars presented to them, I think we can make an exception.

Such was the case for the winning team, Astralis, who managed to come out on top of the ESL Pro League Season 8, a tournament centred around Counter Strike that saw teams from five continents gather to shout, shoot, and swear their way through round after tense round of shooting.

The prize pot alone for this was just over one million dollars, making it not something to be sniffed at. The added bonus of a gold bar to add to the personal piggy bank must have been a pleasure to receive. One does have to wonder if this caused the team any issue travelling home as they went through airport security. The response to “why do you have gold bars in your suitcase” being "I won them playing video games" was probably not plausible.