Paying fees to play in a tournament is a very normal thing in sports and has nothing to do with gambling. This also has nothing to do with the sponsor getting more money out, as this is not the case (but even if that was the case I wouldn't see anything wrong about that)We are the esports community, not a gamble community. No player needs to pay buy-ins but prizepool is made up bu sponsors wanting to get great matches. Like every other normal competition works. There is a neutral prizepool and if you lose you dont win and not lose extea money. A sponsor is a sponsor, he will always lose his money to either team. He is not an investor that has direct financal interests as in getting more money out of hosting the tournament as he put in. Aoe is about aoe, if you wanna gamble then there are other ways to do it.