Suggestions for Tournament Prizes

We are having some LAN tournaments. We need items from $100 to $500 that people will be motivated to win. If it was you, what would you like to win?

$500 already sounds like an attractive trophy :o)

$500 already sounds like an attractive trophy :o)

That is one of the questions. Is cash good or should we be giving gaming gear? We recently had visa cash cards as prizes but it didn't seem as good as something like an awesome monitor.

Don't make me regret I became mapper...

Don't make me regret I became mapper...

It takes place in murrica anyway!

It also depends a lot on the people who are going to participate, I think.
For the beginning, its probably a good idea to offer a monitor or other gaming gear. Depending on the players feedback or the general reception, you could later change to money prizes or so

What Debugger said I'd definitely agree with!

Once you do money straight away I think it does more harm then good longterm.
Prizes as new hardware items first, then money if you do future tournaments.

So which would you rather have as a prize personally?

BenQ 27-Inch Screen LED-lit Monitor

Sennheiser PC 350 headset

So which would you rather have as a prize personally?

BenQ 27-Inch Screen LED-lit Monitor

Sennheiser PC 350 headset

The monitor.

The monitor also