Tournament Platform Start.gg to Eliminate Card Payments Following Stripe TOS Change
The FGC may soon be facing yet another hurdle for its tournament scene.
Start.gg, one of the top tournament management sites in esports, will soon remove the ability to process debit and credit cards through Stripe, a credit card payment processing platform. According to an email from Start.gg to tournament organizers obtained by Esports Illustrated, a recent change to Stripe's terms of service has necessitated that the platform no longer allow credit or debit card payments. Start.gg will still accept payments through Paypal. A full version of the email can be read at the bottom of this article.
Stripe recently updated the gambling section of its “Prohibited and Restricted Businesses” terms to include:
“Games of skill including video game and mobile game tournaments/competitions, card games, board games with a monetary or material prize”.
As a result, Start.gg will implement the following changes:
- Effective October 9th, Tournaments with paid events can no longer link Stripe accounts to their page.
- Effective October 9th, Tournaments with linked Stripe accounts cannot add any paid events.
- Effective November 1st, Stripe will be fully disabled on the platform to register for any tournament with paid events
This essentially bars esports events, fighting game tournaments, and card game tournaments from using Stripe as their credit card processing service if they offer any sort of prizing for the event. The news comes as the FGC in particular continues to reckon with overworked tournament organizers and events running in the red yearly. With more and more tournaments potentially facing cancellation, removing options to process credit and debit cards is just one more hurdle for the FGC to overcome.
For the FGC, this is particularly concerning as any attendee unwilling or unable to use Paypal to pay their registration fee will be simply unable to attend any tournament hosted on Start.gg. While online functionality has improved in many titles, the FGC as a whole still hosts all of its largest and most prestigious tournaments in person.
The change to Stripe's TOS could have far-reaching consequences beyond Start.gg as many tournament operation platforms and esports entities utilize Stripe.
Start.gg began life as Smash.gg, a platform dedicated to Super Smash Bros. and other fighting game tournament organization. The company was acquired by Microsoft in December of 2020, and rebranded to Start.gg in 2022. Start.gg has been the go-to tournament organization platform for every major fighting game tournament in recent years including Evo, CEO, Combo Breaker and Genesis.
Esports Illustrated has reached out to Stripe and Microsoft for further details.
The Start.gg email reads as follows:
