The prize money is, yes, but it's completely different. This is a LAN league, set over many weeks, using time we have to pay for. Circumstances are completely different.. This is nothing like the cups you're referencing, to be blatantly honest.
A huge difference is that this is a LAN league, like I said, and is spread over many weeks. This in turn means that teams have to find the ability to travel to a centre for along the lines of 10 weeks, rather than to one event (and some of those cups don't even have LAN finals). As a result, teams which aren't local and don't have members in a somewhat close proximity of a centre are essentially unable to play.. So no top level teams here. Added on top of that, the play time has to be paid for.. A match is circa 1 hour long (give or take), but we'll say an hour and a half to allow for people getting in, readying up, etc. Now, if a division has ten teams like Ross expects, and each team plays every other team only once, that's nine matches for each team.. At a base rate of £3.50 per hour, each team is paying £236.25 to enter and play in the league - Provided they don't have a sub, whilst also discounting any time paid for and used to play practice matches.