Profile of Inverse

Beep boop

Dota 2, CSGO, LoL, SC2...

Sexy

Change the fundamental structure of the game and it's not really an RTS anymore though. I don't consider Men of War an RTS, for example, because it doesn't have resource collection or base building; it's a real-time tactics game because it focuses entirely on unit control and only has token macro strategic gameplay. Same goes for Dota, it's an RTS mod with a lot of RTS elements, but it's definitely not part of the RTS genre.

An RTS is really limited in scope to what you described, base building, resource management, and a combination of meaningful strategic and tactical options. Moving away from that structure might make for a better team experience, but it wouldn't be an RTS anymore. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I just don't think Relic will ever do something like that because it means designing an entirely different game.

Top 50 games in terms of prize money payout

There's a lot of games on that list that aren't "proper" competitive games. Quality of gameplay isn't everything when it comes to competitive popularlity; a lot of it is developer investment. Look at a game like World of Tanks. I'd argue its gameplay is less conducive to competitive play than CoH2's is and yet its competitive scene is huge in comparison, and over $1.5 million has been paid out in tournaments. In order to be a competitive success these days you don't really need a good competitive game, you need a game that people are willing to watch, and a good way to get people to watch is to throw money at tournaments and production value and promotions.

If Relic wanted to give CoH2 a shot at being a popular competitive game, they could totally do it; people have watched far lesser games in far greater numbers in the past. Unfortunately, this ESL league isn't a commitment to the future of the competitive scene, it's a simple marketing ploy. When the developers of the game get beaten by a community event from months ago, it's pretty clear they don't really care about making the competitive scene a priority.

Not to say it would work even if they made a serious commitment, of course. The game has a lot going against it, not least of which being the fact that it's an RTS, and a WWII-themed one at that, in an age where team games are flourishing. Short-term this sort of tournament is probably the best business decision they could make, since it gives them marketing and acts as a token gesture of support to the competitive scene. But the most popular multiplayer games right now also all have thriving competitive scenes, and this sort of half-assed attempt at appeasement isn't exactly going to win over any of those players. They had a chance here to take a risk and make a serious effort to generate buzz and grow this game's audience in the long term; instead, we get a few months of shitty weekly tournaments with a shitty format and less total prize money than OCF, that might make some existing players happy but won't do a thing beyond that. It's rather disappointing.