I don't know when the cash prize tournaments were announced, but I know that people were trying to be hardcore Spikes many months ago, even when there was no money on the line. People were insanely obsessive about collecting AEmber, even when they had to pay airfare to collect their prizes. So the cash prizes might take up more of the conversation, but there were people who were tournament grinders amongst our ranks all along.

I know people worry about sharks buying enough decks to get the best ones, but I think as long as that kind of expenditure is more expensive than the tournament prizes, we should be okay.

I understand the worry that cash prizes will bring more toxicity to the game. But my personal opinion it honestly won't. At least not for the reason most people think. As someone who played a lot of Magic back in the day I can say that I have had amazing experiences with good people. And played with some of the biggest jerks I have ever met in my entire life. I think the Magic community is probably more toxic because there are more people. So same way with KeyForge. With the influx of more people there will be more toxic people. But there will also be more genuinely great people as well.

I personally feel FFG needed to do something to keep the game's momentum going. It fixed so many issues a CCG (or even an LCG had), but that didn't seem to be the kicker in the long run. Last I checked Magic was still going strong. The first KeyForge set was super popular, but there seemed to be fatigue setting in with AOA. The cash announcement will get some people to re-join the community. And other people might check it out for the first time. It will add some legitimacy to the game for some. As mentioned earlier, some people will take it as a sign the game is not a flash in the pan but will be around for the foreseeable future.

TLDR: Cash prizes don't really make a community more toxic. An influx of more people will probably add some toxicity to the environment. But not all new players will be jerks. And this is a small price to pay to help build a future for the game.

Just my two cents.