What is your experience running cash/gift card tournaments for a new game? I announced a €100 launch tournament yesterday and got zero interest.

Hi everyone.

I’m a solo dev and I recently launched my first major multiplayer Android game (1v1 / 2v2 / Battle Royale card battler). The core gameplay is heavily inspired by a traditional physical card game from my region called "Watten."

In the real world, Watten has a huge culture of local tournaments with small cash prizes or gift baskets. I thought it would be a really fun idea to bring that tournament culture into the digital space.

Yesterday, I announced a free-to-enter weekend tournament with a €100 prize pool (paid in gift cards to avoid issues). I was super excited about it, but the response was... not so good. I got almost no new installs and virtually zero engagement on the posts.

Is this just not something mobile/indie gamers care about ?
Do people assume small indie tournaments are scams?
Is €100 too low to motivate players to learn a new card game?
Or is the idea of a "tournament" just inherently flawed because people haven't had time to learn the meta yet?

For context, the game has no P2W mechanics, so it’s a purely skill-based climb.

I actually wanted to run Advertising from my small budged, but i tought a Tournament could be a cool way to Advertise my game while giving something back to the community.