Announcing Lichess Titled Arena 5

Uxxxx tournaments are dangerous, especially with prizes, as they encourage artificial rating manipulation (which is forbidden of course).

Fair enough! I agree with that, rating manipulations are possible, and the idea of starting fee is suspicious and not in the spirit of Lichess.
But it is an interesting topic. It should be possible for anybody to win something by just sitting at home and playing chess. It brings another feeling. I see many amateurs who won prizes and be extremely happy with that, even keeps the envelope with an award in a frame :)

@PArnaudov have you heard of Kontra chess? https://kontrachess.com/

At the moment you can gamble with play money. I'm not sure if they plan on implementing real money in the future. It's a lot of fun though.

Oh great another tournament 99% of lichess players cannot play in.

@Imspartacus1991 perhaps it's motivation for 99% patzers to get their title and be awarded with a chance to play Magnus ;)
1+0 is definitely good time control, greatly reduces cheating and is still amazing to watch with all that tactics and crazy positions :)
Uxxxx tournaments with serious prizes is a waste, since people are sandbagging even without prizes or for 25$ prize (as there was one famous case...).
By the way Lichess Titled Arena is most exciting tournament there to watch, so nice that Magnus supports it 100%. 1st prize is reasonable, since it is all the time inviting attempts to beat World Champ and take away the piggie bank :)

I am still waiting for Hikaru and Karjakin presence :)

Having the chance to play against the world champion online is amazing.

Why is there a huge difference between first prize and the rest? Seems kinda unfair to me.