I just heard back from the organizer.
He couldn't give me an exact number, but what he did say was:
"If you needed to communicate something right away I would be comfortable saying we will substantially increase the prize money."
Last year the prize pool was $4000. I can say that with the sponsors we are looking at lining up, we are shooting for the $8-10,000 ballpark.
That number is totally up in the air right now, but it's what we're shooting for.
We are still working with the Royal and the Jack to see what we can do to become a qualifier.
Hopefully we can get that worked out...and get our prize money finallized as soon as possible.
It's a catch-22... It's easier to raise prize money if we know we have a larger number of competitors, and it's easier to get competitors with a larger prize pool.
I will post more information as it becomes available, and keep an eye on the website I posted at the begining of the thread.