It's been talked about for a while, it's been sort of on the agenda, but now it is finally coming. We will be aiming to get rid of the awards token system this year. This means all tokens currently in circulation will be nullified, the prize list will be abolished, and there will no longer be awards-sponsored material incentive given out for participation in awards tournaments.

Why is this happening?

If you look at the prize list, an overwhelming amount of items are provided by one person, with help from a small number of others. This is not sustainable. We cannot thrust the full weight of supporting this system onto one to a few poor sods who have to pay all of this out of their own pocket, without even getting so much as a thank you. Frankly, it's kind of appalling that we even did this for so long. Only through the generosity of a few select individuals did this system survive until now without collapsing. All attempts to reach out to people to contribute prizes of their own have failed; people like getting them, but not so much giving them. This is not a fair system.

Additionally, Steam has really fucked up people's ability to hold onto games and gifting them, making the buying of new prizes very inconvenient. We'd have to invest a lot of effort into finding a suitable alternative method, and ultimately it's not really worth it.

Additionally additionally, we waste weeks, if not months each year going through the lists and asking each person for their prize selection, hunting down inactive users, and dealing with Steam's bullshit. It's an ordeal.

tl;dr: It's a huge waste of time, effort, and money (of a select few people who bear all the costs).