Rewards are being sent as KARA, and seeing how UMY are being dumped by players, there also comes a high chance that most of these players who'd win in PvP will also dump their rewards.
Let us look at brackets as an example [1 KARA = $5.4]:
Top 1 : 9,259.26 KARA Top 2 : 1,851.85 KARA Top 3 - 10 : 4,444.44 KARA Top 11 - 30 : 3,703.70 KARA Top 31 - 100 : 6,481.48 KARA Top 101 - 200 : 2,962.96 KARA TOTAL : 28,703.69 KARA
That's a staggering amount and any of these brackets can initiate a selling spree so what is the safeguard currently in place to avoid such incident to occur? None. Why? Previously, the project party just airdropped all of these to the winners, and it would be a disaster if it were to be done in this approach in a higher amount. January 29, there was already a start of decline in KARA's price towards $3/KARA from $4/KARA.
By doing a linear release of KARA to winners, we can avoid such incidents from occurring, especially for the top 1. Now, imagine if no linear release were to occur and join that with the possibility of all bracket winners on dumping all at once. Remind you that UMY, which has in-game use, are being dumped even at low-price value... so what more for KARA which has no in-game use and is at a higher price value?
Linear release will be up to the devs to decide.