They already tried to make Warband into an esport and I don't think it worked out that well?
- More incentives for competitive play, sure. Would prolong the game maybe bring some oldies back.
But actually becoming a big esport? Doubt it.
Toxicity has lots to do with it, or rather how it is dealt with. Taleworlds has a very strict forum policy, and active / involved moderators. The more important part is within the game though, every single tournament there has actual enforced rules and is handled much more professionally. Meanwhile look into any NW tournament hosted within the past couple of months / years and see people trolling their asses off with no regard to admins oftentimes, not to mention the chat which is always full of spam and toxicity. People here just don't seem to give a damn.
Fwuffy has a very good point. I believe that the majority of NW players (especially in the competetive line infantry side) mostly troll and don't really care to be serious anymore unfortunately, but I think Ledger also made a good point in this regard where he said that considering the community is so small, everyone practically knows eachother to some degree, so there's no incentive for some people not to stay serious. I personally don't think that any money incentive is required in order to stay non-"toxic", but hey, everyone's different.
Very few people gives a fuck about what's being said in global chat tbh.