Starting December 22, GameBattles and Sony Computer Entertainment of America will host a Resistance 2 tournament with over $50,000 worth of cash and prizes for the winners. That'll put a dent in your holiday debt.

Teams of up to four from around the country can compete in the open challenge system for a slot in the tournament. Registration for the ladder part of the tournament starts December 22 and ends February 28. From there, 64 teams will go into single-elimination rounds and duke it out over the month of March.

Winners will be announced March 31. Here's what the top slots will get:

1st Place (1 team) - $9,000
2nd Place (1 team) - $3,000
3rd Place (2 teams) - $1,800 per team
5th Place (4 teams) - $1,200 per team
9th Place (8 teams) - $750 per team
17th Place (16 teams) - $600 per team
33rd Place (32 teams) - $450 per team

Sony hasn't said anything about consolation prizes – so I can only assume it would suck to be in 4th Place.

Send an email to AJ Glasser, the author of this post, at amanda@kotaku.com.