Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

The three club owners looked at each other before Ding Gan spoke.

"Boss Pei, of course we have to fulfill our contract. We businessmen have the spirit of a contract. We cannot go back on our words."

"However… putting aside the little interlude before this, we genuinely support the GPL league."

"Why don't we do this? We'll give you 15 million yuan as promised. Other than that, each club is willing to give you another 5 million yuan. The three clubs could give you a total of 60 million yuan. We'll buy three more GPL slots. What do you think?"

Obviously, the three club owners had discussed this before they came.

At this point, they had very few options left.

They definitely could not break the contract. That was equivalent to falling out with Boss Pei and all the other clubs that had just won the GPL quota. He would not be able to keep his face and money.

Of course, these three clubs could also choose to take the money and leave. However, if that happened, it would be almost impossible for them to return to the GPL league.

That was because according to the situation of this auction, the slots for the GPL league would definitely become more and more expensive. Now that 15 million yuan had been sold together with the slots, it was absolutely impossible to buy them back in the future.

Thus, these three clubs wanted to give it a try and see if Boss Pei could give them an additional three slots if they gave him twenty million yuan.

That would be directly expanding the quota for the GPL league to 19.

That was because the GPL league had not been finalized yet. There was still room for discussion.

However, if the GPL's schedule and competition format were finalized in a month or two, it would be impossible to add more people.

In this way, the three clubs would be paying their own GOG branch and five million yuan to keep the GPL spot. They would still lose money, but at least they could stay.

As for Boss Pei…

The 60 million yuan in this period should be able to move Boss Pei a little, right?

As for how to arrange the schedule of the 19 teams and how to appease the other clubs… These minor details were not that important.

The three club owners looked at Boss Pei expectantly.

The corners of Pei Qian's mouth twitched.

You even want to give me money?

What's more, you are offering 60 million yuan without any warning?

Pei Qian was still thinking about how he should spend the hundred million yuan. He has just made some progress when the three clubs are sending him another sixty million yuan!

"No!" Pei Qian said firmly.

The three bosses were stunned.

Boss Pei… was that determined?

It was 60 million yuan! Shouldn't he take more time to think about it carefully?

Ding Gan hesitated for a moment. "Er… Boss Pei, we can still discuss the amount…"

"How about we add some more?"

Pei Qian sniggered inside.

More money?

He took a sip of tea and quickly thought of an excuse to refuse.

"This is not about money at all.

"The 16 slots were set a long time ago. If we add more, the schedule would be difficult to arrange."

"If we really add 19 teams, not only would there be competitions every day, but the interval between each team's competitions would also become too long, which would be detrimental to maintaining standards."

"Tengda is a company that keeps its word. It has already told the other clubs and audiences that there are only 16 GPL league slots. If we accept money to do something, it would be equivalent to slapping ourselves in the face."

"That's impossible."

The three club owners looked at each other with bitter expressions.

Who could they blame?

They could only say that they had been muddle-headed in that moment. At first, they were the ones holding on to their GPL slots, laughing as the others fought so hard to get in. Now, they had lost their spots.

They were up early but failed to catch the worm, who could stand that!

Ding Gan still did not give up. He proposed a new plan. "Boss Pei, why don't we do this? There should be a promotion and demotion system for the GPL league, right? We can build a new team and fight back to the GPL. That should be okay, right?"

Pei Qian remained silent for a moment. "There is no promotion system for the GPL league."

"There will be internet cafe competitions and professional competitions for GDL. GDL spots will be given to the internet cafe competitions. However, without the promotion competition, the GDL champion will not be able to obtain a GPL spot."

The three club owners were flabbergasted. They looked extremely pained, as if they had lost a hundred million yuan.

Pei Qian had been thinking about the entire structure of GOG's E-Sports League these few days.

Internet cafe league and GDL must be done, but the key was whether or not there would be a promotion competition.

In fact, whether or not there was a promotion competition did not affect Pei Qian much. That was because the officials would not be able to obtain income directly.

Thus, Pei Qian considered this from the perspective of the entire competition.

After all, he had another identity as an ordinary audience in the GPL league. In order to watch more exciting competitions and to win glory in the world finals, Pei Qian had to establish a better system for the GPL league.

The experience in Pei Qian's memory explained: the promotion competition might look beautiful, but it did not mean much in reality. Instead, it would have a certain negative effect.

Many people thought that the promotion competition would put pressure on the last team in the GPL. At the same time, it would motivate the leading team of GDL. It would make the competition more intense and help improve the overall level.

However, the problem was that this theory was too idealistic. In reality, the situation was completely the opposite.

For the last team in the GPL, the pressure of the promotion competition was indeed very high. That was because once they were demoted, it would mean that all their investment would be wasted and they would suffer heavy losses.

However, under such circumstances, most clubs would not train newbies or train newbies in order to successfully maintain their level. Instead, they would choose to let experienced players continue playing.

That was because there was a risk in hiring new players. Once they failed, they would suffer heavy losses. On the other hand, even though the old players had no potential or upper limit, they were stable enough. They were very good at torturing noobs.

Even if the veteran players were beaten up as experience babies in the GPL league, it would be enough as long as they could torture the leading team.

For GDL teams, directly spending money on powerful old players or external help in order to snatch the GPL spots was the fastest way to achieve that.

Thus, a system that was meant to strengthen competition objectively made all teams focus on the paper strength in front of them and ignore the long-term goals.

Some rookies with potential would find it difficult to compete in such a utilitarian environment. It completely went against the original intention of the system.

On the other hand, the promotion system would be revoked. Each club would promote more new players, and their playstyles would be more aggressive. There would not be a situation where both teams wanted stability and did not dare to fight.

Thus, after much consideration, Pei Qian decided that it would be better not to have a promotion system.

Ding Gan grimaced. "Boss Pei, does that mean our clubs will never be able to return to GPL?"

"Boss Pei, our SUG has been in the esports field for many years. If the GPL excludes us, it would be a loss!"

Pei Qian looked at the three club owners and said, "That… is not entirely impossible."

"If you want to maintain the GPL quota, you need to continue investing. Once the club is at the bottom and loses continuously, it would not be able to bring the brand value to the parent company and would instead become a burden. There would definitely be clubs that want to leave."

"At this time, we will be the intermediary to transfer the GPL quota.

"As for the clubs that have achieved good results in the GDL league, they would receive a 30% discount when purchasing a GPL spot.

In other words, when a certain club burned money but could not produce results, they could choose to hire newbies and train newbies. If they continued to endure, they could also choose to transfer. They could stop losses in time and also earn a sum of money.

That way, not only would they be able to guarantee the interests of the current GPL League teams, but they would also not suffer too much loss whether they stayed or left. They would be able to invest without worry and would also be able to provide convenience to the GDL League clubs.

Ding Gan and the other two club bosses remained silent for a long time before nodding helplessly.

"Alright, Boss Pei."

They had no other choice. This was the best solution that they could fight for.

At the very least, they still had 15 million yuan in their hands.

First, they would play in the GDL, form teams, and train players. After they achieved results, some outstanding players could be sold to GPL teams at a high price. At the same time, when the GPL quota changed, they would be given priority to enter and spend less money.

The bosses of the three clubs had not expected this. They had only wanted to put some pressure on Tengda to make some concessions on the contestants' contract.

They did not think that he would lose the game and end up in this way.

…

After the three club owners left, Pei Qian said to Zhang Yuan, "I've thought about the rules for the GPL league."

"Internet cafe competition, professional development league GDL, professional league GPL. The GPL slots are like what I said just now. There will be no promotion or demotion, but they can be transferred."

"As for the money that these clubs spent on the slots, we'll split it into three parts."

"The first part is to be returned to these clubs so that they can specialize in it to maintain the budding training base. Each club must have a budding training base that can be used to absorb some young and promising new players who are not strong enough to play in the professional league. It will allow these new players to experience the professional atmosphere in advance so that they can view the playing profession seriously and be prepared."

"The second part is to support the development of the GDL and internet cafe competitions. Professional development competitions have relatively low attention. Give these clubs more opportunities to support and expose themselves."

"The third part will be used for daily operations, maintenance, and construction of the GPL."

Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment. "Huh? Boss Pei, you're only using this bit of money to maintain the daily operations of the GPL? I don't think we can cover the rent and other miscellaneous expenses of that venue, right?"

Pei Qian nodded. "Of course, we can't cover it. We can't cover it with this amount of money anyway."

"In the future, we can sell tickets for competitions, we can have sponsors and advertisers. There are many ways to generate profits."

"Tengda is the organizer. Don't always look at the small profits in front of you. You have to look far ahead. If you don't have enough money, Tengda will pay for you first. We'll talk about it when you earn more money in the future."

Zhang Yuan instinctively straightened his back.

Indeed, Boss Pei had a long-term vision!

He might not be able to see much in the short term if he were to spend this sum of money, but in the long term, it would definitely improve the ecology of the entire E-Sports industry!

Actually, Pei Qian did not think too much about it. He only chose a plan with the lowest chance of making money.

There were only three ways to spend this sum of money: either spend it on the league and promote it as much as possible, or spend it all on the club and modify the training base and environment; or spend it on the cultivation system.

On the other hand, it would be very easy to quickly improve its competitiveness, enhance it's viewership, and attract attention if one were to smash the game to a league or a club. If that happened and many sponsors were attracted to the game, they might not even be able to make it through the cycle and start generating profits.

Based on past experience, this was highly possible.

Thus, after much consideration, Pei Qian decided to focus on the cultivation system and build a budding training base for the club to support the development of GDL and internet cafe competitions. That would slow down the effectiveness and allow them to persevere.