Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

In the hotel, FV Club's data analysis team was discussing and analyzing today's competition with the team members.

The members of FV Club only participated in the opening ceremony today and returned after watching the first four matches.

The main purpose of watching the competition live was to feel the atmosphere of the competition venue in advance. After all, the players had never competed in such a large venue before and were cheered by 20,000 audience.

Since the venue was different, the pressure on the team members was naturally different as well.

The audience's applause and cheers were like a tsunami in a stadium with tens of thousands of people. If it was a critical match, the pressure on the players would increase exponentially.

Under such circumstances, most players would be nervous, their hands would tremble, and they would be sweating. Only a small portion of players would be excited, more focused, and perform beyond their level.

That was the value of the so-called players with big hearts and competition type players.

Of course, big hearts were something that people were born with. Some people could become famous after playing the competition for the first time in their teens, while others had been playing for several years, but their mentality would still shatter with a single touch.

However, this mentality could still be improved to a certain extent.

The members of FV Club had especially felt the atmosphere at the venue today and mentally prepared themselves in advance. They would probably feel better when the top eight competitions start.

Of course, the focus of the discussion was still on the competition.

"There's no need to talk about today's first match. The difference in strength between the two sides is too huge. Their understanding of the game version and tactics are wrong. There's no reference value."

"Both sides played well in the second round, but the mid-term decisions were too rough. There are many areas that could be improved…"

DGE Club's current coach, Zhou Pengyuan, was in the midst of reviewing the matches. The other members of the data analysis team, including the team members, were also constantly expressing their views as well.

After analyzing, Zhou Pengyuan gave a simple summary.

"Based on the situation on the first day of the group stage, these teams' understanding of the game version and play style are very different from ours."

"It's hard to say whose interpretation is the correct version. We cannot be too blindly confident."

"How about this? Tomorrow, SUG and FV Team Two, you can each go and practice with the mainstream play styles that appeared in the group stages. Use this playstyle to play a mock competition with Team One and see how the effects are."

"We don't have to learn other people's playstyles, but we have to at least have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of such playstyles."

Zhou Pengyuan assigned the tasks while the others noted them down.

The players would not be watching the competition tomorrow. The stats analysis team would watch the competition and review it. Then, they would tell the players the results of the competition and review it at night.

The players had to continue training. They had to study the playstyles of the other teams and expand their pool of heroes to maintain their hand sensitivity.

After completing all the tasks, everyone dispersed and returned to their rooms to rest.

After the three cameramen finished filming the day's material, they prepared to return to their rooms to edit the video and post it on Weibo.

Wu Yue quickly stopped the three cameramen, Manager Lu, and the others.

"Everyone, don't be in a hurry to leave. I have something to tell you."

"Boss Pei gave us a task just now. He wanted us to work harder on Weibo. What's more, we have to work on Weibo and Twitter at the same time…"

Wu Yue explained Boss Pei's requirements in detail.

All in all, how could they generate high popularity and high traffic? Treat both domestic and foreign teams equally and attack them!

After hearing Boss Pei's request, everyone's expressions were similar to Wu Yue's. They were all at a loss.

"How is this a performance job? This is obviously attracting hatred! The local players back at home are filled with resentment now. We were just worried that there was no breakthrough. The other two clubs are pretending to be dead. If we jump out now, wouldn't we be standing out to take the blunt of the hit?"

"I think it's alright. We're not the ones who lost the competition."

"The problem is that we didn't win either… If we do it now, passers-by will think that we are arrogant and kicking others when they are down. The fans of the other two clubs will also hate us. We will definitely be crushed by them!"

"Perhaps what Boss Pei is trying to say is that we should try something funny? We should not mock other teams."

"That's impossible. What Boss Pei wants is popularity and traffic. If we don't form teams against the other teams, how can we have popularity and traffic? Boss Pei is basically telling us to attack without any worries."

"We will definitely be criticized. The team members will be under a lot of pressure."

"It's alright. The team members can't play with their phones or surf the net. They won't know."

"But what's the point of doing this? The risks and rewards we take are not proportional."

If it was someone else's suggestion, everyone would have rejected it without even thinking. Was he afraid that he would not die quick enough before the battle?

There was no need!

However, since it was Boss Pei's request, they had to think of a way to fulfill it.

Everyone discussed for a long time but could not come to a conclusion. They could only follow his instructions.

It was a good thing that there were many people in the accompanying team. They could go online and search for interesting memes. Then, they could express themselves freely. They could find suitable pictures or videos, and they could quickly find materials to start an attack on Weibo.

The three photographers could photoshop pictures and edit videos, and translate them into bilingual subtitles for the performance.

…

The discussion about the opening day of the IOI International Finals continued throughout the day.

That was because many people did not stay up late to watch IOI's global finals. They only knew about the results of yesterday's competition when they woke up. Many GOG players participated in the discussion when they saw that both domestic teams had lost.

The true strength of the domestic teams was obviously the focus of everyone's discussion.

Both teams had lost their first battle in the group stages. The risk of qualifying had suddenly increased. Naturally, everyone would feel that the overall standard of domestic teams in IOI was much worse than foreign teams.

The world finals had just begun. Many viewers seemed to have already seen its tragic ending.

Comparatively, FV Club was the least spoken about since they had yet to compete, the topics were all focused on the other two teams that had lost.

The audience were busy catching the culprits and naturally had no interest in FV Club's "extravagant life ".

However, the players did not expect FV Club to post on Weibo again!

What's more, the content of this Weibo post was not about eating, drinking, and having fun. Instead, it was a mocking picture.

This picture was photoshopped together. The top half was a picture of an overseas swimming pool. In the upper right corner of the picture was a middle-aged man lifting the child high up out of the water with a smile on his face. The middle-aged man had a Tengda logo on his head while the child had an FV Club logo on his face.

On the left side of the middle-aged man was a struggling child who was struggling as if he was about to sink to the bottom. The second half of the picture was a picture of the bottom of the lake. A skeleton was sitting on a chair and seemed to have been dead for many years.

The two pictures were forcefully photoshopped together.

On the faces of the child and the skeleton were the logos of the other two domestic clubs: the one struggling on the surface of the water was the team that had been turned around after a fierce battle; the one at the bottom of the water was the team that had been flattened by 30 minutes during the opening battle.

The main message on Weibo was a sentence in Chinese and English: "My good brothers, are you alright? / Waving / Waving / Waving"

Once this post was uploaded, it immediately attracted the attention of countless players who were fighting.

The sarcasm was fully expressed!

The meaning was very clear. The other two clubs were in a worrying situation now. One of them had sunk to the bottom while the other was still struggling. However, they were not far from the bottom. Only FV Club was floating happily on the water, looking like they did not need to worry and had victory in their hands.

The Weibo post was filled with ridicule. On the surface, it looked like a greeting, but this "/ waving" expression, looked like they were waving goodbye to these two clubs.

As expected, they were criticized not long after it was posted on Weibo.

"That's so tasteless! Is this how brother teams kick people while they're down?"

"Hehe, the only reason you can still make sarcastic remarks now is because you did not appear yet. You are waiting for the top eight to be eliminated at 3: 0!"

Of course, there were also some other voices, but they were mostly neutral. They did not criticize or support him.

"It's alright. This is just a joke. Don't be too fragile."

"The problem is that those two teams did not fight well. If they did not fight well, why didn't they say anything?"

"Sigh, I suggest we don't post too many controversial Weibo posts at such a critical juncture. It's really easy to attract criticism."

Many FV Club fans were also worried for them. They were afraid that these Weibo posts would be criticized like dogs should they lose the competition.

However, less than ten minutes later, FV Club updated another Weibo post.

"We have a hunch that the 'damage conversion rate' of the entire FV team is not optimistic."

There were two more comparison pictures below. The first was "The Economics of Food of Other Teams". The accompanying picture was the accommodation and food choices of Courtyard by Marriott. The second was "The Economy of Food of FV Team". The accompanying picture was the accommodation and food choices of Ritz Carlton Hotel.

On the surface, it meant that the food and accommodation conditions were akin to the economy of eating in the game. Since FV Team's food and accommodation conditions were much better than other teams, they would have more money to eat and the damage conversion rate would be much lower.

However, in reality, they were showing off their better food and accommodation status.

The audience had yet to react, and even the haters had not thought of suitable ways to criticize them before FV Club had also updated their Weibo and tweets!

The content this time was much simpler. They only tagged a few traditional teams from overseas, including the first seed of the European and American competition zones. The attached picture was a promotional slogan on the wall of a village in China: "Recognize the situation and give up on fantasy."

In less than an hour, FV Club had uploaded four or five posts on Weibo and Twitter, all of which were in Chinese and English.

In China, there were still many people scolding on Weibo at first, but slowly, the number of people scolding became fewer and fewer.

That was because everyone realized that FV Club's work was still endless even though they were already out of words.

What's more, FV Club was not only doing it for domestic teams, but also for foreign teams…

For example, the second Weibo post was openly mocking the food and accommodation conditions of all the other teams, while the third post was declaring war on the other foreign seed teams.

Thus, by the time they reached the last few Weibo posts, most domestic players felt that FV Club was overconfident and could no longer continue to comment.

That was because FV Club did not have any competitions now. They had to wait until they lost the competition before scolding them even if they were to scold them for being arrogant. Otherwise, what would happen if they really won the foreign team after scolding them?

While many netizens in the country did not like such high-profile Weibo posts, they had to admit that it had a very good effect. The attention was immediately maxed out.

At first, everyone had been criticizing the two clubs that had lost the competition. Now that FV Club had suddenly jumped out to mock them, that naturally attracted everyone's attention.

The attention on the official Twitter account of FV Club was also increasing rapidly!

That was because Tengda had invested in many foreign veteran clubs. Thus, they only had to say hello and these clubs would interact with the official accounts of FV Club. Once they interacted, fans would come.

These live tweets were obviously much more accepted overseas. The comments section was filled with "LOL" and other laughing emojis.

After all, humility was a virtue to domestic players. They felt that they could not speak too confidently, for fear that they would be slapped in their face later on. However, foreign players did not care much about these things. They had the mindset of watching a good show, and would not think too much of it even if they were slapped in the face afterwards.

Thus, the attention of the official account of FV Club on Twitter was rapidly increasing. Several veteran clubs also followed them and expressed their appreciation for FV Club.

However, right after that, FV Club pulled these veteran clubs together to AOE.

The new post and tweet content was: "Genealogy of Tengda Family."

The bottom part of the picture was a tree-like family tree. Tengda was at the top of the tree-like picture. There was a thicker line connecting FV Club and labeling it as 'biological son'. There were also some thinner lines connected to other established European and American clubs such as FRY,labelling them as 'godsons'.

Obviously, FV Club sat in business class and stayed in a luxurious five-star hotel because they were treated by Tengda like its own son. On the other hand, the other clubs were only given sponsorships without giving a care to their food, accommodation, and other things. Naturally, they were treated as godsons.

What's more, it was not easy to refute this. FRY and the other veteran clubs had indeed received Tengda's sponsorship. Tengda's logo was even on their uniforms, anyone with eyes could see them.

Once this post was published, it immediately had the effect of killing the competition and was reposted by other players!

"Oh my god, FV Club has gone crazy… After they were done messing with the local and foreign clubs, they are now playing with the mentality of these participating teams…"

"They can't do anything useful but are best in performance!"

"I'm convinced. Their performance has indeed shown the standards of the first seeded team of our country."

"That's strange. FV Club's Weibo wasn't like this before. Why did they suddenly change to a new media operations editor?"

"I guess it was suggested by the club owner!"

"This wave must have been planned by Boss Pei. It's the same as the IOI qualifiers before. Everything was planned!"

When FV Club's first Weibo post was published, it indeed aroused the disgust of many people. After all, the entire performance was like trash talk. If they wanted to create a program effect, it would definitely cause a portion of people to feel disgusted.

However, many people suddenly accepted this setting and found it rather interesting after FV Club persisted on a few posts!

That was because FV Club did not only open fire on domestic teams, but also on foreign teams. They treated everyone equally and brought a lot of joy to the netizens. It also diluted the depressing atmosphere of the previous two teams losing the competition.

Coupled with the updated food and accommodation conditions on FV's Weibo, all the attention, be it domestically or overseas, were focused on FV Club.

They had yet to compete but the attention that FV Club received still increased rapidly, and it quickly surpassed the other two clubs!

…

At the same time, in a hotel near the headquarters of Finger Games…

Zhao Xuming swiped his cell phone and said with a dark expression, "Sh*t, how unlucky!"

For the past two days, Zhao Xuming had been visiting Finger Games. Chrétien had asked the employees of Finger Games to accompany him the entire time. It could be said that he had given him a lot of face and maxed out the treatment.

Zhao Xuming had also gone to the competition venue to watch the two domestic teams' matches today. In the end, he was filled with anger.

It was too embarrassing!

It would be alright if he won one of the two rounds. At the very least, they would win the first round.

In the end, both teams lost. One lost as though they had diarrhea while the other lost like they were constipated. It was hard to tell which team was more embarrassing.

Of course, Zhao Xuming had the right to be angry. After all, Long Yu Corporation had spent money to arrange for these two teams to come to Los Angeles for training in advance. They only managed to come up with this after training for so long?

All the money had been wasted!

However, Zhao Xuming did not say anything. After all, this was only the first day of the competition. If these two clubs played well, they would still be able to qualify. Thus, he decided to comfort them and not be too harsh on them as it would affect the players' mentality.

Initially, Zhao Xuming had already adjusted his mentality. However, FV Club's actions had caused him to collapse again.

Previously, Zhao Xuming had thought that the situation could not be any worse after both domestic teams lost on the first day of the group match, right?

He realized now that he was too inexperienced.

FV Club worked hard on Weibo and Twitter, and even interacted with foreign clubs. It directly attracted most of the domestic popularity and also attracted many fans overseas.

Many people might be criticizing them but being criticized was part of being popular.

FV Club was originally just a small club and had no reputation overseas. This wave of Weibo posting directly raised its status to the same level as established European and American clubs like FRY. It could be said to be profitable.

Of course, Zhao Xuming could not accept this.

That was because everyone knew that FV Club was a club that Tengda had invested in. The stronger FV's presence was, the worse Zhao Xuming would feel.

However, Zhao Xuming did not have any good ideas. He could not possibly tell Weibo and Twitter to block FV Club's official account, right? That would not do.

He could only feign ignorance.

At that moment, there was another notification on his cell phone. It was a new Weibo post from FV Club.

Zhao Xuming was speechless. "Again? When will they be done!"

He clicked on it and realized that it was a Weibo post on Tengda's family tree. Not only was there FV club, but there were also clubs like FRY that were sponsored by Tengda.

"What the hell is this?!"

"This is too much!"

Zhao Xuming was even angrier when he saw this post.

He had already noticed that many veteran European and American clubs had Tengda's sponsorship logo on their uniforms.

GOG's logo was actually on the team uniform on the stage of IOI's international finals. That was too embarrassing.

This matter was like a thorn in Zhao Xuming's heart, this thorn burrowed deeper into his heart after this Weibo post was up.

How did the clubs become Tengda's sons?

Once this picture was posted, it gave the netizens a feeling that the clubs in the finals were from Tengda and had nothing to do with Finger Games.

This was akin to riding their faces into the ground!

"Boss Pei had already sponsored these clubs a few months ago. Now that I think about it, he is really sinister!"

"If we continue like this, GOG's logo would appear on screen, be it in the small windows of the players in the competition or in the interviews after the competition. Wouldn't that be akin to advertising for GOG?"

"What's more, the more powerful teams there are left, the more frequent this situation would become…"

Zhao Xuming suddenly realized that this was a very serious problem especially if they were to think about the beautiful web of interconnectedness of the situation.

In the semifinals, perhaps all four teams would have GOG's logo on them. After the competition, they would be able to see GOG's logo no matter which team went on stage…

Terrifying!

In fact, it was equivalent to IOI spending a few million yuan to organize a grand international finals but in the end, Tengda Games they took advantage of the popularity of the IOI Finals to achieve excellent publicity through sponsoring a few clubs…

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The more he took a step back to think, the more he felt he was in a disadvantageous state.

After much consideration, Zhao Xuming decided to give Chrétien a call.

It was not impossible to remove GOG's logo now.

All he had to do was ask the clubs to breach the contract and pay the penalty.

However, he could not allow the clubs to fork out their own money. This money could only be paid by Finger Games. Of course, Zhao Xuming did not know how much the sponsorship fee was or how much the penalty would be.

However, they should choose the lesser of two evils. Instead of being taken advantage of by GOG from beginning to end, he might as well cut his losses and spend a sum of money to get rid of all the elements related to GOG in the group stage!

…

30 minutes later.

Zhao Xuming had been waiting for Chrétien's call. However, he couldn't help but feel worried since there was no response after waiting for so long.

Chrétien also agreed with Zhao Xuming's point of view. He felt that the frequent appearance of GOG's logo in the IOI global finals was very uncomfortable.

Thus, Chrétien decided to give the various clubs a call to ask how they had signed the sponsorship contract and how much they would have to pay if they broke the contract.

That took a long time.

Finally, the phone on the table rang. Zhao Xuming quickly picked it up.

Chrétien sounded a little helpless on the other end of the line. "I just asked. Tengda has sponsored ten clubs in total, one million US dollars each. They would have to double the compensation if they were to breach their contracts."

"Most of these clubs are in the world finals.

"I expect five such teams to enter the top eight, two to three teams to enter the top four. If we consider the top eight, we would have to pay ten million US dollars for breaching the contracts; if we consider the top four, we would have to pay four to six million US dollars for breaching the contract."

"This sum of money… is a little too much."

Zhao Xuming was at a loss for words.

Boss Pei had sponsored so much money?!

Previously, Zhao Xuming did not know the exact amount. According to the domestic price standards, each club could obtain a logo after sponsoring one million yuan, which was about 150,000 US dollars.

They could pay double the penalty fee if it was at this price.

He had not expected Boss Pei to spend so much money to sponsor these clubs. One million US dollars per club!

The clubs would definitely not be able to fork out the money themselves if they wanted to breach the contract. Dayak Corporation would have to fork out the money. However, they would have to fork out four to six million US dollars even if they only allowed the top four teams to breach the contract. This amount was really unacceptable.

Chrétien said, "I think it's too much of a loss for such a huge sum of money, so… forget it."

Spending millions of dollars just to remove the GOG logo on the participating teams? That was too stupid.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Xuming said, "That's true if we only consider the international competition, but… what about the leagues after that?"

"There will be competitions in the various regions soon. Most of the seats for the spring competitions in the two regions in Europe and America will be given to these veteran clubs. If we don't make up our minds now, then the spring and summer competitions in the various leagues in the future…"

"GOG's logo will appear very frequently!"

"What's more, Tengda is obviously making use of this to make a statement. We can tell from the tweet that FV Club sent."

"All the clubs have become Tengda's godsons and have nothing to do with Finger Games. What if Tengda continues to make an issue out of this in the future?"

"As long as GOG's logo is printed on the team uniform, it would be a slap to our faces!"

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

Indeed what would happen to the leagues once the international competition was over!

Tengda had basically sponsored the strong teams in the European and American competition zones. What would happen if the top few teams and the most popular teams all had GOG's logo on their uniforms?

Even if Chrétien wanted to do the opposite and sponsor GOG's team, it would be useless since they were impenetrable…

There were only two choices now: either bear with it and pretend not to see it, and wait for GOG's logo to be hung on all the teams in the international competition and various regional league teams; or spend a lot of money, even if they could not make all the sponsors violate the contract, they had to at least make sure that GOG's logo did not appear on the celebrity teams.

After a long silence, Chrétien said, "This is a very serious problem indeed. I'll report it now and hold a meeting to discuss it."

It was now the critical period for the world finals. Every extra day that GOG's logo appeared meant extra loss to Dayak Corporation and Finger Games. Therefore, they could not delay this matter and had to hurry up to hold a meeting to discuss it.

If he really wanted to breach the contract, he had to do it as soon as possible. That was because the earlier he did, the less impact it would have!

…

…

December 31st, Saturday…

Pei Qian was sleeping soundly.

He had been revising seriously without paying attention to anything else after watching IOI World Finals yesterday.

FV Club had followed his instructions and posted a lot of Weibo, which had already filled the hate points.

This morning's IOI's competition was between two other teams in the morning. There were no competitions with domestic teams in them, so Pei Qian did not pay attention to it since they could not stab him in the back.

No matter how he thought about it, today was a perfect weekend. He should have a good sleep.

However, his cell phone suddenly vibrated before 9 am.

Buzz… Buzz…

Pei Qian opened his sleepy eyes a little angrily. He turned around and tried to ignore it.

However, his cell phone kept vibrating.

Pei Qian could not fall asleep anymore. He sat up and looked at the caller ID speechlessly. It was He Desheng.

"Could there be something new on the Cold-Faced Lady's end?"

"That's not right. I've sold all of Cold-Faced Lady's shares, right? It should have nothing to do with Cold-Faced Lady."

"Then why is He Desheng calling me?"

Pei Qian was confused. He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

He Desheng sounded very excited. "Boss Pei, I have good news!"

Pei Qian: "?"

Pei Qian shivered subconsciously when he heard the words' good news'.

However, he could not think of any good news.

Could it be that Dream Realization Ventures had recently invested in a very promising company, and its valuation had suddenly skyrocketed, selling its shares to make a huge profit?

But there were no signs before this?

Pei Qian tried his best to remain calm. "What good news?"

He Desheng said, "Boss Pei, do you remember the foreign e-sports clubs that Dream Realization Ventures sponsored previously?"

Pei Qian's mind went blank.

Sponsoring… foreign E-Sports Club?

Pei Qian tried hard to recall. Finally, he remembered that Dayak Corporation had forcefully paid them a huge sum of money to buy the shares of Tengda Corporation's Finger Games. Pei Qian spent all the money that month because of his anger.

Amongst them, ten million US dollars was used to sponsor ten more well-known veteran e-sports clubs overseas and allowed them to set up a GOG branch. Then, they printed GOG's logo on their team uniforms and advertised GOG.

While this job should be done by Shang Yang Games, they had their own specializations after all. Thus, it was left to Dream Realization Ventures and He Desheng.

However, Pei Qian no longer cared about that after that.

After all, the money had already been spent. These teams would at most publicize GOG during the live-stream without causing much of a stir.

Pei Qian asked, "What… happened to these clubs?"

He Desheng could not suppress the happiness in his voice. "Boss Pei, I thought that you only sponsored these clubs to advertise GOG. I didn't think that there would be such a deeper meaning!"

"The bosses of five clubs contacted us just now. They said that they want to terminate the sponsorship contract with us and are willing to pay double the compensation according to the contract!"

"In other words, they have to compensate us with ten million US dollars!"

Pei Qian was flabbergasted. A string of question marks floated above his head.

???

10 million US dollars?

Compensate us?

Are these clubs crazy?

Pei Qian had only spent ten million yuan on sponsorship previously. Now, five of the clubs had to terminate their contracts and were going to pay another ten million yuan.

The money that he had spent previously came back!

No matter how one looked at it, Tengda was making a killing.

That was because the sponsorship of the other five clubs was still in effect. The five clubs that had terminated their sponsorship contracts had already advertised GOG for a long time. It was impossible for them to deduct the advertising fees.

It was as if the five clubs had advertised for nothing, and had each lost a million US dollars!

Pei Qian felt a little dizzy. He did not understand what was going on with these clubs.

Did water enter their brains, or did they think that they had too much money?

What was going on?

He Desheng was very happy and continued, "Boss Pei, I asked the person-in-charge of these clubs briefly before I knew what was going on."

"It was ordered by Dayak Corporation and Finger Games!"

"Finger Games could not stand seeing GOG's logo on the team uniforms of these teams. Considering the influence of the international competitions and the competitions after that, it was equivalent to advertising for the competitor GOG. Therefore, they decisively terminated the sponsorship contracts of these clubs!"

"This sum of money is definitely not from the clubs. It's from Finger Games."

"Even so, the clubs are still making a loss. After all, they lost a million dollars and spent so much money advertising for nothing. Finger Games would not give them any additional compensation."

"However, Finger Games had promised these clubs a seat in the league as a form of compensation. After all, the other clubs would have to pay for it if they wanted the seats."

"All in all, Boss Pei, you spent ten million yuan to sponsor these clubs. Not only did you achieve a good publicity effect, but you also took back everything!"

"Your operation is too perfect. You have predicted the mentality of Dayak Corporation and Finger Games perfectly. It's actually equivalent to an investment even though it's a sponsorship. What's more, it's a huge profit!"

Pei Qian could feel He Desheng's elated expression through the phone.

Who would have thought that the money that they had spent would grow wings and fly back?

Pei Qian could not help but feel speechless.