At the hotel, FV club’s data analysis team was discussing and analyzing today’s matches with the players.
The FV club members had only participated in the opening ceremony today, watched the first four matches, and then returned.
Watching the matches on-site was mainly to get an early feel for the competition atmosphere – after all, the players had never previously played in such large venues, with twenty thousand spectators cheering.
Different venues, different pressure on the players naturally.
In venues with tens of thousands of people, the audience’s applause and cheers were like a tsunami. If it were a crucial match, the players’ pressure would increase exponentially.
In such situations, most players would experience issues like nervousness, hand shaking, and becoming tilted, while a small portion of players would become excited, more focused, and perform beyond their normal level.
This was the value of so-called big-hearted players – players who performed well in major tournaments.
Of course, whether a player had a big heart was innate. Some people could perform memorable plays at their first major tournament at just 16-17 years old, while others would still have fragile mindsets after several years of competition.
But to some extent, this mindset issue could still be improved.
Today, FV club members specifically felt the on-site atmosphere, doing mental preparation in advance. When the quarterfinals came, their mindset should be better.
Of course, the discussion focused mainly on the match content.
“Today’s first match doesn’t need mentioning – the skill gap between teams was too large, their understanding of the patch and tactics was wrong, no reference value.”
“The second match was decent on both sides, but their mid-game decisions were too rough, with many areas that could improve…”
Zhou Pengyuan, current coach of the DGE club, was conducting a review of these matches, while the data analysis team and players continuously offered their views and perspectives.
After the analysis, Zhou Pengyuan gave a simple summary.
“From the first day of group stages, these teams’ understanding of the patch and playstyle still differs greatly from ours.”
“Can’t say who’s correct in their patch understanding between us and them – we can’t be too overconfident.”
“This way, tomorrow, SUG and FV’s second team each practice the mainstream playstyles that appeared in group stages, use these playstyles in scrims against the main team to see how effective they are.”
“We don’t necessarily need to copy others’ playstyles, but we need to clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of these playstyles.”
Zhou Pengyuan assigned tasks, others noted them down.
The players wouldn’t watch tomorrow’s matches – the data analysis team would watch, analyze, then explain the results and replay analysis to players in the evening.
Players needed to continue training, properly study other teams’ playstyles and strategies, expand their champion pools, and maintain their mechanics.
After all tasks were assigned, everyone dispersed to their rooms to rest well.
The three cameramen finished filming today’s footage, also preparing to return to their rooms to edit photos and videos for posting on Weibo.
Wu Yue hurriedly called back the three cameramen, Manager Lu, and several others.
“Everyone, don’t rush to leave, there’s something to explain.”
“Mr. Pei just gave us a task – to increase our ‘memeing efforts’ on Weibo, and also coordinate memeing on both Weibo and Twitter…”
Wu Yue detailed Mr. Pei’s requirements.
In summary, how to gain high heat and traffic, treating domestic and foreign teams equally, going after everyone ruthlessly!
Hearing Mr. Pei’s requirements, everyone’s expressions resembled Wu Yue’s earlier reaction – all falling into confusion.
“This isn’t memeing, this is pulling hatred! Chinese players are already full of grievances, with no outlet. The other two clubs are playing dead, now we’re jumping out – aren’t we becoming targets?”
“I think it’s okay, we didn’t lose the matches.”
“The problem is we didn’t win either… If we meme now, casuals will think we’re arrogant, kicking others while they’re down. The other two clubs’ fans will also resent us. We’ll get flamed badly!”
“Maybe Mr. Pei means we should play some funny memes? We just won’t mock other teams.”
“That’s impossible. Mr. Pei wants heat and traffic – how do we get heat and traffic without attacking other teams? Mr. Pei is almost explicitly telling us to boldly attack.”
“Then we’ll get flamed, the players will face huge pressure.”
“It’s fine, players can’t use phones or go online anyway, they won’t know.”
“But what’s the point of doing this? The risks and rewards seem disproportionate.”
If this was anyone else’s suggestion, everyone would immediately reject it – attacking before matches to pull hatred, is this trying to die faster?
No need at all!
But since it was Mr. Pei’s request, they had to find ways to complete it.
After half a day of discussion not conclude, they could only comply.
Fortunately, the traveling team was large. They gathered interesting memes online, added some creativity, and found suitable images or videos. The attack meme content for Weibo was quickly prepared.
The three cameramen could all use Photoshop and edit videos, translators added bilingual subtitles, and everything was ready.
…
Discussions about the opening day matches of the ioi Global Finals continued throughout the day.
Many people hadn’t stayed up to watch the ioi Global Finals, only learning the results after waking up. Seeing that both domestic teams had lost, many GOG players joined the discussion.
The true strength of domestic teams was the focus of discussion.
Both teams losing their group stage openers suddenly increased their elimination risk. Naturally, people felt domestic teams were far behind foreign teams in ioi.
The World Championship had just begun, but many viewers seemed to see its bleak end.
Relatively speaking, FV club had the least discussion – no matches, so all topics focused on the two losing teams.
Viewers were busy witch-hunting, naturally losing interest in criticizing the FV club’s “luxurious lifestyle.”
However, fans never expected the FV club to post on Weibo again!
This time wasn’t about eating, drinking, and entertainment, but a sarcastic meme image.
This image was a collage – the top half showed a foreign swimming pool photo. In the frame’s upper right, a middle-aged man held a child high above water, face full of smiles. The man’s head had a Tenda logo Photoshopped on, while the child’s face had an FV club logo.
To the man’s left was a child desperately struggling in water, seeming about to sink, expression a very distressed expression. The bottom half showed an underwater photo – a skeleton sitting in a chair, seemingly dead for years.
The two images were forcibly combined.
The child and skeleton’s faces had logos of the other two competing domestic clubs Photoshopped on – the struggling one represented the team that lost after a comeback; the underwater one represented the team steamrolled in 30 minutes during the opening match.
The Weibo caption was one line in both Chinese and English: “How are you doing, brothers? /wave/wave/wave”
This post immediately caught the attention of countless players already arguing.
The mockery was maxed out!
The meaning was clear – the other two clubs were in dire straits. One had sunk, the other was still struggling but close to sinking. Only the FV club happily floated on the surface, looking completely carefree and confident.
The Weibo text added mockery – seemingly a greeting, but with the “/wave” emoji, it looked like waving goodbye to the two clubs.
Sure enough, Weibo was flamed shortly after posting.
“Too tasteless! All brother teams, doing this when they’re down?”
“Heh, you can talk big now only because you haven’t played yet. Just wait for a 3-0 elimination in the quarterfinals!”
Of course, other voices existed too, but mostly neutral views – not flaming but not supporting either.
“It’s fine, just light teasing. Don’t be too sensitive.”
“The issue is that those two teams played poorly. Can’t we say anything about poor performance?”
“Sigh, suggest posting fewer controversial Weibo posts at times like this. Easy to attract hate.”
Many FV club fans worried for them, fearing they’d get destroyed online after losing subsequent matches due to these posts.
However, less than ten minutes later, the FV club updated another Weibo.
“We predict FV’s entire team’s ‘damage conversion rate’ will be concerning.”
Below were two comparison images. First: “Economy eaten by other teams,” showing accommodations at the Wanyi Hotel. Second: “Economy eaten by FV team,” showing accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
On the surface, comparing accommodations to the in-game gold economy. Since the FV team’s accommodations were far superior, they “ate more gold,” so the damage conversion rate would be much lower.
But actually, they brag about their superior accommodations.
Before viewers could react, even flamers couldn’t compose comebacks, FV club simultaneously updated another Weibo and Tweet!
This time’s content was simple – @ing several traditional foreign powerhouse teams, including top seeds from EU/NA regions, with an image of a propaganda slogan from a Chinese village wall: “See the situation clearly, abandon fantasies.”
Within an hour, the FV club posted four or five intense Weibos and Tweets, all in bilingual versions.
Domestically, initially many people flamed on Weibo, but gradually fewer did.
People found themselves running out of flame vocabulary, while the FV club’s memes kept coming.
Moreover, FV club didn’t just meme domestic teams – foreign teams got the same treatment…
Like the second, Weibo openly mocked all other teams’ accommodations, while the third declared war on foreign seed teams.
So by the later posts, most domestic players, even thinking the FV club was overconfident, couldn’t flame anymore.
The FV club had no matches yet – calling them arrogant would mean waiting until they lost matches. Otherwise, what if they beat foreign teams?
Though many Chinese netizens disliked such high-profile Weibo posts, they undeniably achieved good results, maximizing attention.
Originally, everyone was flaming the two losing clubs. Now FV club suddenly jumped out, group-taunting everyone, naturally drawing all attention.
On Twitter, the FV club’s official account followers skyrocketed!
Since Tenda invested in many established foreign clubs, just asking them to interact with the FV club’s account brought followers.
These meme tweets were much better received abroad, with comment sections full of “LOL” and laugh emojis.
For domestic players, humility was a virtue – they felt you shouldn’t speak too confidently, fearing future embarrassment. But foreign players didn’t care much about this, all enjoying the drama. Even after getting “owned,” they generally wouldn’t criticize.
So, FV club’s Twitter followers grew rapidly, and established clubs followed each other, all expressing appreciation for FV club.
Then FV club pulled these established clubs together for an AOE attack.
The new Weibo and Twitter said: “Tenda family tree.”
Below was a tree diagram. At the top was Tenda, with a thick line connecting to the FV club labeled “biological son.” Other thinner lines connected to clubs like FRY, labeled “adopted sons.”
Obviously, with FV getting business class flights and five-star luxury hotels, they had “biological son” treatment from Tenda. Other clubs only got sponsorships but no care for food/accommodation – clearly “adopted son” treatment.
This wasn’t even disputable – FRY and other clubs indeed took Tenda sponsorships, their jerseys clearly showing logos.
This Weibo went viral, instantly killing the competition, and was widely shared by players!
“Damn, FV club’s on a killing spree… After domestic clubs, now foreign clubs. They’ve gotten into every team’s head…”
“Bad at everything else, memeing champion!”
“I give up. In memeing, they truly show number one seed level.”
“Strange, FV club’s Weibo wasn’t this style before. What happened, new social media manager?”
“Probably the club owner’s idea!”
“This wave, Mr. Pei’s mastermind at work, like the ioi qualifying tournament before – all planned!”
FV club’s first post indeed angered many – memeing is like trash talk, creating show effects inevitably offends some.
But after the FV club persisted with several posts, many suddenly accepted this persona, finding it quite entertaining!
FV club didn’t just attack domestic teams – foreign teams got hit too, treating all equally, bringing joy to spectators while diluting the depressing atmosphere from the two losses.
Combined with FV’s posts about accommodations, all attention, domestic and foreign, focused on the FV club.
Despite no matches, the FV club’s attention rapidly grew, quickly surpassing the other two clubs!
…
Meanwhile, at a hotel near Finger Company headquarters.
Zhao Xuming scrolled his phone, face dark: “Bah, bad luck!”
These past days, Zhao Xuming had been visiting Finger Company. Eric Barone provided full-time staff companions, showing great respect.
Today, Zhao Xuming attended matches, watching the two with Chinese teams, ending up furious.
Too embarrassing!
If they won one of two matches, it’d be acceptable, at least getting first wins.
Instead, both teams lost – one like diarrhea, one like constipation. Hard to say which was more shameful.
Zhao Xuming had every right to be angry. After all, Longyu Group paid for these teams’ early Los Angeles training, training so long to produce this?
Money wasted!
But Zhao Xuming didn’t say much. This was only day one – these clubs could still advance with better performance. Better to encourage rather than criticize harshly, which would further damage player mentality.
Originally, Zhao Xuming’s mindset recovered somewhat, but the FV club’s operations broke him again.
Previously, Zhao Xuming thought the worst case was both domestic teams losing on day one. How could it get worse?
Now he realized how naive that was.
FV club intensely memed on Weibo and Twitter, interacting with foreign clubs, drawing most domestic attention while gaining foreign followers.
Though they got flamed, the flame was still attention.
FV club was just a small club with zero international reputation, but this meme wave elevated them to FRY’s level among established Western clubs. Huge profit.
For Zhao Xuming, this was unacceptable.
Everyone knew the FV club was funded by Tenda. The stronger FV’s presence, the more uncomfortable Zhao Xuming felt.
But he had no good countermeasures. Couldn’t exactly tell Weibo and Twitter to ban FV club’s accounts, right? That would be ridiculous.
Could only pretend not to notice.
Just then, his phone chimed again with another FV club notification.
Zhao Xuming was speechless: “Again? Is this endless!”
He opened it – the “Tenda family tree” post, featuring not just the FV club but Tenda-sponsored clubs like FRY.
“What is this garbage?”
“Too much!”
Seeing this, Zhao Xuming grew angrier.
He’d already noticed during matches – many Western clubs’ jerseys displayed Tenda or GOG sponsor logos.
GOG logos appearing on jerseys at the ioi World Championship stage – too humiliating.
This stuck in Zhao Xuming’s heart like a thorn. This post pushed it deeper.
How did clubs become Tenda’s children?
This image gave netizens the impression that Championship clubs belonged to Tenda, unrelated to the Finger Company.
This was riding on their face!
“Mr. Pei sponsored these clubs months ago. Now I see how cunning!”
“At this rate, these established clubs’ player cams during matches and post-game interviews will all show GOG logos – free advertising!”
“The later stages with stronger teams remaining will show this even more frequently…”
Zhao Xuming suddenly realized this was extremely serious. Imagining it was horrifying.
By the semifinals, all four teams might have GOG logos. Whichever team gave post-game interviews would display GOG…
Terrifying!
Essentially, ioi spent millions hosting a grand World Championship, but Tenda only sponsored clubs to leverage ioi’s popularity for excellent promotion…
The more he thought, the angrier. A step back brought regret.
After consideration, Zhao Xuming decided to call Eric Barone.
Removing GOG logos wasn’t impossible.
Just make clubs breach contracts and pay penalties.
But clubs couldn’t self-fund – Finger Company would have to pay. Though Zhao Xuming didn’t know the exact sponsorship amounts or penalties.
But between evils, better to stop GOG from benefiting entirely than let them profit throughout. Better to cut losses early by removing all GOG elements during group stages!
…
Thirty minutes later.
Zhao Xuming anxiously awaited Eric Barone’s callback.
Eric Barone agreed with Zhao Xuming – GOG logos frequently appearing at ioi’s World Championship were uncomfortable.
So Eric Barone decided to call clubs about their sponsorship contracts and breach penalties.
This took some time.
Finally, the desk phone rang. Zhao Xuming quickly answered.
Eric Barone’s slightly helpless voice: “Just checked. Tenda sponsored ten clubs, $1 million each. Breach requires double compensation.”
“Most of these clubs came to Worlds.”
“Estimated five teams reaching quarterfinals, two to three for semifinals. For quarterfinals breach, we’d pay $10 million; for semifinals, $4-6 million.”
“This money… is too much.”
Zhao Xuming was speechless.
Mr. Pei sponsored that much?!
Previously Zhao Xuming didn’t know exact amounts. Based on domestic rates, clubs might get sponsorships for ¥1 million, about $150k.
At this rate, even doubling breach penalties would be fine.
Never expected Mr. Pei to invest so heavily – $10 million sponsoring these clubs, $1 million each!
For breach, clubs couldn’t self-fund – Eric Barone Group would pay. Even just breaching semifinalists would cost $4-6 million, an unacceptable amount.
Eric Barone said, “Such costs aren’t worth it for removing logos, so… forget it.”
Spending millions just to remove GOG logos from competitors? Too stupid.
Zhao Xuming was silent, then said: “If only considering Worlds, yes, but… There are leagues afterward!”
“Soon, regions will have leagues. EU/NA spring seasons will likely go to these established clubs. Without deciding now, future league seasons…”
“Will also frequently show GOG logos!”
“Plus, Tenda intends to leverage this, as the FV club’s tweet shows.”
“All clubs are becoming Tenda’s adopted children, unrelated to Finger Company. If Tenda continues using this angle…”
“As long as GOG logos stay on jerseys, they’re slapping our faces!”
Eric Barone fell silent for a long time.
Indeed, the World Championship was bearable, but future leagues?
EU/NA’s top teams were mostly Tenda-sponsored. Top-ranked, most popular teams would all display GOG logos – what sense did that make?
Even counter-sponsoring GOG teams wouldn’t work – they were impenetrable…
Only two choices: endure, pretend not to notice, facing future tournaments with star teams wearing GOG logos; or bleed heavily to at least ensure star teams don’t display GOG logos.
Eric Barone contemplated, saying, “True, this is serious. I’ll report in and arrange urgent meetings.”
During the World Championship’s critical period, every day, GOG logos appeared, causing losses for Eric Barone Group and Finger Company. No delays are possible.
If breaching, do it quickly for less impact!
…
…
December 31, Saturday.
Pei Qian slept soundly.
Yesterday, after watching the ioi Global Finals drama, he’d been studying diligently, ignoring outside matters.
FV club followed his instructions, posting many Weibos, hatred maxed out.
Early morning ioi matches featured other groups without Chinese teams, so Pei Qian didn’t watch. No backstabbing possible.
How perfect a weekend, deserving of good sleep.
But before 9 AM, his bedside phone vibrated.
“Bzz… bzz…”
Pei Qian opened sleepy eyes, annoyed, turning away, ignoring it.
The phone persisted vibrating.
Unable to sleep, extremely speechless, Pei Qian sat up, checking the caller ID – He Desheng.
“Could Cold Noodle Girl have new developments?”
“No, didn’t we completely sell those shares? Should be unrelated.”
“Why would He Desheng call?”
Confused, Pei Qian answered: “Hello?”
He Desheng’s excited voice: “Mr. Pei, great news!”
Pei Qian: “?”
Hearing “great news,” Pei Qian instinctively shuddered.
Can’t think of any good news, though.
Did Round Dream Ventures invest in a promising company that suddenly appreciated, selling shares for huge profits?
But no signs beforehand?
Pei Qian steadied himself: “What news?”
He Desheng said: “Mr. Pei, remember those foreign esports clubs Round Dream Ventures sponsored?”
Pei Qian’s mind blanked.
Sponsored… foreign esports clubs?
After thinking hard, Pei Qian recalled – previously, Eric Barone Group forcibly bought Tenda’s Finger Company shares, shoving huge money at them. Angered, Pei Qian spent it all that month.
Including $10 million sponsoring ten famous Western esports clubs, establishing GOG divisions with GOG logos on jerseys for advertising.
Though this belonged to Shangyang Games, ultimately Round Dream Ventures and He Desheng handled it through specialization.
Afterward, Pei Qian never followed up.
The money was spent – these teams would at most advertise GOG during streams without major impact.
Pei Qian asked: “What about these clubs?”
He Desheng couldn’t contain his excitement: “Mr. Pei, I thought you sponsored these clubs purely for GOG advertising. Never imagined such a deeper meaning!”
“Just now, five club owners contacted us wanting to terminate sponsorships, willing to pay double compensation per contract!”
“That’s $10 million compensating us!”
Pei Qian was dumbfounded with question marks floating above his head.
???
$10 million?
Compensating us?
Were these clubs’ brains broken?
Pei Qian initially spent $10 million on sponsorship. Now, five clubs want contract termination, paying $10 million.
The money spent is returned!
No matter how you looked at it, Tenda profited hugely.
The other five clubs’ sponsorships continued, while terminating clubs had already advertised GOG extensively without refunds.
These five clubs essentially advertised for free and paid $1 million each!
Pei Qian felt dizzy, confused about these clubs’ reasoning. Were they waterlogged, or did they have too much money?
How was this operation possible?
He Desheng happily continued: “Mr. Pei, I asked these club managers to understand the situation.”
“Turns out Eric Barone Group and Finger Company orchestrated this!”
“Finger Company couldn’t stand these teams wearing GOG logos, considering the World Championship and future leagues’ huge influence equals free advertising for competitor GOG, so they forced contract terminations!”
“Not clubs’ money – Finger Company paid.”
“Even so, clubs lost out. The $1 million disappeared after free advertising, with no extra compensation from Finger Company.”
“But Finger Company promised league seats as compensation. Other clubs pay for seats.”
“In summary, Mr. Pei, you spent $10 million sponsoring these clubs, achieving excellent promotion while getting every penny back!”
“This maneuver was perfect, completely predicting Eric Barone Group and Finger Company’s psychology. Through sponsorship, investment yielding huge profits!”
Through the phone, Pei Qian sensed He Desheng’s elation.
Who’d expect that spending money to grow wings and fly back???
Pei Qian was speechless.