Regarding esports, Meng Chang actually knew very little about it since it was after all an emerging industry, and he had little interest in it.

He didn’t watch esports matches, nor did he play related games.

But Meng Chang was clever after all – for fields he didn’t understand, he could easily research from various sources.

As an emerging industry, esports had been full of controversy since its inception, with many controversial topics online. Finding some negative material was incredibly easy.

There was no need for deep understanding – after all, he just needed to make an esports-related promotional video.

It was like making a promotional video for racing – you didn’t need to actually drive on the track or understand all the technical specifications of the cars, right?

So Meng Chang spent some time researching online and collecting materials.

What surprised him was that Fei Huang Studio under Tenda had actually made a documentary about the esports industry before, which generated quite good response at the time.

This documentary was called “Chrysalis to Butterfly,” mainly telling the story of a professional player’s journey in “Counter-Strike Plan.”

Training at least 14 hours daily, rarely seeing friends and family, almost no holidays… even when deciding to go professional, his father had locked him in the house, and he had kicked down the door and run to Shanghai to start his professional career.

In short, it highlighted hardship.

The entire documentary was shot very realistically, including interviews with related personnel, actual shots of training bases and professional players’ hometowns, with every detail captured.

Meng Chang trusted Fei Huang Studio’s professionalism. This documentary was absolutely truthful, and the audience feedback proved this point.

“Great, this documentary saves me a lot of effort.”

“With such a comprehensive documentary about the esports industry, I won’t need to spend several weeks on field investigations.”

Although the advertising and marketing department had plenty of budget for field investigations, Meng Chang had no interest.

Because no matter how much funding there was, it had nothing to do with him!

He just wanted to quickly complete this promotional project and get his commission. He didn’t care about anything else.

This documentary was filmed in June 2010, about a year and a half ago from now.

Meng Chang figured that in just a year and a half, the environment and ecosystem of the esports industry shouldn’t have changed too dramatically, right?

After studying the related materials, Meng Chang quickly identified several key “weak points” for this promotion.

The current esports industry was still in a state of chaos, with issues like player salary disputes, clubs exploiting players, poor treatment for lower-tier players, difficult entry and few good career options after retirement – these were all objectively existing problems.

A casual search would yield many similar news stories.

He just couldn’t find much negative news about GPL specifically, which disappointed Meng Chang since he couldn’t imply anything about it in the video.

But thinking about it again, this was quite normal. GPL involved too many large capitals, including major companies like Shenhua Group, and the sponsors were all extremely wealthy. How could they allow negative news to leak and spread online?

They must have been dealt with through public relations.

But this didn’t hinder Meng Chang’s performance. After all, the esports industry was similar everywhere. Even if GPL was slightly better, it couldn’t fundamentally change the industry’s nature.

After careful consideration, Meng Chang found a perfect angle among these key “weak points.”

Previous promotional videos about esports basically focused on the pinnacle of the pyramid – the small elite who won world championships and achieved success.

For example, “Chrysalis to Butterfly” featured a former professional player who won world championships in “Counter-Strike Plan,” and recently media outlets were looking to make a documentary about FV club, introducing their journey to winning the ioi global championship.

The content was easy to imagine: first introduce how poor these professional players’ backgrounds were, how misunderstood they were by their families when choosing esports, how hard they worked to pursue their dreams, and finally what achievements they obtained…

These were all standard formulas.

Meng Chang wanted to do the opposite – instead of filming the elite few at the pyramid’s tip, he would film those unsuccessful, unknown professional players, even those teenagers with gaming addiction who dreamed of going professional but could never enter the industry!

These people’s lives could be described as quite miserable.

A simple online search would reveal many similar reports.

Many professional players started with extremely low salaries – forget about insurance and benefits, sometimes just getting fed was enough. The training environment was also terrible – calling it a training base, it was essentially just a large internet café.

Meng Chang also found photos online of domestic veteran clubs like H4, where players’ living conditions were truly deplorable.

And these were just the small portion who became professional players – what about those who couldn’t become professional players?

They say the college entrance exam is crossing a narrow bridge with thousands of soldiers, but the esports path was more terrifying than that because the entire industry needed so few people.

With this thought, Meng Chang roughly had a concept and quickly wrote out a general outline.

Other promotional videos told stories of young people successfully pursuing dreams, but Meng Chang’s video would tell the story of young people failing to pursue their dreams!

…

The promotional video’s protagonist was a young teenager looking naive.

First scene: He was intensely focused playing GOG in a dim internet café. In the game footage, enemies were pressing hard, and he frantically operated, desperately fighting at his base. After flashy maneuvers, he was caught by the enemy’s skills and instantly killed, with the word “Defeat” appearing in red on the screen.

The teenager was deeply frustrated. He removed his headphones and stared silently at the defeat screen.

But immediately after, the teenager mustered courage again, preparing to start another game to win back.

Just then, a middle-aged man stood behind him and yanked him from his seat.

“Dad?” The teenager looked bewildered.

The middle-aged man’s face was dark as he forcibly dragged him home.

Second scene: The teenager was dragged home by his father. Judging by the home environment, their conditions weren’t good.

Father and son broke into heated argument. The father was so angry his face turned red, grabbing a feather duster from nearby to hit him.

The teenager was also furious, shouting “Beat me to death!”

However, the father raised his hand but suddenly slammed the feather duster to the ground, then dropped to his knees with a thud.

“I’m begging you, son. Just go back to school and study properly, don’t play games anymore…”

The teenager said nothing, turned to his room and slammed the door shut.

Third scene: The teenager came to the big city alone with a few hundred yuan stolen from home, going to various clubs for tryouts.

But these clubs all rejected him. One manager said very sincerely: “Sorry, your skill level doesn’t meet our club’s requirements. The esports path might not suit you. I suggest you reconsider.”

The teenager slept on a park bench, watching the starry sky, his face still determined not to give up.

Fourth scene: Finally a club agreed to take him as a youth trainee, with no salary but room and board provided. The teenager was very happy, training hard every day, watching main players in practice matches, discussing tactics, silently envying them, hoping one day he too could play matches and win championships like them.

Fifth scene: The teenager got his first chance as a substitute but performed poorly, becoming the weak link, with kill notifications appearing frequently on screen.

After the match, he proactively apologized to the manager, but the manager said nothing. From then on, he never got another opportunity to play.

He just waited endlessly by the water cooler as teammates came and went in waves.

Finally, the manager found him and told him to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Sixth scene: At wit’s end, the teenager returned home, expecting his father to beat him furiously, but the father said nothing, just silently prepared dinner, saying he’d try to find him a job tomorrow through connections.

Seventh scene: Under scorching sun, the teenager carried bricks at a construction site.

His father came from far away to bring water and food, visibly heartbroken. The teenager wiped sweat with dirty hands, smiling and saying he wasn’t tired.

But after his father left, watching his retreating figure, somehow remembering classroom scenes, tears uncontrollably streamed down his face.

Those days he didn’t cherish would never return.

…

After writing this story outline, Meng Chang checked it from beginning to end, very satisfied.

This was called sophisticated undermining.

If Meng Chang forcibly fabricated facts or filmed content slandering the esports industry, that wouldn’t work since his agreement with Mr. Pei explicitly prohibited such behavior.

But what he was filming now was all true!

These scenes portrayed had likely played out many times across the country.

Moreover, Meng Chang filmed with restraint.

Unlike many traditional media outlets that confused esports with gaming and then demonized gaming as “internet addiction,” portraying teenagers who enjoyed gaming as pathological.

He objectively filmed the hardships of the esports industry.

The teenager’s father didn’t beat or insult like other parents, treating his son well, with that kneel being especially heartbreaking.

The teenager’s stubbornness ultimately proved his father right.

Among all those who loved gaming, only a small portion could be selected by clubs to become professional players; among these, only a small portion could become starters and get playing opportunities; among starters, only a small portion could become star players known to audiences; among star players, only a small portion could win major championships and gain both fame and fortune.

In other words, the entire esports path was like a large filter, with survivors at each stage being one in ten thousand.

What happened to those eliminated?

As shown in the video, they chose the wrong path, wasting the most precious years of their lives.

Of course, Meng Chang didn’t intend to discriminate against construction work.

As long as one could support themselves with honest work, there was no hierarchy among professions.

What Meng Chang meant to express was that among careers, some were willingly chosen, others passively accepted. After failing the esports path, willingly choosing a career basically became impossible – only passive acceptance remained.

How tragic!

Moreover, Meng Chang would provide enough hints in details, like when filming club training scenes, definitely showing the club’s internal conditions, including accommodation and dining.

Real esports clubs wouldn’t be happy filming such content since it would essentially air dirty laundry.

But this didn’t matter – he could just build sets according to online information.

All game footage in the video would use GOG, since other games were unlicensed while GOG footage could be freely used.

Using GOG footage would also create AOE effects on GPL – truly killing two birds with one stone!

After carefully revising the promotional video outline several times, Meng Chang confidently stood up and said to colleagues who were slacking, watching shows, gaming, or sleeping: “Everyone, please put aside what you’re doing. We have work!”

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over.

Meng Chang detailed the new promotional video project.

“This video will be called ‘Chrysalis Before Butterfly.'”

The reason for this title was to create an echo effect with the documentary “Chrysalis to Butterfly,” warning teenagers wanting to go pro: you won’t necessarily transform from chrysalis to butterfly – you might just trap yourself in a cocoon.

Whether one could become a butterfly depended on whether they were truly butterfly material or just caterpillars.

“What do you all think?” Meng Chang surveyed everyone.

Seemingly asking for opinions, Meng Chang had already decided – even if someone objected, he’d proceed as planned.

However, no one offered any objections.

“Sounds good, no objections!”

“I’ll now refine the details.”

“I’ll find locations and cast actors.”

The advertising and marketing department instantly transformed 180 degrees. Previously like sheep scattered across green pastures, with Meng Chang’s command, these sheep immediately formed ranks and began marching in step!

Though having experienced this before, Meng Chang still felt somewhat unaccustomed.

In his view, these colleagues simultaneously exhibited two completely different traits.

People he’d encountered in previous jobs could be roughly divided into two types: workaholics and slackers.

The former were responsible and dedicated, but their work was endless, never seen slacking during work hours; while slackers would seize every opportunity to slack off, even when assigned tasks, completing them slowly without efficiency.

But advertising department colleagues were neither workaholics nor slackers. Call them diligent? Without work, they’d game and sleep, never proactively seeking work. Call them lazy? With real work, each became incredibly efficient.

But Meng Chang had no major complaints.

These people worked efficiently, quickly completing his tasks, ensuring his high commission, while raising no questions about his plans. How to think about it, they were perfect subordinates.

With this thought, Meng Chang stopped dwelling on the matter and continued happily anticipating this month’s commission.

Rabbit Tail Streaming got reverse marketing, GPL got reverse marketing – combining these two effects, wouldn’t his commission max out?

Though initial promotional plans for Tenda’s physical businesses were somewhat unsuccessful, these next two plans would balance it out – high commission was guaranteed!

Meng Chang could hardly wait.