March 3rd, Saturday.
In Dragon Yu Group’s conference room, Eric and Chen Yufeng shook hands cordially.
“Here’s to a successful cooperation!”
Both parties had finalized the contract details and officially signed. From this moment on, their agreement to jointly promote ICL was officially established.
Strictly speaking, this was Eric’s first time cooperating with Mr. Pei.
He never expected that their cooperation would be so smooth and pleasant!
Mr. Pei hadn’t haggled or negotiated like many business partners would; instead, he was extremely generous. Chen Yufeng had also been very friendly throughout the contract negotiations, and the atmosphere in the conference room was quite harmonious.
There was no sense of Mr. Pei being “calculating and scheming,” nor any feeling that the two sides were mortal enemies or competitors. The entire cooperation process could be described as smooth and natural.
This was completely unexpected for Eric.
The main reason the contract was signed so quickly was because time was truly limited for the ICL League.
Eric and Zhao Xuming had scheduled that ideally, they would officially launch the opening match next Saturday, March 10th, and before next Saturday, they needed to hold two or three exhibition matches for testing.
Within this week, Dragon Yu Group and Rabbit Tail Live also needed to conduct a round of promotion and warm-up to ensure the popularity of the ICL League after its launch.
Although the number of teams in the ICL League was far fewer than in GPL, the ICL League played double round-robin BO3 matches, while GPL played single round-robin BO3 matches, so the number of match days between the two was fairly similar.
The ICL League was starting two months later than GPL, so the schedule was tighter.
It was also for this reason that Eric and Zhao Xuming didn’t want to spend too much time haggling and arguing with other streaming platforms, which gave Rabbit Tail Live the opportunity to seize the moment.
But regardless, the cooperation contract had been signed and the schedule set. In the short term, other streaming platforms probably wouldn’t consider the ICL broadcasting rights again.
Next, it remained to be seen how well the ICL League’s promotional work would go.
……
Meanwhile, Pei Qian, who was drinking coffee at Slackin’ Internet Café, immediately received news that Rabbit Tail Live had signed a contract with Finger Company and officially obtained the exclusive broadcasting rights for the ICL League.
“Hmm, no mishaps. Good!”
Pei Qian was pleased.
Because in his view, buying the exclusive rights to the ICL League was definitely a huge loss, and with this money spent, the pressure for this cycle would be greatly relieved.
As for whether the ICL League could actually gain popularity after obtaining the exclusive rights…
Pei Qian wasn’t particularly concerned.
If it became popular, it meant the ioi national server would be pulled back from the brink and continue to pose a threat to GOG, allowing him to continue burning money on GOG. If it didn’t become popular, it would mean the money he spent on the exclusive rights was wasted.
Either way, it wasn’t a loss!
Pei Qian realized that his operation this time could be described as perfect risk hedging. No matter which scenario played out, he actually wouldn’t make a huge profit. He couldn’t help feeling a bit proud of his maneuver.
Just then, the phone on the table rang.
Looking at it, he saw it was Zhang Yuan calling.
“Hmm?”
Pei Qian frowned slightly.
Today was Saturday!
Couldn’t this wait until Monday? Why handle business on Saturday? This Zhang Yuan was a department head at Tenda Group, yet he completely lacked awareness in this regard. How disappointing!
Pei Qian answered the phone: “Why are you calling me on a Saturday? Go collect your overtime pay afterward. What’s the matter? Tell me.”
Zhang Yuan seemed to be used to this by now. Whenever he called Mr. Pei on weekends, he would definitely be assigned overtime pay.
He wasn’t surprised and said, “Mr. Pei, I’m really sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you today. But after careful consideration, I felt I needed to report something to you as soon as possible.”
“Shouldn’t we be setting up GOG’s overseas leagues now?”
“GPL has been running successfully for two months already, while there’s still no news about professional GOG leagues in other regions. Many international clubs are getting impatient.”
“Plus, we need to decide how to allocate spots across different regions, how to arrange the competition format, and so on. These require early planning. Since we don’t have experience running leagues in other regions yet, these issues… need your personal decision, Mr. Pei.”
“This way, when I come to work on Monday, I can directly arrange for them to implement it.”
Only then did Pei Qian realize this issue.
Yes, GOG’s overseas leagues should indeed be established!
Currently, GOG’s influence overseas was basically on par with ioi, with a slight advantage. While ioi was organizing ICL, leagues in other regions were also in preparation. GOG had similar influence, yet its overseas regional leagues showed no sign of progress, which was indeed inappropriate.
Pei Qian wasn’t in a hurry, but those overseas clubs and audiences were!
Because in these clubs’ view, domestic GOG teams were already stronger than them, and now with GPL starting first, they were falling even further behind.
Moreover, GOG was an extremely popular game, and league spots were highly coveted by clubs pursuing achievements and exposure.
As the head of the Esports Department, these matters were obviously within Zhang Yuan’s responsibilities, which was why he called on Saturday to ask for Mr. Pei’s opinion so he could implement things quickly.
Pei Qian considered this for a moment and realized it wasn’t an easy matter to handle.
Although setting up overseas leagues seemed like a good thing on the surface—after all, it meant spending more money—from the GPL experience, things weren’t that simple.
With GPL, Pei Qian had made a huge profit!
Just selling team slots alone had brought in astronomical prices. Even though Pei Qian had afterward racked his brains to scatter most of the money, the end result was still profitable.
Team slots, sponsorship fees, the advertising effect for GOG and the entire Tenda Group…
All of these had given Pei Qian headaches and made him miserable.
If he were to set up overseas leagues and go through all this again, what should he do?
This time, he definitely needed to learn from past lessons.
Pei Qian had a general idea, but he still wanted to hear Zhang Yuan’s opinion first to verify whether his own thinking was correct.
“How do you think the overseas leagues should be organized?” Pei Qian asked.
Zhang Yuan had obviously already considered this question, and since Mr. Pei was asking, he answered honestly.
“I think the current GPL model has already proven to be extremely successful, so the overseas leagues should definitely continue with the GPL model!”
“Actually, for organizing overseas leagues, there are only two options: First, we take on everything ourselves—we open branch offices overseas and take full responsibility for preparing each overseas league, keeping control of team slots, sponsorships, and so on; Second, we cooperate with other local gaming companies, authorizing them to be responsible for operating and organizing the overseas leagues.”
“I definitely prefer the first option.”
“Because if we choose the second option, on one hand, the overseas companies we find might not be reliable—it would be very troublesome if we encountered uncooperative partners; on the other hand, whether it’s money from team slots or sponsorships, we would have to share with them, which means our income would decrease.”
Pei Qian nodded slightly.
Sure enough, Zhang Yuan’s thinking was similar to his own, just from a different perspective.
Although handling everything themselves seemed appealing—opening overseas branches would mean hiring more employees and spending more money—in the long run, it could also lead to very serious consequences.
What if these overseas branch employees became extremely enthusiastic, made the overseas leagues particularly successful, better promoted GOG abroad in the process, and sold team slots and sponsorships at astronomical prices, keeping all the profits…
Wouldn’t that be a spiral to heaven?
Looking at the second option, whether encountering uncooperative partners or sharing money with other companies, both were good news for Pei Qian.
GPL was already so successful; he couldn’t fall into the same trap twice. It was time to try a different approach.
Pei Qian said, “Hmm, I think what you said makes a lot of sense. Let’s go with the second option!”
“Go to various regions and negotiate with other overseas companies, letting them be responsible for preparing the overseas leagues.”
Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment: “What?”
But he quickly recovered, having grown accustomed to Mr. Pei’s tendency to do the opposite of what seemed logical.
“Yes, Mr. Pei. But there’s another question: if we’re going to partner with foreign companies, should we look for well-known big companies? Or should we find smaller companies without much reputation?”
This question stumped Pei Qian again.
Another difficult choice!
After some consideration, Pei Qian said: “Choose small companies.”
Obviously, big companies had greater reputation and influence, making them more likely to successfully organize GOG’s overseas leagues. Small companies had less capability, increasing the possibility of uncooperative partners.
Since Mr. Pei had already given a clear choice, Zhang Yuan didn’t ask further and simply said: “Yes, Mr. Pei. I’ll arrange these matters on Monday.”