November 6th, Tuesday.

Shanghai, Long Yu Group.

Christian and Jin Yong were both busy preparing for the IOI Global Finals.

Although this IOI Global Finals was being held in Europe, there was still plenty of work to be done domestically, such as running promotional activities on the domestic server, organizing offline viewing events, coordinating with various streaming platforms about broadcasting the tournament, and so on.

Comparatively speaking, they were actually more exhausted than Eric and Zhao Xuming.

This was because Zhao Xuming reported directly to Mr. Pei and could make many decisions independently, saving a lot of time on inefficient communication.

Christian and Jin Yong, on the other hand, had to report separately to Finger Games, Long Yu Group, and even Dyac Group. Many routine proposals had to go through bureaucratic procedures to be approved.

Some proposals could only be handled conservatively, while others had to be completed as early as possible.

At this moment, the two had just finished their work and had a chance to briefly catch up.

Christian asked, “Is there any news from GOG’s side?”

Jin Yong shook his head, “Haven’t heard anything.”

Christian sighed, “Mr. Pei really knows how to keep his cool.”

“Even at this point, he’s giving nothing away. Not a single bit of information has leaked out. I’ve even heard that the broadcasting rights haven’t been finalized yet.”

“I feel like there must be some conspiracy behind this.”

Jin Yong comforted him, “Not necessarily. It’s also possible that Mr. Pei has too many things to handle and hasn’t had time to focus on GOG’s Global Invitational yet.”

Christian didn’t believe it at all: “That’s impossible.”

“No matter who might be too busy, Mr. Pei would never be.”

“You should never underestimate Mr. Pei under any circumstances, or you’ll suffer the most severe consequences!”

“I’m 100% certain this time that Mr. Pei is planning a major move against us.”

“You can see it from the timing arrangement of the GOG Global Invitational…”

Last year, the GOG Global Invitational and IOI Global Finals had been scheduled at different times.

GOG started in September and finished by the end of that month, while IOI began at the end of December and continued until the end of January.

These two major tournaments were separated by nearly three months.

Originally, Finger Games had also planned to hold the world tournament around September or October, but at that time, they hadn’t considered making it a grand event, just thinking of finding an ordinary venue and hosting something simple.

They never expected GOG to create such a spectacle.

So Finger Games completely scrapped their original plan and postponed the event to the end of December.

On one hand, more preparation time would allow them to create a grander event to overshadow GOG; on the other hand, they also wanted to separate the timing from GOG’s Global Invitational as much as possible, avoiding the lingering heat of its aftermath and creating differentiation.

The facts proved that IOI’s Global Finals did indeed achieve the expected level of popularity, although most of the hype was ultimately stolen by FV team’s victory…

But this year’s situation was different.

For Finger Games, holding the Global Finals as late as the end of December was really too late—it would extend into January of the next year. Which year’s Global Finals would that be counted as?

So this year’s timing definitely needed to be moved up.

September, October, November—these three months were more suitable, and at the latest, it shouldn’t drag into the end of December.

They wanted to move quickly, but before the Global Finals, there were various regional tournaments.

GOG and IOI were in similar situations, both having just started to expand worldwide this year, so the starting times for various regional tournaments were staggered.

Some regions started their tournaments rather late, and they couldn’t just cut their schedules in half, could they?

Forcibly compressing the schedule wouldn’t be ideal either.

So after considering the timing of all regions, they finally set the Global Finals for November.

By next year, they would definitely try to move this timing forward, with October being optimal.

What surprised Finger Games was that GOG’s Global Invitational had also been delayed to the same time!

On the surface, GOG seemed to be facing the same problem—needing to wait for the schedules of other regions.

But Christian felt that things were definitely not that simple.

Deliberately scheduling the events to coincide—this was clearly an attempt to kill IOI!

It seemed that Mr. Pei was extremely confident in GOG and his own Global Invitational, surely gearing up to pull some tricks.

So Christian didn’t dare to be negligent and kept observing.

But after observing for a while, there seemed to be no major movements from their side, especially in the domestic business area, which remained calm and undisturbed.

According to news from various streaming platforms, they hadn’t even finalized how to sell the broadcasting rights for the GOG world tournament.

This was quite bewildering, especially since IOI had already negotiated terms with various streaming platforms and sold the broadcasting rights for the IOI world tournament.

What exactly was Mr. Pei waiting for?

Not being able to figure this out made Christian extremely anxious.

He had organized last year’s world tournament, and Mr. Pei’s elusive tactics still made him shudder when he thought about them.

Although he wasn’t organizing this year’s world tournament, it still reminded him of the fear of being completely outmaneuvered by Mr. Pei.

Whenever anything slightly unusual happened, he worried that Mr. Pei might be brewing some kind of evil plan.

As they were talking, suddenly, Jin Yong’s phone rang.

His expression changed slightly, and he stepped outside to take the call.

After a while, Jin Yong hurried back.

“He’s made his move! Mr. Pei has made his move!”

“News from the streaming platforms says that Mr. Zhao has signed contracts with more than a dozen domestic streaming platforms in just one day, from yesterday to today. All streaming platforms, big and small, have been covered, not a single one left out!”

Upon hearing this, Christian’s brow immediately furrowed.

See? This was Tenda’s efficiency!

Even someone like Mr. Zhao had become so efficient after joining Tenda, which was truly surprising.

This further confirmed what Christian and others had been thinking: Tenda’s delay wasn’t because Mr. Pei was too busy to attend to it, but because they were secretly brewing something, waiting for the right moment!

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have acted so decisively and swiftly.

Jin Yong continued, “What’s more frightening is that Tenda’s contract terms with these streaming platforms are strange—they’re allowing the platforms to use their promotional resources to offset the broadcasting rights fees!”

Christian was stunned: “They can do that?!”

He didn’t bother questioning the accuracy of the information because it was most likely correct.

Long Yu Group still had some influence domestically and had its own information channels. Besides, Tenda’s high-profile signing with so many streaming platforms couldn’t be kept secret, and they clearly hadn’t intended to keep it secret.

Of course, the content of the contracts themselves was confidential, and neither Jin Yong nor Christian could see the specific details, but they could get a general idea from oral descriptions.

Christian couldn’t sit still and stood up to pace around.

“Mr. Pei’s move is as insidious as ever!”

“The consequences are predictable—other platforms will definitely throw most of their promotional resources at GOG. On the homepages of all major platforms, there will be a huge disparity in the space occupied by these two world tournaments…”

“This is killing the spirit along with the body!”

“The key is that we seemingly can’t do anything about it.”

“We’ve already signed contracts with various streaming platforms, and the money matters have been settled. We didn’t mention anything about promotional spots at all.”

“Now, even if we want to add supplementary agreements, it’s probably too difficult.”

Both Christian and Jin Yong were completely helpless.

Because IOI had already signed with various streaming platforms, and they hadn’t considered the matter of promotional spots at all when signing.

The broadcasting rights for these streaming platforms were purchased with money, so they should get a reasonable amount of promotional spots, right? Otherwise, wouldn’t they just be paying for nothing?

Although there was GOG’s Global Invitational, there were so many promotional spots on these streaming platforms.

Christian had thought that with so many promotional spots, even if the best ones all went to GOG, leaving IOI with some second-tier spots would be acceptable.

For example, on the homepage’s scrolling banner, if they took turns with each page, even if GOG had a slight advantage by being in front, overall it would still be passable for IOI’s image.

But with Mr. Pei’s move, it was no longer a matter of taking turns with each page.

At this rate, the scrolling banners might be completely canceled, with all spots displaying promotional material for the GOG Global Invitational!

After all, the more promotional power, the more money could be deducted.

Although these streaming platforms had also paid for IOI’s broadcasting rights, that money was already spent. How could it compare to GOG’s approach, where they could still get some money back?

Jin Yong said, “Mr. Pei was obviously waiting all this time, waiting until we had completed all our contracts with other streaming platforms and couldn’t change anything, before signing these contracts with lightning speed, completely cutting off our retreat!”

After analyzing the situation, the two fell silent.

Christian tentatively asked, “Could we try to negotiate with these streaming platforms? Tenda’s agreement with them doesn’t mandate any specific number of promotional spots, right?”

Jin Yong shook his head: “Unlikely.”

Indeed, there was no mandatory requirement, but how many promotional spots exchanged for how much money was clearly priced.

In this regard, Mr. Pei would certainly not be stingy.

And IOI had already signed contracts with the streaming platforms. Whether they provided promotional spots might have some impact on the streaming platforms, but no matter how you looked at it, it couldn’t compare to cold, hard cash.

They couldn’t expect IOI to pay extra money to the streaming platforms to make them give up the money promised by Mr. Pei, could they?

Who would pay for that?

Long Yu Group? Or Dyac Group?

It wasn’t realistic for anyone to pay!

The key was that IOI’s broadcasting rights had already been sold, and now, because of Mr. Pei’s move, they would have to give back some of the money they had already received?

That was wishful thinking.

The crucial point was that neither Christian nor Jin Yong had the authority to decide this matter, and they were well aware that even if they reported this situation and offered suggestions, it would likely be ignored, and the higher-ups would absolutely not approve.

When it came to spending unnecessary money, there was no way the higher-ups would approve it.

With this move, Mr. Pei had once again precisely struck at IOI’s vital point!