At this moment, Pei Qian had just gotten out of bed.
After casually scrolling through the news, he discovered that stocks and funds had fallen again recently. Many people online were wailing, saying they’d lost several thousand or even over ten thousand yuan in one go.
“Fortunately, I don’t understand any of that and have never bought such things.”
“People need to know their limitations and not rashly enter fields they don’t understand.”
“Otherwise, losing over ten thousand at once would be so painful—even more distressing than my company earning a million.”
Pei Qian couldn’t help but give himself a thumbs-up for his intelligence and wisdom.
After washing up, while waiting for his delivery, he checked various forums for updates on IOI’s World Championship Finals.
There were many players discussing it on the forums. Some posts were from the past two days during the matches, and some were new posts from noon today, though relatively fewer in number.
“Is FV Team up to their antics again?”
“Those foreign teams have all started interacting with each other!”
“Well, FV Team is quite popular now.”
“They’re definitely popular. Last week they lost one match in the group stage, and the buzz both domestically and internationally went through the roof. Post-match analysis programs from European and American broadcasts devoted over 70% of their airtime to discussing that match and analyzing FV Team’s weaknesses…”
“Can’t help it—last year’s World Championship left such a deep impression. They’ve maintained their big boss image, so when other teams win a match against them, isn’t it worth hyping up?”
“FV Team should adjust quickly. Finger Company is really shameless; this version update was clearly targeted! All these antics now are really concerning!”
“Hey, without antics, where would the hype come from? If everyone stayed low-key with no tension before matches, things wouldn’t be exciting.”
“The tournament organizers and other clubs are obviously cooperating too. Haven’t you noticed the increasing interactions between clubs? And from the promotional videos, you can tell they’re trying to build up FV Team as the final boss.”
“They’re showing such favoritism to an ICL team?”
“Favoritism? Don’t be silly. They’re building up the villain to make the protagonist who defeats them look more glorious. Get it?”
“I see… the officials are playing 4D chess!”
Since Pei Qian made that phone call, FV Team had continued their tradition of stirring things up—not only commenting on other teams’ matches but also frantically interacting with opponents and other popular teams before and after their own matches.
The tournament organizers and other clubs were cooperating well, clearly generating buzz around FV Team.
In China, this trend was evident on Weibo and various forums.
But domestic audiences were smart; they could tell this wasn’t the officials genuinely promoting FV Team.
The current situation was unavoidable because FV Team, as last year’s champion, naturally commanded high attention and traffic. Moreover, FV Team was skilled at creating buzz and had strong influence on foreign forums.
Trying to sidestep FV Team while forcibly promoting European or American teams? That would be difficult.
Such an approach would not only be ineffective but would also make the motives too obvious.
So IOI’s organizers had actually adopted another, more reliable approach. On the surface, they openly acknowledged FV Team and gave them many opportunities for exposure. But in reality, once FV Team lost, the team that beat them could instantly capture all the attention.
Then the tournament organizers could use this buzz to create a new star, generate enough talking points, and transfer all the attention to themselves.
They had no choice—the discussion around the IOI World Championship was currently too low, uncomfortably overshadowed by GOG Global Invitational. If they didn’t stir up some buzz, they would quietly enter the knockout stage without making a sound.
Facts proved this approach had some effect. The key ultimately depended on which team would win the championship.
Seeing this situation, Pei Qian felt slightly relieved.
Who would win the championship remained to be seen, but at least the IOI World Championship was gaining traction.
What Pei Qian feared most wasn’t FV Team winning the championship, but rather the IOI World Championship remaining lukewarm and posing no threat to GOG.
Between two evils, choose the lesser one. If FV winning again could boost the IOI World Championship’s popularity, that would be an acceptable outcome.
After flipping through several more pages, he didn’t see any new posts.
After all, IOI matches only started in the evening. Yesterday’s matches had been discussed thoroughly, and the forum’s activity had noticeably declined.
However, just as Pei Qian was about to exit, he came across a new post.
This new post wasn’t discussing the IOI matches but GOG!
“???”
Pei Qian instantly had an ominous feeling and hurriedly clicked to read.
“GOG just updated with a new spectator system that directly connects the game with streaming platforms. Although it’s still in beta, players are already going wild with it and waiting for today’s matches. Sigh, IOI is really falling behind in everything. They’re always a step behind, no wonder GOG keeps dominating them.”
Many people quickly left comments.
“A step behind? Are you sure it’s just a step? I think it would be impressive if IOI could develop this feature within six months!”
“Connecting the game client with streaming platforms? What’s the use? Aren’t you still just watching matches?”
“Of course not! You can see all the match details, which provides so much more to discuss! To say nothing else, IOI only shows a damage panel at the end of matches. Other data like damage taken, healing, ward placement, player skill points, and current experience—you either can’t see or have to search for on websites. Some data can’t even be found on websites. But GOG’s system allows you to directly observe matches in the client, freely switch camera angles, click on heroes to check their stats—you can see everything!”
“Wouldn’t that mean you can’t hear the commentators?”
“You think they wouldn’t have thought of that? The system has built-in functionality to switch audio sources for different commentaries, or you can open the official livestream in a pop-up window. It’s the best of both worlds!”
“Sounds like black magic technology!”
“It’s not really advanced tech. Rumor has it that the technology isn’t particularly sophisticated, but the complex interests between game companies and streaming platforms make cooperation difficult.”
“I think it’s also related to GOG’s already comprehensive spectator system. IOI doesn’t seem to prioritize this aspect. How many players have given feedback? Yet they still don’t improve it—it remains as difficult to use as ever!”
The post quickly gained numerous replies. While expressing envy and jealousy, IOI players also seemed disappointed with IOI, showing a complex emotion that, despite being accustomed to this situation, still felt quite bitter.
Would this feature enhance the viewing experience of matches?
Definitely.
Watching normally on streaming platforms, viewers could only follow the official observer’s camera, with many details inevitably overlooked.
Many viewers who wanted to review matches could only watch the official recordings repeatedly, still missing details that remained hidden.
This included ward placement timing and techniques, laning phase details, and factors influencing each player’s decision-making. Extracting this information from official recordings required significant patience.
But now GOG viewers could freely observe, watching whatever they wanted. All information throughout the entire match was fully exposed.
More information inevitably led to more topics and higher discussion levels.
There were always microscopic analysts among viewers who excelled at finding critical turning points in the most minute details. GOG’s new feature undoubtedly equipped these Leeuwenhoeks with an even higher-resolution microscope!
Many people were also discussing when this feature was developed.
Some said it must have been in development for a while, at least several months of preparation, specifically for the World Championship.
Others argued that given current technology, the feature wasn’t actually difficult to implement, especially since GOG had already built a comprehensive in-game observer system with appropriate interfaces—a concentrated effort could produce it quickly.
Some pointed out that developing the feature itself wasn’t the key issue; the critical part was coordinating with streaming platforms. Both sides needed to work together without getting tangled in disputes; otherwise, it would be impossible to create.
Pei Qian was also puzzled.
Yes, when was this feature developed?
It seemed to have been in preparation for quite some time. Was it something Chen Yufeng had done secretly?
If so, the suffering journey wasn’t punishing him unfairly—in fact, he deserved an extra helping!
But just as he was browsing the thread, it disappeared.
It had been deleted!
Clearly, the moderator had noticed the post’s increasing popularity and rising tension, so they deleted it.
As the number of discussants grew, many naturally began comparing GOG and IOI, viciously criticizing IOI. The two factions easily started arguing, creating a toxic atmosphere.
The moderator knew there was no point in this argument—complaining wouldn’t magically make Finger Company implement this feature. Better to delete the post and let everyone continue discussing the game and matches.
It was a necessary measure. If everyone continued discussing this way, would this still be an IOI forum or a GOG forum?
But obviously, this had little effect, as everyone just went elsewhere to continue the discussion!
Pei Qian felt dizzy, sensing that something was amiss!
This wasn’t just about a simple spectator system.
This spectator system exponentially increased the match details viewers could see, providing them with abundant discussion material.
This would inevitably significantly boost the discussion heat around key matches!
Because under a microscope, each player’s performance could generate several threads, and in-game laning performances and crucial team fights could generate several more.
Additionally, many content creators making post-match analysis videos could now observe matches themselves, greatly promoting secondary transmission of the events.
Another crucial point was that this feature was directly tied to Rabbit Tail Streaming, essentially integrating a Rabbit Tail Streaming platform into every GOG client!
If the GOG Global Invitational’s pre-match, in-match, and post-match buzz all surged, wouldn’t IOI’s hard-earned attention be suppressed again?