At first, Pei Qian didn’t pay much attention to this issue.

Similar designs happen. It’s inevitable.

As MOBA games, designers’ inspirations often overlap. Especially when they both used gold elements, they would naturally look similar. Having some sense of déjà vu was perfectly normal.

With just this slight sense of familiarity, it could hardly be called plagiarism.

Finger Company was a major corporation; they should still care about their reputation.

But Pei Qian, for some inexplicable reason, browsed through the players’ comments about this skin set and suddenly realized something was amiss.

Clearly, players also felt that this black-gold themed championship skin series had similarities to GOG’s money-throwing hedgehog, Modistre.

Some players shared Pei Qian’s view, believing it was simply a “design coincidence”—just chance.

But many players held different opinions.

“I don’t think this is a coincidence!”

“Look carefully at this image—I photoshopped the money-throwing hedgehog into this black-gold championship skin set, and found it fits perfectly without any awkwardness. It’s even strangely harmonious!”

“How do you explain that?”

This player attached an image below.

In the original championship skin series, the ioi heroes stood in various poses—some standing, some half-crouching, arranged in a horizontal row, looking quite impressive.

But this player had photoshopped a giant Modistre behind them!

And this Modistre had been deliberately exaggerated—his already robust and powerful physique was further enlarged so that the ioi heroes only reached his waist.

Modistre’s broad shoulders, muscular arms, and wing-like golden light effects completely dominated the upper half of the image. Like an angel descending from heaven, he enveloped all five ioi heroes beneath his golden radiance.

This photoshop wasn’t particularly difficult, as Modistre was extracted from a high-definition original artwork with just some additional golden light effects.

But the final result had been edited without any sense of incongruity. It looked as if these six heroes were originally one entity, with the five heroes below appearing like Modistre’s minions…

This image quickly sparked heated discussion among players.

“Wow, it fits perfectly! It’s absolutely perfect!”

“Although Modistre’s original artwork doesn’t have tech elements, these five heroes’ championship skins somehow match Modistre inexplicably well…”

“Seeing this image, I suddenly realized something—these five heroes don’t just have similar golden light effects to Modistre, they’re similar in many ways!”

“There are many types of golden light effects—some more like coins, others more like halos, and some like water ripples… but both Modistre and this championship skin set use golden light effects that feel more like coins. The style is consistent.”

“And the five heroes in this skin series all give off an arrogant vibe, which is very similar to Modistre’s personality. Look at their standing postures—they all look as cocky as hell, exactly like they were cut from the same mold as Modistre…”

“I have some inside information! A friend of mine knows someone who works at FV Club. Apparently, this skin set was designed to pay tribute to Mr. Pei!”

“You know, FV Team was just a second-tier team at the beginning. How could they win the world championship? It was because Mr. Pei spent money to provide them with strong logistical support and sent data analysts to provide data support! So the two themes of this championship skin—’gold’ and ‘data’—are to commemorate Mr. Pei!”

“Is that really the case? That would make sense then. After all, Modistre was designed based on Mr. Pei. Since they’re both tributes to Mr. Pei, naturally there would be some overlap in design…”

“I think you might be overthinking this. Most likely, Finger Company’s artists got lazy. They wanted to use gold elements, saw that Modistre’s gold elements looked good, so they just ‘borrowed’ the idea!”

“That’s not right—you’re underestimating the professional integrity of Finger Company’s artists! I think it’s more like this: Modistre’s original artwork is Ruan’s masterpiece, which is excellent to begin with. Modistre, as GOG’s representative hero, is too famous and his image too deeply imprinted in people’s minds. Finger Company’s artists have seen it so often that when they wanted to create artwork with gold elements, they unconsciously and subconsciously adopted Modistre’s artistic style…”

Players expressed various opinions, and it became difficult to distinguish which rumors were true and which were false.

But during the discussion, players gradually established one consensus.

They did look alike!

Especially after the photoshopped image came out—the more you looked, the more similar they seemed.

As for why they looked alike, everyone held their own views, and no one could convince others. Some believed Finger Company’s artists deliberately borrowed the design, while others thought it was an unintentional coincidence—a creative overlap.

But regardless of the discussion, one thing remained constant: this skin set was now thoroughly linked to Modistre’s image!

The photoshopped image had such widespread and profound influence that many players, when looking at the original artwork of the five Black Gold Technology heroes standing together, always felt something was missing.

What was missing?

Obviously, it was Modistre standing behind them, sheltering them with his broad shoulders!

Once this idea took hold, this Black Gold Technology championship skin set could no longer exist independently—it was firmly tied to Modistre.

This situation arose not just because they looked similar, but also because of the intriguing story behind this championship skin set.

It could be said that without Mr. Pei’s (Modistre’s) lavish spending and data support, FV Team wouldn’t have won the championship, and naturally, this black-gold themed championship skin wouldn’t exist.

So, numerous elements inside and outside the game firmly bound this championship skin’s image to Modistre’s image, never to be separated.

Even more terrifying was that players continued to dig deeper, extrapolating more meanings…

…

Dragon Yu Group.

Eric browsed through the online comments, his entire being in a state of anger and shock.

“What is going on?!”

“How could this happen?!”

“We released the championship skins, so why is everyone discussing GOG, Modistre, and Tenda?”

He had reviewed Zhao Xuming’s promotional plan and found nothing wrong with it. He thought that even if Mr. Pei counterattacked, it wouldn’t be until the summer promotion.

However, he never expected that the supposedly foolproof championship skins would cause such a commotion!

This turn of events was so abrupt that Eric, who had been focusing on other matters and wasn’t mentally prepared, almost threw out his back.

Everyone else in the meeting room kept their heads down, hardly daring to breathe.

Because the current situation was truly terrible.

After Finger Company and Dragon Yu Group released the Black Gold Technology themed championship skins, although they generated good reactions online, everyone was discussing Tenda and GOG’s Modistre!

Almost no one was discussing the skins themselves!

Even more alarming was that players let their imaginations run wild, digging up and extrapolating many other meanings.

Modistre represented Mr. Pei, who created this Black Gold Technology championship skin set. Gold represented Tenda’s lavish spending, while technology represented the powerful data support provided by Mr. Pei. This skin set symbolized how Mr. Pei formed a team to conquer ioi and left an indelible mark in ioi’s hall of fame…

Several months later, people once again recalled the scenes of FV dominating as Tenda and Mr. Pei’s representative team during the previous ioi Global Finals.

In fact, Finger Company had anticipated that when this championship skin set was released, they would be “flogged” again.

But they never expected the flogging to be so fierce and so dishonorable!

Eric took a deep breath and looked at Zhao Xuming.

Zhao Xuming ducked his head.

Why are you looking at me? What does this have to do with me?

True, I created the promotional plan.

But I just made a normal, reasonable promotional plan based on the championship skins! This time, isn’t the problem with the skins themselves?

You should go find the people who designed the skins and hold them accountable!

Seeing Eric’s unfriendly expression, Zhao Xuming felt he needed to immediately deflect this blame that was about to fall on his head.

“This must be Mr. Pei’s conspiracy!”

“Mr. Pei is so calculating. This was clearly a plan prepared since FV Team won the championship, and today it’s finally revealed!”

“Think carefully about the current state of the domestic MOBA game market.”

“The incremental market has almost been divided up. MOBA games are already well-known, and players from other game genres who were easily convertible have already been converted.”

“So now, the war between GOG and ioi has gradually shifted to the stock market. That means stealing each other’s players!”

“This is no easy task.”

“MOBA games have a high learning curve. Once players are familiar with one game, they find it uncomfortable to play another. At this point, you need a breakthrough point!”

“This breakthrough point can be a highly recognizable hero image, or it can be a story that players love to discuss and spread by word of mouth.”

“And Mr. Pei has combined these two points!”

“After FV Team won the championship, Mr. Pei knew we would make championship skins for them, so he must have instructed them early on to create a series of skins similar to Modistre’s style.”

“At the same time, to eliminate our suspicions, FV Team members deliberately avoided mentioning Modistre when submitting their requirements. But in subsequent communications, they kept asking our artists to repeatedly modify the designs, gradually guiding them toward Modistre’s style.”

“That’s why the final product so closely resembles Modistre!”

“Mr. Pei’s purpose is so malicious!”

“FV Team is his team. In a very short time, he transformed FV Team from a domestic second-tier team into world champions, winning the first world championship in the ioi Global Finals. This is an honor worth commemorating for Mr. Pei.”

“But obviously, he wants more than that.”

“The reason he created this championship skin set was to firmly combine it with Modistre’s image. In the future, when ioi players see the championship skins, they’ll naturally associate them with Modistre, then with GOG and Tenda Group!”

“This is a breakthrough point that will subtly make ioi players recognize and accept GOG, gradually eroding our player base…”

“This is all Mr. Pei’s conspiracy, which has nothing to do with the skin promotion plan I created!”

After hearing Zhao Xuming’s explanation, everyone nodded, their faces showing expressions of sudden realization.

Analyzed this way, Mr. Pei was indeed vicious!

So this conspiracy had been planned since FV Team first won the championship?

Looking at it now, Mr. Pei’s scheme was truly flawless. He had not only deceived everyone at Finger Company and Dragon Yu Group but also the players.

Only when the championship skins were officially promoted and everything was set in stone did he reveal his true intentions with a fatal strike!

Now, even if Finger Company and Dragon Yu Group wanted to regret it, it was too late.

Even if they recalled and redesigned the championship skins now, it would be useless—the situation might even get worse.

Players would still associate these championship skins with Modistre, and recalling them would mean another victory for Mr. Pei, who would watch Finger Company make a fool of itself twice without lifting a finger.

So, even though these championship skins were clearly undermining ioi’s position and benefiting Tenda, they couldn’t withdraw them—they could only grit their teeth and continue selling!

This was truly unbearable.

Eric closed his eyes briefly and sighed silently.

Zhao Xuming was right. This incident really wasn’t his fault—it wasn’t a problem with the promotional plan, but with the skins themselves.

They couldn’t blame the championship skin designers either. After all, they were just diligently doing their job.

If Eric and Zhao Xuming, who had been directly contending with Mr. Pei, couldn’t see through his move, how could those designers across the ocean who had never dealt with Mr. Pei and were only responsible for designing skins?

Indeed, no one was to blame—except Mr. Pei for being too cunning!

Eric leaned back in his chair, silent for a long time.

When he had just become the head of ioi’s Greater China Region again, he had been ambitious, believing he had found Tenda’s weak spot and could defeat Mr. Pei easily.

But now, he only felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Persevering seemed completely hopeless.

What should he do?