When the question was asked, the room fell silent again.

Although it sounded quite unpleasant, everyone knew this extreme situation could actually happen.

And it would likely happen soon.

IOI’s domestic server already had few players left. After this latest turmoil, with numbers continuing to plummet, could it still sustain an entire server?

Mass player exodus would further accelerate the collapse of matchmaking and ranking systems. Players would struggle to find opponents of similar skill, gaming experience would deteriorate, and naturally, more players would leave, triggering a chain reaction.

Once player numbers decreased, viewership numbers would naturally fall as well.

With decreasing popularity, the entire league’s commercial value would diminish.

If major investors no longer saw potential in the ICL league, and clubs could no longer see returns from their IOI division teams, could the entire ICL league even continue?

A Fingertip Company executive said, “If this situation really occurs, we can only merge servers, transferring player data to the recently opened Southeast Asian server or Korean server to form an Asian server. We’d cancel the ICL league and merge its teams with nearby regions to maintain the league’s commercial value.”

Another executive frowned and said, “But that’s essentially shutting down the server, which would cause even more players to leave. Most people neither want to play with non-native language speakers nor go through the hassle of data migration.”

Christian sighed. “It’s unavoidable. We’ve suffered a crushing defeat in the Greater China market. Whatever we do now is just choosing a relatively dignified conclusion.”

Jin Yong understood this predicament all too well.

It was just like many games in their later stages—natural player attrition meant that whether servers merged or not, both choices were wrong.

Without merging, many players would say the entire server ecosystem had stagnated with no competition, making the game boring and increasing the desire to quit.

With merging, casual players who just wanted to farm peacefully would be upset. They might have ranked fairly high on the old server, but now they were being bullied on the new one, feeling like small weaklings again, which could cause them to leave immediately.

Server merges always start with great fanfare and can stimulate activity for a while, but soon the merged server enters a stagnant state due to player loss.

Then players start clamoring for another merge, which leads to another wave of departures, creating a vicious cycle.

In other words, once server merges begin, they can’t be stopped—essentially like drinking poison to quench thirst.

IOI’s domestic server was in a similar situation. No matter what they did, players would leave. Different approaches would just mean different ways of losing players.

But when things reached that point, not merging wasn’t an option either, as even the most basic gaming experience might become impossible to guarantee.

Christian looked at Jin Yong. “You haven’t expressed any opinion since earlier. What do you think should be done?”

Jin Yong couldn’t help but shrink back.

Don’t ask me! How would I know!

In the current situation, unless Mr. Pei personally intervened, it was likely beyond saving!

But with everyone looking his way, Jin Yong couldn’t keep avoiding the question. He had to steel himself and answer: “I think FV’s new championship skins could be made faster and more attractive…”

He didn’t dare discuss major issues like server merges—that wasn’t his place to comment on.

The final decision on whether to merge servers would most likely require Fingertip Company executives to discuss among themselves and then report to Dayak Group executives before making a final determination.

So Jin Yong could only mention these relatively inconsequential matters.

At least he could say he had spoken at the meeting. Please give me less blame, thank you.

However, Christian’s eyes lit up with approval. “Hmm? That’s actually a crucial point we’ve overlooked!”

“FV team’s championship skins this time should indeed be innovative, with clear differences from last year’s. Regardless, this will definitely help retain players and FV team’s fans. It’s also relatively easy to implement with minimal risk.”

Everyone present nodded in agreement, having no objections.

Making attractive skins could extract one last wave of money from the IOI domestic server, which Dayak Group executives would certainly support wholeheartedly.

Making the skins more attractive would be both practical and diplomatic, showing that Fingertip Company respected and valued FV team’s hard-earned championship.

Christian said to Jin Yong, “Regarding the championship skins, you’ll communicate with FV team and try to meet all their requirements.”

If Fingertip Company’s skin designers communicated directly, there would be language and cultural barriers. So Christian wanted Jin Yong to be the intermediary, facilitating the creation of championship skins that would satisfy FV team’s players as much as possible.

Jin Yong nodded. “Understood. I’ll start pushing this forward as soon as I get back!”

…

Meanwhile, FV team members were exploring the largest shopping mall in the area, happily enjoying their victory.

FV team’s manager Wu Yue and captain Pan Ying were getting tired of shopping and found a café to rest for a while.

“Have you seen the trending topics online? What do you think?” Wu Yue asked.

Though the matches had been grueling, the players were still excited after winning. They had all been glued to their phones for a long time, and had certainly seen the trending topics.

Pan Ying thought for a moment. “About switching to GOG? I think everyone’s intentions are good, but it’s a bit too idealistic.”

“The five of us have always played IOI. Switching to GOG means starting from scratch. At our age, we might not even make it into the second-tier league. We might as well just retire.”

“Besides, FV team has won two IOI world championships. Switching to GOG sounds good but doesn’t feel right.”

“Mr. Pei’s original purpose in buying FV team was to penetrate IOI from within. If we switch to GOG, would Mr. Pei agree?”

Wu Yue said, “I called Mr. Pei about it. He said he would respect the players’ decision. Whether FV team stays with IOI or not doesn’t matter to him.”

“Mr. Pei is very open-minded about this, so you can rest assured.”

Pan Ying still shook his head. “Let’s think about this carefully. Although Fingertip Company is treating us unfairly, we still have some emotional attachment to IOI. I’m not ready to make this decision yet.”

Wu Yue nodded. “Yes, there’s no rush. We can consider it thoroughly.”

“By the way, have you thought about what theme you want for this year’s championship skins?”

Pan Ying shook his head. “Not yet.”

“The heroes we used are ones we don’t like, and most of them look strange. There aren’t many good options.”

The meta heroes in this version were signature picks for some European teams. As everyone knows, European companies tend to create some rather oddly-shaped characters, which happen to be particularly popular with European players.

So FV team had gritted their teeth and practiced these heroes for a long time, starting from the group stage, without ever selecting heroes they actually liked.

Because they never assumed they would definitely win the championship, they couldn’t afford to be complacent in any match, so their viable hero options were mostly ones they didn’t particularly enjoy.

Naturally, they weren’t interested in creating championship skins for heroes they didn’t like. They could only choose the best of a bad bunch.

Wu Yue thought for a moment. “Hey, I just had an idea.”

“Could we make these heroes’ championship skins resemble your favorite heroes?”

Pan Ying was taken aback. “Huh? Like nested dolls? Is that allowed?”

Wu Yue said, “We can suggest it to the officials. Whether they agree or not is their business. Besides, it’s completely within the rules. Why couldn’t we do it?”

Pan Ying hadn’t thought of this approach and took a moment to process it.

Wu Yue was suggesting they could make these unliked heroes look like their favorite heroes, which would make them much more appealing.

As for the specific design, that would be up to Fingertip Company’s skin designers. They had to trust the company’s professional standards.

After considering it, Pan Ying said, “That does seem… like an option. I’ll discuss it with the other team members, and if they agree, we can try this approach.”

“We could incorporate elements from our favorite heroes into these skins—like weapons, styles, features, and so on. That could be quite interesting.”

The more Pan Ying thought about it, the more he liked this idea. He imagined what it might look like and found it appealing, so he agreed with the proposal.

…

Meanwhile, it was already evening in China.

Pei Qian opened the AiLiDao website on his TV, waiting for “The Successor” to premiere while scrolling through discussions about the show on his phone.

The good news was that although GOG and IOI world championships had concluded, people’s enthusiasm for discussion remained high, continuing to occupy the online spotlight for some time.

On the AiLiDao website, numerous content creators were making videos analyzing and summarizing the world championships. Whether professional analysis or humorous memes, there was a general atmosphere of celebration. Comments referencing the GOG world championship could be found under videos in many tangentially related gaming sections.

For Pei Qian, this was a blessing in disguise. The higher the popularity of those topics, the less attention “The Successor” would receive, effectively diverting interest.

As for discussions about “The Successor,” there wasn’t much new content. Clearly, everyone was waiting for the premiere on AiLiDao.

There were even many uninformed posts expressing excitement about it.

Pei Qian smiled slightly. Let them keep looking forward to it. After these three episodes aired, the viewers who were going to leave would pretty much all be gone.