Eric found it amusing: “Why wouldn’t I be certain? IOI has been advancing unstoppably worldwide. Its failures in the Greater China region are only because it encountered unfair game rules!”

“You act as both player and referee, treating IOI completely as a stepping stone for GOG. IOI’s failure has nothing to do with its quality. Of course I’m confident enough in it!”

Lin Wan nodded with a smile: “Well then, I wish you good luck.”

Eric hadn’t recognized the gap in quality between IOI and GOG, and had simply attributed all of IOI’s failures to Tenda’s behind-the-scenes manipulation.

Lin Wan hoped that Eric would continue to maintain this view.

Eric took a sip of coffee: “I wish you good luck, too, Miss Lin. After losing the operational rights for IOI, I wonder if your department will become unemployed? I think probably not, since this is all an internal arrangement within Tenda. You’ll likely be reassigned to handle new game projects.”

“It’s just a pity that Tenda didn’t cherish an S-tier project like IOI that only comes once in a decade. You won’t have the opportunity to operate such a project again.”

Lin Wan smiled slightly and stood up.

“You don’t need to worry about that, Mr. Eric. We already have new work.”

“GOG’s international server will be launched soon. Guess how much promotional budget we have?”

“Seventy million dollars.”

“What a coincidence!”

Lin Wan deliberately used a somewhat exaggerated tone.

Eric froze, his hand holding the coffee cup suspended in mid-air.

What did she mean?

Just changing sides without any explanation?

And… using our money???

…

…

August 6th, Saturday.

DGE Esports Club.

Huang Wang finished installing the newly arrived camera.

Old Zhou complained: “Who was it that said they would never show their face?”

Huang Wang’s tone was full of resignation: “I had no choice. I don’t know why people keep spamming ‘camera camera’ in chat every day. What’s so great about it?”

“I’m just a regular guy, I can’t show cleavage like female streamers… well, I could, but nobody wants to see that!”

“But they just keep spamming, and recently, more and more people have been doing it. There are even people spamming ‘the streamer doesn’t dare to turn on the camera because he must be ugly’ every day. How could I tolerate that?”

Old Zhou laughed, lamenting that today’s ridiculous internet users had so many ideas, with poor streamers being played like puppets in their hands.

Huang Wang adjusted the camera and started his stream as usual.

As soon as the stream began, a large number of viewers with airplane tickets flooded into the streaming room.

Huang Wang’s duo matches with Pang Ling had gained him many fans, and after opening his streaming channel, his fan count skyrocketed.

The previous match had attracted many GOG players. These people had become Pang Ling’s fans, and then converted into Huang Wang’s fans.

Moreover, Huang Wang’s streaming effect was very good. The two of them duo-queued and casually destroyed high-ranking players while chatting. Huang Wang was also very talkative, constantly babbling without stopping, which suited the viewers’ tastes perfectly.

After all, for many viewers, talking a lot equaled good eloquence. Regardless of what the streamer was saying, as long as they could hear something, it was fine.

As Huang Wang’s streaming channel gained popularity, he also received various promotions from the platform, so his number of fans continued to increase.

Originally, viewers would spam all sorts of things when they first entered the streaming room, but after a few days, the tone of the barrage of comments completely changed.

“???”

“Who are you, streamer?”

“Why is there a muscular man sitting here? Where did the streamer go?”

“Damn? Is this what the streamer looks like? Are you sure you’re not a boxer who switched to esports? My mind is blown!”

“The streamer is powerful, in every sense of the word!”

“Strike a pose!”

“Is this really that chatty streamer? The image gap is too huge! I thought the streamer would be a skinny guy!”

Looking at the screen full of comments, Huang Wang was dissatisfied.

What do you mean, a boxer who switched to esports?

And asking me to strike a pose?

What kind of person do you think I am?

Suddenly, a large rocket gift flew across the streaming room.

Huang Wang’s eyes lit up, and he quickly said: “Thanks to ‘Begging Streamer for Shirtless Stream’ for the rocket!”

This was a bit awkward.

Huang Wang had no choice but to say: “Going shirtless isn’t possible, but how about I change into a tank top…”

The demands of the viewers could be ignored, but the needs of the paying patrons had to be met.

Huang Wang was a man of principle, and his principle was to never go against money.

Zhang Yuan silently walked by, also unable to hold back a smile.

For him, these team members couldn’t participate in professional matches now anyway. Usually, they just trained and practiced extra, leading to a monotonous life. Occasionally, streaming for entertainment wasn’t bad.

As long as they maintained their regular training intensity and didn’t focus all their attention on streaming, it was fine.

Zhang Yuan returned to his room and checked the practice match arrangements with other clubs.

After the last match, GOG’s popularity in China had surged, and various clubs were also shifting resources toward GOG.

As a result, all clubs came to arrange practice matches!

After all, everyone knew that DGE Club’s two teams represented the highest level of GOG currently in China and even the world, since GOG didn’t have a world server yet.

If they wanted practice matches, they naturally sought the strongest opponents to see exactly how big the gap was between themselves and top-tier teams.

But Zhang Yuan realized that DGE had only two teams, while there were at least a dozen clubs seeking practice matches, making it impossible to accommodate everyone.

Moreover, these clubs varied greatly in strength. Some newly established or transitioning clubs had players who might even lose to highly ranked casual players. For DGE’s two teams to practice with them would be pure bullying with no benefit whatsoever.

For DGE Club’s two teams to continue improving, the best method was still to practice against each other, but they couldn’t completely reject other teams’ requests for practice matches. Closing themselves off could make the team members arrogant and unknowingly fall behind others.

So, after consideration, Zhang Yuan decided to take the lead in creating a simple schedule for all clubs to practice with each other, ensuring no conflicts.

This way, DGE Club could still find time for their first and second teams to practice together, without spending excessive time playing house with these newly formed clubs and lowering their standards.

After spending more than two hours comprehensively considering the strength and timing of various clubs, he finally created a practice match schedule that encompassed all teams.

Zhang Yuan sent the schedule directly to the heads of other clubs, asking them to arrange practice match times accordingly.

The heads of other clubs naturally had no objections. With DGE, the strongest club, taking the lead to properly arrange training matches for all the domestic teams, everyone was more than happy to comply.

Just as he closed his laptop, the phone on the desk rang.

Zhang Yuan picked it up and saw it was an unknown number.

“Hello?”

A male voice came through the phone: “Hello, is this DGE Esports Club? I’m Peng Bin, Vice President of YiYi Live Streaming. We’d like to sign your club’s player Huang Wang, and I was wondering if we could discuss the details?”

Zhang Yuan was somewhat surprised.

Huang Wang had only been streaming for a few days, and he was already noticed by YiYi Live Streaming?

But thinking about it again, it made sense. These streaming platforms were all highly motivated, frantically discovering promising streamers and competing for popularity.

Especially streamers in the GOG field, who were being frantically fought over, with signing bonuses getting higher and higher.

Huang Wang already had skill, plus Pang Ling’s recommendation, and his appearance and physique also easily created topics and heat. In the eyes of these streaming platforms, he was a hot commodity.

After some consideration, Zhang Yuan said: “There’s one thing you must guarantee, which is that it cannot affect Huang Wang’s original training time. The streaming time cannot exceed thirty-six hours per month.”

“If you cannot accept this condition, no amount of signing bonus will work.”

Peng Bin, on the other end of the phone, was silent for a moment: “We can accept this condition.”

“But we also have a small request, which is that we hope to be allowed to package him as a ‘DGE Club Player’.”

“Of course, we will also provide some consideration for your club.”

“Our contract with Huang Wang is 2 million yuan per year. This amount can be negotiated among the three parties, with the club taking a portion, and the gift income split normally. In addition, YiYi Live Streaming would like to become a sponsor of the DGE Club for 2 million yuan per year.”

Zhang Yuan thought for a moment: “We won’t take any of Huang Wang’s money, it’s all his. As for sponsorship… Mr. Peng, do you know that our team cannot participate in official formal competitions?”

Peng Bin smiled very naturally: “I know. We’ve already heard about this from H4 Club.”

“But as long as your fame is higher than other clubs, what does it matter whether you can compete or not?”