November 26th, Saturday.
Zhao Xuming arrived at SUG Club headquarters in Magic City accompanied by his assistant.
SUG Club’s GOG division was in Jingzhou, but the headquarters housed other projects, so it remained in Magic City.
As for why SUG Club was chosen as his first target, it was the result of a thorough investigation and careful consideration.
Zhao Xuming had learned that the SUG Club had a personal grudge against Mr. Pei of Tenda!
SUG Club was one of the earliest established clubs to form a GOG division and cooperate with Tenda, and they had offered the most generous price.
Furthermore, SUG had successfully secured third place in the Global Invitational Tournament recently, if not for merit, then at least for effort.
Yet such a club had been kicked out of the GPL league by Mr. Pei without any consideration, and could only play in the secondary league!
Now GPL was being prepared with great intensity, creating a bustling scene. If anyone said that Ding Gan, SUG Club’s owner, had no complaints, Zhao Xuming absolutely wouldn’t believe it.
Moreover, the SUG Club also had an IOI division. They had previously received some subsidies from Eric and still had contracts with streaming platforms, so they could still maintain it.
This time, Zhao Xuming wanted to start with the easiest target, the SUG Club, hoping to get SUG to take the lead and mobilize various clubs to organize training matches.
The World Finals would involve competing with foreign teams, which was no laughing matter.
If they went straight into battling foreign teams without training matches, they would certainly be beaten badly and lose their bearings, failing to achieve the goal of boosting IOI’s popularity in the domestic server. Although time was tight, some last-minute preparation would still be beneficial.
At the entrance of the SUG Club, Ding Gan was already waiting.
Seeing Zhao Xuming get out of the car, Ding Gan immediately came forward, “Welcome, Director Zhao!”
Seeing Ding Gan’s enthusiasm, Zhao Xuming was initially delighted, thinking that today’s matter would likely succeed. But upon closer inspection, he noticed that Ding Gan’s eyes seemed somewhat evasive.
What was going on?
Zhao Xuming didn’t feel comfortable asking more questions and could only dismiss it as his imagination.
“Director Ding! Hello, hello. And this is…?” Zhao Xuming looked at a woman in formal attire who appeared to be just thirty, standing beside Ding Gan.
Ding Gan said, “Oh, this is our club’s manager, Manager Yang.”
Manager Yang smiled, “Hello, Director Zhao, please guide us.”
Zhao Xuming felt confused, “Hmm, I remember your club’s manager was surnamed Li? Did I remember wrongly?”
Ding Gan laughed somewhat awkwardly, “Oh, you must have found that information online? We’ve recently made some personnel changes…”
Zhao Xuming realized, “Oh, I apologize! My information might be outdated.”
Ding Gan smiled, “No problem. Let’s not just stand here, shall we go inside to talk? Please, all three of you, come in!”
Zhao Xuming and Ding Gan walked into the club chatting amicably, while Manager Yang attentively led Zhao Xuming’s assistant and driver behind them.
After arriving in the conference room, both parties took their seats.
Zhao Xuming took a sip of tea, exchanged pleasantries for a while, and felt it was about time to get to the main point.
For such a sure thing, there was no need to beat around the bush. SUG Club had no reason to refuse.
Zhao Xuming had limited time and needed to focus his energy on persuading other clubs.
With this in mind, Zhao Xuming said, “Director Ding, to be frank, I come with good news!”
Currently, Finger Company is organizing the IOI World Finals and is placing great importance on the domestic market, so they’ll allocate some spots for domestic teams. SUG already has an IOI division, and this time I’ve overcome opposition and convinced Finger Company’s higher-ups to reserve a spot specifically for SUG Club.”
At this point, Zhao Xuming lowered his voice, “This is internal information, please don’t spread it around.”
Ding Gan hurriedly nodded, “Of course.”
Zhao Xuming continued, “Here’s what I’m thinking: SUG Club’s IOI division is still quite complete, and the players have considerable experience. We’re considering having SUG Club take the lead in organizing training matches for practice.”
“We’ll also talk to other clubs individually, but those club teams might need reinforcement and adjustment, so the task of organizing training matches will likely require Director Ding and Manager Yang to put in extra effort.”
“What do you think?”
Zhao Xuming had expected Ding Gan to readily agree, but to his surprise, Ding Gan looked at Manager Yang with an embarrassed expression.
Zhao Xuming’s heart sank, sensing something was wrong.
But he was puzzled. Could there be any unexpected issues with this matter?
SUG taking the lead to organize training matches and getting the opportunity to go to the IOI World Finals—surely Ding Gan wouldn’t refuse such a good opportunity?
Ding Gan’s expression was somewhat awkward. “Director Zhao, we’re very grateful for you securing such a valuable opportunity for us. But organizing training matches might be a bit difficult because our IOI division now… temporarily… only has three players left.”
“If only you had come two days earlier.”
Zhao Xuming’s mouth opened slightly, momentarily dumbfounded, “What?”
How could the IOI division have only three players left?
These players had likely considered transitioning to playing GOG before, but they hadn’t made the switch precisely because the professional player positions in GOG were saturated. If they went to compete there, they would neither achieve results nor get good prize money.
Looking at IOI, at least there were still some modest subsidies ensuring the players’ basic livelihood.
So, where had all these players gone? Had they quit being professionals?
That didn’t make sense either. If the division still existed, what about the breach of contract penalties if they left?
Ding Gan hurriedly explained, “Director Zhao, the situation is like this.”
“Originally, our IOI division players would stream daily and occasionally arrange training matches. But recently, training matches have become increasingly difficult to arrange because fewer clubs are maintaining IOI divisions; most have switched to playing GOG.”
“Then, a few days ago, several GOG clubs suddenly approached us, saying they wanted to buy our IOI division players. They were willing to pay transfer fees, and the salaries offered were much higher than current ones.”
“The players were all very tempted. Following our principle of respecting players’ wishes, we… we let them go.”
After being stunned for a couple of seconds, Zhao Xuming suddenly realized.
This was bad!
GOG had just recently formed the GPL, and all the teams were frantically competing for players. Since the teams had suddenly expanded to more than a dozen, the demand for players had surged.
Although these IOI players were more skilled at IOI, there were always some individuals among them with talent for GOG. Previously, with fewer positions available, no team wanted them, but now with expanded slots, teams were interested in these experienced players with certain potential.
Zhao Xuming had overlooked this point partly because he had been busy negotiating with Finger Company and had no time to attend to these club matters. Additionally, when the GPL clubs were first formed, they showed no intention of poaching IOI players.
Unexpectedly, after just a few days’ delay, a perfectly good IOI team had been dismantled!
Zhao Xuming had envisioned everything beautifully. If SUG still maintained a complete IOI team, there would be no need to spend time forming a team; they could take the lead in organizing training matches and should be able to achieve a decent ranking when they reached the World Championship stage.
But now with two players gone, everything was hopeless!
After all, IOI was a five-player game. Missing players meant recruiting new ones and rebuilding teamwork—the impact was too significant.
Zhao Xuming had arrived full of enthusiasm and confidence, only to have a bucket of cold water dumped on his head.
Ding Gan was also embarrassed and quickly said, “It’s alright, Director Zhao. We’ll immediately start recruiting. If necessary, we can directly pay to buy players from other clubs. We’ll rebuild the team as quickly as possible!”
Ding Gan hadn’t thought much about it originally, feeling that maintaining an IOI division was meaningless with no competitions to play. Selling the players to GOG clubs would earn transfer fees, so selling them seemed inconsequential.
But immediately after selling them, the IOI World Finals slot was delivered to their doorstep. How could this be explained?
Zhao Xuming remained silent for a moment, then nodded, “Alright.”
What else could be said? The players had already been sold; they couldn’t pay the breach of contract penalty to buy them back. That would be too much of a loss.
Mainly, these players’ value had increased, and transfer fees had become much more expensive. Wouldn’t it be a pure loss to go back and forth like this?
Ding Gan would rather buy IOI division players from other clubs than buy back his players.
But what worried Zhao Xuming was that if GOG clubs had started buying IOI players on a large scale, they wouldn’t stop at just SUG.
If other clubs’ IOI teams were also broken apart, what then?
Should they play a puzzle game, trying to piece together a few teams from existing players to compete in the World Championship, or should they recruit new talent and rely purely on luck?
Zhao Xuming suddenly had an ominous feeling that his seemingly simple task might not be so easy to accomplish.
Tenda’s black hand reached further than he had imagined!
“Could this also be within Mr. Pei’s plan?” Zhao Xuming suddenly felt a chill.