March 7th, Wednesday morning.

On Bunny Tail Streaming, the first exhibition match of the ICL league would start tonight at 5 PM, featuring the two domestic teams that had previously earned national slots and entered the IOI global finals, but were both eliminated in the group stage.

Although both teams being eliminated in the group stage didn’t look particularly impressive, they were still the strongest teams in the country apart from FV and SUG, the best among the rest.

Moreover, after returning from the World Finals, they had played some practice matches against FV, and their technical tactics and overall strength had improved significantly.

Zhao Xuming believed that when these two teams appeared before the audience again, they would definitely show a completely renewed style!

Tomorrow, Thursday, there would be another exhibition match between FV team and SUG team, which would certainly attract even more attention.

The reason FV and SUG’s match wasn’t scheduled for today was mainly out of concern for potential unforeseen issues on the first day.

Various elements at the match venue—lighting, equipment, director’s arrangements, Bunny Tail Streaming’s setup, and so on—all needed to be debugged. If the exhibition match between FV and SUG had been scheduled for today, and they ended up pausing constantly to fix computers, it would have been too disappointing and ultimately damaging to the league’s popularity.

Therefore, scheduling two teams with moderate but not overwhelming popularity and reasonable strength and recognition was the best choice for today.

Of course, this approach also brought up a problem: what about the match’s popularity?

Currently, it would be no exaggeration to say that 90% of the domestic enthusiasm for IOI was focused on FV team. Without FV appearing, the first day of ICL exhibition matches would have few viewers, which would be quite embarrassing, wouldn’t it?

However, Zhao Xuming felt this wasn’t a major issue, since viewership data was always a mix of truth and fiction—those in the know understood this.

The streaming platform could easily inflate the numbers with a few million fake viewers, add repeated comments in the chat, and arrange for a group of paid commenters to chat frantically… this could prop up the livestream’s popularity and at least create a convincing illusion.

Although the contract between the parties didn’t specify these details, wasn’t this the standard practice for all streaming platforms?

These things didn’t need to be explicitly stated—they were industry unwritten rules, and the staff at Bunny Tail Streaming would naturally handle it.

Now, Eric and Zhao Xuming were inspecting the ICL league’s match venue, checking the preparation status of various work elements.

The ICL league venue was also an indoor facility, located in a large studio in Magic City.

Actually, Eric had initially considered large sports stadiums but quickly abandoned the idea. While these large sports stadiums looked more impressive, they also came with corresponding problems.

For instance, large outdoor venues were heavily affected by weather; whether it was heavy rain or scorching sun, on-site spectators would suffer.

The larger the venue, the more money it would cost to decorate effectively. It wasn’t about being afraid to spend money, but more about the embarrassment if spectators couldn’t fill the seats.

Moreover, transportation to large venues might not be very convenient, and if there were concerts or ball games happening at the same time, having ICL spectators exiting alongside sports fans or concert-goers would create chaos and difficulties.

So after comprehensive consideration, they followed GPL’s example and rented an indoor studio, which at least offered convenient transportation and guaranteed overall effect.

Eric toured the studio’s backstage, asking the staff detailed questions about the debugging status of various equipment, then toured the stage and audience seating area, checking for any deficiencies from a spectator’s perspective.

Zhao Xuming followed Eric the entire time, occasionally providing detailed explanations.

Eric had previously specifically studied GPL’s match venue and had many experiences to draw upon. He had also given many directives for ICL’s preparation work.

After touring everything, Eric sat in the audience seating area, silent for a moment, before saying: “Doesn’t it look too much like GPL?”

He had only just realized this point.

During ICL league preparations, Eric had subconsciously adopted all the good aspects of GPL, such as the team banners decorating the venue, the arrangement of the big screen on stage, the positioning of players, and so on.

These details individually weren’t problematic, but when put together, they created a strangely familiar sense of déjà vu…

Obviously, when completing these details, the staff had also subconsciously benchmarked against GPL’s approach, so it looked somewhat similar.

Zhao Xuming opened his mouth but didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

Since Eric had asked this question, he clearly already had a definitive answer in mind.

If Zhao said “no,” it would certainly make Eric feel that he lacked discernment.

But Zhao Xuming also couldn’t nod and say “yes,” because then Eric would certainly ask why he hadn’t pointed this out earlier.

What Eric needed most now was a reliable solution.

But with the matches starting tonight, what kind of solution could be found in just these few hours?

They couldn’t possibly tear down all the decorations they’d already set up and replace everything within a few hours, could they? That would be absurd.

Zhao Xuming had a sudden inspiration and came up with a response.

“There is indeed a bit of a GPL déjà vu feeling, but I think it’s fine.”

“Although this might bring us some negative publicity, it also means that when GPL viewers switch to our ICL league, there won’t be much of a viewing threshold.”

“I’d say there are pros and cons, but the pros outweigh the cons.”

“In the future, we can gradually adjust the venue’s decorations to remove the GPL elements.”

Eric seemed relatively satisfied with this answer and nodded: “Yes, that’s all we can do now.”

The two sat in the audience area for a while, then Eric asked: “I heard that Tenda Group is also preparing overseas leagues. What’s the current situation? Any news?”

Zhao Xuming hurriedly replied: “There’s some news coming out.”

“Currently, Tenda Group’s overseas leagues should still be in the preparation stage. I heard they want to collaborate with overseas companies for promotion, with various agent companies deciding the specific details of the overseas leagues, while Tenda Group only provides guidance and quality control.”

“As for which companies they’re specifically collaborating with, and what the specific competition systems, schedules, and participating teams for each overseas league are… there’s still no information about any of this.”

Eric nodded and smiled slightly: “For overseas leagues, we finally have an advantage. IOI’s global regional leagues started earlier than GOG’s, and Finger Corporation established branch companies in various regions for direct oversight. In this aspect, we clearly have a comprehensive advantage.”

Zhao Xuming asked: “When I first heard this news, I was also surprised. This doesn’t seem like Mr. Pei’s style. Collaborating with other companies and letting them lead the preparation of overseas leagues—wouldn’t it be awkward if the cooperation doesn’t go well?”

Eric smiled slightly: “Do you think Mr. Pei doesn’t realize this? He does, but he has no choice.”

“Tenda Group doesn’t have much experience in overseas expansion, and trying to handle everything themselves would likely be extremely difficult.”

“Dyac Group is a multinational corporation with significant influence in many regions worldwide, and Finger Corporation is an American company.”

“In other words, Tenda has a natural advantage in domestic leagues, but for overseas leagues, the situation is completely reversed.”

“From what I know, Finger Corporation’s headquarters in the North American region has almost completed preparations for the league, and the tentative price for a league slot is…”

“Seven million dollars.”

Zhao Xuming was stunned: “That’s so expensive!”

This was the price for a single slot.

Previously, it was said that Mr. Pei had auctioned off GPL slots at sky-high prices, but the average price was basically around 20 million yuan, which converted to about three million dollars.

The price for IOI’s North American regional league slots directly doubled the price of GPL slots!

Eric smiled: “It seems a bit expensive right now, but that might not be the case in the future. Besides, even at seven million dollars, many clubs will still buy the slots.”

“North American clubs have much stronger financial resources. Seven million dollars for a slot will hurt them, but they definitely won’t give up the slot.”

Different regions had different levels of e-sports industry development. Europe, America, and Korea were the three major regions where the e-sports industry had developed relatively quickly, but in terms of financial strength, North American clubs were definitely the most wealthy.

Of course, many large financial groups were also entering the domestic e-sports industry, and the financial strength of various clubs was growing rapidly, but compared to American clubs, there was still a significant gap.

Finger Corporation’s pricing in the North American region wasn’t a random high demand, but a decision based on comprehensive factors including the financial strength of various clubs, IOI’s influence and popularity in the North American region, and pricing in other e-sports industries.

Eric hadn’t demanded high prices from domestic e-sports clubs, and ICL league slots were basically half-sold and half-given away. This wasn’t because he was a philanthropist, but simply because he knew that domestic clubs couldn’t be squeezed for that much money.

What was the point of setting sky-high prices if no one could afford them?

But the situation in North America was different. That was Finger Corporation’s home base. Leagues, streaming, and related derivative industries of clubs formed a huge money pool, and Finger Corporation didn’t want to sell all the slots cheaply—they definitely wanted to make a good profit.

Even landowners don’t have surplus grain; Finger Corporation had spent lavishly to promote the domestic market, so where did that money come from? It had to be earned back from other markets.

Eric said very confidently: “I can’t speak for other regions, but in North America, Finger Corporation holds an absolute advantage. It won’t be easy for Tenda to establish GOG’s North American league and stand on equal footing with IOI!”

Zhao Xuming nodded slightly, indicating agreement.

Indeed, Tenda’s achievements so far were mainly domestic, and as a domestic company, Tenda definitely had advantages in this aspect.

But in North America, it was Finger Corporation’s home turf. Tenda Group couldn’t directly intervene and could only let other game companies act as agents, which would definitely increase the difficulty.

Eric and Finger Corporation’s confidence was clearly justified.

Just then, Eric’s phone rang.

He glanced at it, his brow furrowing involuntarily, and after answering the call, his expression changed dramatically.

“What? I’ll take a look right away.”

These two sentences were spoken in English, clearly indicating that the call was probably from Finger Corporation’s headquarters in Los Angeles.

Zhao Xuming asked: “What’s wrong?”

Eric’s expression was somewhat grim: “For some reason, the forums in North America are buzzing with talk that we’re treating the two regions differently!”