Eric stood up and hurried away, clearly heading back to video conference with Finger Corporation headquarters to handle this matter.
Zhao Xuming still needed to keep an eye on the ICL competition venue and couldn’t leave his post. But he was extremely curious, so he took out his phone to search for related information online.
The current time in Los Angeles was evening, when players were most active on forums and streaming platforms. Zhao Xuming discovered that not only were American forums and websites discussing this issue, but several viral posts had also been copied to domestic forums by opportunists. Both GOG and ioi players were discussing it!
“ICL hasn’t officially started yet, and Finger Corporation creates another big scandal? I see North American forums are going crazy, saying Finger Corporation is charging extortionate seat fees over there?”
“They say the ioi North American regional league ICS franchise spot sold for seven million dollars! That’s too expensive, it’s straight-up robbery!”
“It’s not that bad, aren’t American clubs extremely wealthy? Seven million dollars should be manageable for them.”
“But GOG is also preparing their league over there, and reportedly the method for obtaining spots is through open bidding, with a starting price of just one million dollars. When you compare, the difference is obvious!”
“It’s not just about the price. The ICS regional clubs are very dissatisfied with Finger Corporation’s differential treatment. Because in the domestic region, ICL, the spots are half-sold half-given away, practically dirt cheap. Yet the ICS region has to pay seven million dollars for a spot! More importantly, because of the previous public relations crisis, Finger Corporation provides extra subsidies to ICL teams, which ICS teams don’t get.”
“When you think about it that way, those clubs and players would definitely explode with anger… Paying more than ten times the price of ICL regional spots, but getting worse treatment in every aspect. It’s basically like cutting flesh from your own body to benefit another region…”
“Looking at it this way, their mental breakdown seems completely justified.”
“Wonder how Finger Corporation will resolve this PR crisis. Just as they were planning to expand their territory, their house caught fire!”
Zhao Xuming grew increasingly confused as he read on.
How could this problem have occurred!
At the root of this incident was the different treatment between North America’s ICS and the domestic ICL leagues. To better promote the ICL league and save ioi’s domestic server, Finger Corporation had offered substantial discounts on league spots and, due to the GPL situation, was forced to provide many additional benefits to ICL league clubs.
But for North America’s ICS league, Finger Corporation had no such intentions.
There were two reasons: First, Eric was responsible for ICL, but other Finger Corporation executives were in charge of the ICS league. The two leagues were being prepared simultaneously and independently.
The ICS side definitely needed to profit from franchise fees—they couldn’t just half-sell half-give spots away like ICL did just because ICL was doing it. That would be a huge loss.
Second, the various compensation conditions for ICL regional clubs, such as guaranteeing players’ nutritional meals and daily fitness, were reluctant necessities. Eric didn’t want to spend this money at all, so sharing these conditions with all foreign regions was even more impossible.
How painful would that be for their wallet!
So, there was indeed this gap between the ICL league and the ICS league.
This was actually normal—even Tenda Group didn’t treat everyone equally!
Tenda treated GPL like its own child, but for foreign regions, they just found a local company to partner with and called it a day.
But Tenda would never face this kind of public pressure!
The reason lay in the different positions and strategies of the two companies.
Tenda was a domestic company, so it was natural for them to be responsible for GPL operations and improve various benefits. Although the major clubs spent money buying spots, this money was returned to them, and everyone spent willingly.
For foreign regions, spots were allocated through competitive bidding, with the highest bidder winning. Whether the franchise fee was high or low, clubs wouldn’t complain.
As for whether foreign regions had the same benefits as GPL, even if foreign clubs were dissatisfied, they would confront the league’s agency company, not directly attack Tenda Group.
Moreover, these clubs wouldn’t fuss too much about meal or fitness subsidies because they didn’t realize their importance. They had already saved money on franchise fees, so it didn’t matter if they didn’t have these benefits.
But Finger Corporation’s situation was different.
Precisely because they were an American company, they faced greater pressure in their home territory.
American clubs looked at the situation and thought: Why are ICL league franchise fees so cheap, with Finger Corporation even paying benefits to clubs, while here we have to pay seven million dollars for a league spot with no benefits?
Is Finger Corporation still an American company or not?
It’s fine if you want to promote ioi, but don’t suck our blood to do it!
After this controversy exploded, many players and viewers also felt indignant, especially when people started digging up old grievances.
Finger Corporation had a history of this!
They had previously set different prices for skins in different regions and were heavily criticized for it. This issue had seemingly been resolved, but who would have thought Finger Corporation couldn’t change its bad habits and was making the same mistake again!
Moreover, Finger Corporation had set up branch offices in various regions nationwide and handled all regional league preparations themselves, so when problems arose, clubs and viewers would naturally direct their anger at Finger Corporation.
New and old grievances combined, plus many clubs stirring things up behind the scenes to pressure Finger Corporation, caused this issue to go viral online as soon as it was exposed!
That’s why Finger Corporation’s executives immediately called Eric, asking him to help resolve the situation.
As for how to resolve it?
Zhao Xuming couldn’t guess, but Finger Corporation would likely have to bleed heavily again.
Once such a PR crisis erupted, it was impossible to appease public anger without bleeding.
Zhao Xuming also grew nervous.
Just earlier, Eric had confidently stated that North America was Finger Corporation’s home field, and the league would definitely be flawlessly organized, with no possibility of Tenda’s interference.
But now what was happening?
A slap in the face!
Not only were there problems over there, but they were major problems!
“Could it be that Mr. Pei arranged this too? Deliberately choosing this timing to deliver Finger Corporation a painful blow?”
“But that doesn’t make sense. Didn’t Mr. Pei just finalize the cooperation with us regarding the ICL league?”
“Unless…”
“That’s it—this PR crisis is precisely targeting the ICS league, with no connection to ICL, so naturally it won’t affect our cooperation…”
“This!”
Zhao Xuming had been confused at first, thinking: Shouldn’t Mr. Pei be our ally now? Why would he cause such an incident?
But then he realized that Mr. Pei’s cooperation with Eric was limited to the ICL league only. In all other regions worldwide, they remained mortal enemies and competitors!
Mr. Pei apparently didn’t want to undermine the ICL league and harm his own interests. Instead, he had shifted his focus to North America, directly pulling the rug out from under Finger Corporation’s feet on their home turf!
Zhao Xuming felt a chill run down his spine.
Mr. Pei gave the impression of having a split personality—cheerfully cooperating with you on one hand while seriously pulling out a dagger from his pocket on the other, without hesitation delivering a swift stab!
Zhao Xuming suddenly doubted whether this cooperation with Mr. Pei was right or wrong…
—
At 4 PM, the ICL exhibition match was about to begin.
Players from both clubs had already arrived at the venue, and staff were making various preparations to ensure the match would run smoothly.
Zhao Xuming stood backstage, watching the audience gradually enter.
Today’s venue would definitely be packed, as it was the first day, and empty seats would look terrible. Fortunately, ioi veterans from Shanghai, internal employees, and complementary ticketholders had already filled seven or eight tenths of the seats. The remaining spaces could easily be filled by specifically hired people without any problem.
Just then, Zhao Xuming noticed Eric had returned.
“You’re back! How did the situation get resolved?” Zhao Xuming hurried over to ask.
Eric’s expression was extremely tired, clearly mentally exhausted: “We’ve basically determined a solution. ICS spots will now start bidding from 3 million dollars, and North American clubs will enjoy the same benefits as ICL teams, mainly in food, fitness, and other areas.”
Obviously, Finger Corporation’s decision after their meeting was to back down!
It was already late night in Los Angeles, and this video call had lasted nearly half the night, showing how seriously Finger Corporation’s executives took this matter.
Early tomorrow morning, Finger Corporation would issue an announcement to appease North American clubs and players, with a very sincere attitude.
Because North America was their home base, they could afford to mismanage leagues in other regions, but the ICS league had to be done right!
The differential treatment between ICS and ICL leagues would indeed give people ammunition for criticism. Even emphasizing that ICS had more financial backers and more valuable spots wouldn’t help—this reasoning wouldn’t hold water.
So, they could only back down.
Reducing league spots from a fixed price of 7 million dollars to a starting bid of 3 million would certainly cost Finger Corporation a large sum of money.
Although bidding could drive prices up indefinitely, there were only a few major clubs in North America, and they had no reason to inflate spot prices. They would obviously prefer everyone to get spots at the lowest price.
So, these spots would likely end up selling for around 4-5 million dollars each, meaning Finger Corporation would lose about 2 million dollars per spot.
As for the food and fitness subsidies for clubs, although the amount wasn’t large, it would be an ongoing expense. The key issue was that these clubs might not even be particularly grateful!
They would feel this was a right they had fought for, not preferential treatment from Finger Corporation.
That’s why Eric felt so frustrated—his ICL was running smoothly, when suddenly it got caught in the crossfire for no reason!
Although the money wasn’t his concern, Finger Corporation’s executives clearly had significant issues with his actions. To promote the ICL league, he had made ICS clubs and audiences very dissatisfied, and Eric would have to take some blame for this.
If ICL didn’t perform well in the future, when Finger Corporation executives started settling scores, Eric would likely face severe consequences.
Seeing Eric’s unhappiness, Zhao Xuming didn’t dare dwell on the topic any further.
“It’s good that it’s resolved! That’s ICS business, not really related to us.”
“All the equipment here has been debugged, and the preliminary work with Rabbit Tail Streaming has also been completed. We’re just waiting for the match to start!”
Eric nodded, pulling out his phone from his pocket and opening the Rabbit Tail Streaming app.
Although Rabbit Tail’s app was quite simple to the point of being a bit spartan, they had given ICL plenty of prominent placement. Upon entering, there was a large banner for the ICL league on the homepage, very eye-catching.
In contrast, Tenda’s own GPL league hadn’t even started streaming on Rabbit Tail yet.
Eric temporarily forgot his previous unpleasantness and began looking forward to the official start of the exhibition match!