Chapter 1045 +1

The terrifying aspect of capital is that even if you scold it to the heavens, as if you wish to burn it upon sight, in reality, you will still enthusiastically use its products the very next day, bringing it massive revenue. Just like now, even though the internet is still ablaze with calls for the judgment of the Jiangnan Cup, it hasn't stopped global audiences from eagerly watching this year's Jiangnan Cup, pushing its viewership to new highs. Due to the grandeur and configuration of the Jiangnan Cup, even with only two weeks of preparation time, it has far surpassed much else. The most crucial point is that almost all the renowned players are on the Jiangnan Cup stage, sweating it out, while on the other side, WCg has fallen into an extremely dire situation. To be honest, when February 21st arrived, the day WCg and the Jiangnan Cup simultaneously kicked off, about half of the audience still bravely chose to watch WCg's live broadcast. These viewers all held the simplest sense of justice, believing they absolutely had to support WCg. Even though WCg had so many players poached, and even if WCg wasn't good, they still had to support WCg's matches. Therefore, they simultaneously chose to watch WCg's games. In WCg's original schedule, the opening match of the first day had to be eye-catching. So, the opening match, originally scheduled for the main stage, was the highly-watched Warcraft 3 qualifiers, pitting the defending champion, Sky, against China's Moon. Of course, this was a qualifier with points, so even if they lost, there was still a great chance to enter the playoffs. A contest between players of this caliber could really ignite the atmosphere. Otherwise, considering the matches on the first day were mostly qualifiers, no single match could carry the weight. This was the initial plan, but later it changed to Guapi, this European super rookie, facing Moon. Although Guapi’s popularity was far less than Sky's, leading to great dissatisfaction, there was nothing that could be done. After all, between the European Mage King and the Chinese Moon, that was the most anticipated matchup. However, when WCg reluctantly opened, the audience soon realized something was amiss. Every year, WCg also had an opening ceremony that brought all professional players together; this was a classic scene. But this year, the opening ceremony was gone. When the broadcast began, it directly jumped to the character selection screen. According to netizens who watched the competition live and posted on the forums, the entire WCg venue was in a miserable state. Although there were quite a few spectators, very few professional players could be seen. The most absurd part was that there were hardly any computers. The original plan was to have three main stages and a large competition area, but at this point, most of them were gone. Only one main stage was still lit, with a match in progress. Other areas were pitch black, with no lights on. The entire venue was dark, and many spectators thought they had arrived at a haunted house. They had wanted to see their idol, Moon, but they saw nothing, which made them extremely angry. Finally, this player stated in their post that they were heartbroken and strongly criticized the Jiangnan Group and 00, saying they had destroyed the greatest and most sacred WCg in their hearts. They declared themselves a lifelong hater of 00 and stated that even though WCg was in such a dire state, they would resolutely protect their original sincerity, firmly stand with WCg, and open their support for WCg’s matches every day to cheer them on. Such a declaration was naturally correct, and many netizens expressed their support in this post. Then, a player stated in the post that they would "+1" and, like the楼主, persist in cheering for WCg every day, watching matches to boost popularity. This immediately triggered a trend of follow-up responses, resulting in hundreds of "+1" replies every hour to support the楼主. Over time, this post became popular and was even pinned by the forum moderator, becoming a featured post with high traffic. Consequently, some bored players began to dig into the楼主's background. This might have started as a mischievous act, but when these bored players, through a screenshot posted by the楼主, identified a 00 avatar, they found the 00 account with the same avatar. Since this avatar was a picture of a girl, and this girl was neither a model nor a celebrity, it was almost certain that this 00 account belonged to the楼主. Subsequently, by accessing this 00 account's 00 space and linked Facebook space, and reviewing content posted on February 21st, they discovered numerous photos of the WCg venue, which completely confirmed the 00 account's identity. Initially, things were proceeding normally. However, the problem was that the players were digging into the post three days after it was published, which was February 24th. But in the楼主's posts over the next three days, their photos of WCg were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were all photos taken at the Jiangnan Cup venue. These photos were easily identifiable because they showed the Jiangnan Cup logo everywhere, as well as the recently announced International Esports Federation icon. Additionally, there were many photos with the 1:1 real-life models displayed at the venue, along with an extremely excited and boastful text: With the help of a thoughtful friend, we were able to enter the tr real-life map area through the staff passage to visit and experience the Zilath continent that has descended upon Earth. Thank you, Mengzong, without her, I would never have seen this incredibly stunning world. Mengzong is always my goddess! Accompanying this text was a photo showing a super terrifying queue stretching over a thousand meters. Below it, a classmate or friend replied, "Damn, is this the Zilath continent real-life map that requires a 7-hour wait to visit for just three minutes? That's amazing, I'm so envious you have such a friend!" Then followed a string of friend replies, all expressing their envy, as the Zilath continent real-life map was exploding in popularity online, and the waiting time had increased from 7 hours to 10 hours... Later, queuing was completely prohibited because the entire venue would close after 10 hours, ending the day's operations. And the latest status update was another photo that envied countless people: a photo of a chubby boy and Moon, whose expression was somewhat stiff. The results of the 00 space digging were immediately posted by the bored players on the same forum, and it exploded. The楼主, who had rallied everyone in the post to support WCg forever, had gone to the Jiangnan Cup venue the very next day to visit excitedly? As expected, the internet world is always unreliable. Many netizens who had initially responded with "+1" started to reply with criticism in the楼主's post. Initially, the楼主 tried to explain, but there were too many responses with curses and insults, so the楼主 got angry and directly left a message: "You bunch of trash! You can curse me, but before you do, swear on your entire family that you haven't watched any Jiangnan Cup matches these past few days! If you are so righteous and just, then swear! Swear on your relatives!" After saying this, the楼主 directly deleted their account and disappeared from social networks, or perhaps changed to a new account to start anew. This originally hot post quickly sank, mainly because no one used their relatives to swear in subsequent replies, after all, people still had feelings for their relatives. Speaking of the chubby boy and Moon's photo at the Jiangnan Cup, it's understandable that China's pride in Warcraft, Moon, would certainly not participate in the WCg opening match. According to the rules of both WCg and the Jiangnan Cup, if any player appears in another competition, their participation will be immediately revoked. Therefore, Moon could only appear in one event. Thus, the WCg opening match broadcast naturally couldn't be Guapi versus Moon. In fact, neither of them showed up. The final participants in the opening match were two Chinese players, and they weren't playing Warcraft 3 but rather "King of Fighters"... WCg couldn't use anything from Blizzard. But that wasn't the strangest part. The strangest part was that on the day after the opening match, the King of Fighters final was held, and it was the same two Chinese players who participated in the opening match who fought each other. Finally, one of them defeated the opponent with an overall score of 3:2, winning China's first ever WCg trophy in Warcraft 3. The reason the competition proceeded so quickly was mainly because there were only two participants. The opening ceremony day featured qualifiers, and the next day featured the finals. This was quite reasonable, as long as two people entered the finals. Some smart viewers might be puzzled, asking why WCg, even with a significant loss of players and contestants, wouldn't maintain appearances and why they rushed to finish the finals on the second day instead of following the normal schedule. This was unavoidable. After the establishment of the International Esports Federation, WCg was only able to hold 5 esports events normally, with a total of less than 30 participants. If they had stretched out the time to maintain the original schedule, WCg might have only had one or two matches to broadcast each day. So, they decided to conclude everything in one day. This way, the organizing committee could quickly leave this place that made them feel sad. Furthermore, even if the venue was free, maintaining the competition for each day still cost tens of thousands of yuan. All of WCg's sponsors were gone, and they couldn't afford to continue. In the end, this edition of WCg became the shortest in history, lasting only two days from the opening ceremony to the end. This was also the final swan song of WCg. This historically long-standing competition project completely disappeared from the world, becoming material for countless future players to lament and use to mock the Jiangnan Cup.