Chapter 1 FV Esports Club

Wu Yue was speechless, enraged by the news he'd just received.

"Does the official organization have to be this way? The official organization gave us, FV Club, our slot in the competition, and we earned the number one seed through our own ability. Yet out of the three teams, the other two are being sent to Los Angeles to train, and we haven't heard a word?"

"Are they really not treating us like we're their own team?"

"Just because we had a bit of a disagreement with President Pei, they're messing with our heads like this?"

Esports clubs all had very good information networks. FV Esports Club quickly learned that Long Yu Corporation was officially organizing the other two teams to go to Los Angeles for early training, and expedited visas were already being processed. They also heard that Long Yu Corporation was covering all the food and accommodation expenses in Los Angeles, and even facilitating practice matches with European and American teams.

Yet all of this information came from other sources. Long Yu Corporation had no intention of notifying FV Club at all, not even offering a perfunctory explanation!

This could only mean one thing: Long Yu Corporation was deliberately excluding FV Club from the trip to Los Angeles.

Manager Lu quickly tried to soothe him. "President Wu, please calm down. This is indeed too much, but there's not much we can do about it."

"This advance training in Los Angeles should be an independently organized activity by Long Yu Corporation, and not part of the World Championship process organized by Finger Company." (Note: A literal translation of 指头公司 is not possible.)

"So Long Yu Corporation can also say that taking us is a favor, and not taking us is their prerogative. They're spending their own money, so they can take whoever they want. Many teams from other regions don't even get this kind of treatment."

Wu Yue said, "This is discrimination! It's differential treatment! We should appeal, or just post it on Weibo and let everyone see the true colors of these people from Long Yu Corporation!"

Manager Lu quickly shook his head. "President Wu, that's not a good idea!"

"Long Yu Corporation hasn't been publicizing this matter in an official capacity. If we expose it, Long Yu Corporation can immediately change their tune and say it was a club-initiated action, and that Long Yu Corporation was only responsible for facilitation, playing a very minor role. Because the truth of the matter is easy to cover up, if we rashly attack, Long Yu Corporation can easily deflect it, and it will make us seem petty and suspicious."

"As for appealing, that's even more useless. Isn't that the same as 'who dares to sue the government official'?"

"What's more, esports ultimately comes down to performance. If we make a big deal out of this online now, stir up some trouble, what if we don't perform well at the World Championship? The public opinion will definitely backfire. At that point, even if we're right, we won't be in the right."

"Just imagine what the netizens will say if we lose the World Championship: 'A team this bad still has the nerve to ask the official organization for money to go to Los Angeles for training matches? They should have given the slot to SUG!'"

"Anyway, as long as we lose, the criticism will definitely fly everywhere. We have to consider the consequences now."

Wu Yue nodded with a dark face. "Yeah, it seems like Zhao Xuming is sure of this. He thinks we won't gain anything even if we expose it, so he's being so blatant, just to make an example of us, to warn us and also to give Tengda a hard time."

"Then… are we just supposed to suffer in silence? Long Yu Corporation did something so disgusting, and we can't even say anything?"

Manager Lu thought for a moment. "We can definitely say something, but not now."

"Jumping out to attack before the competition results are out is what idiots do. On one hand, it puts enormous pressure on our players, affecting their performance. On the other hand, if we lose the competition, the other side will take the opportunity to kick us while we're down, and the onlookers won't be on our side either. Then we'll really be done for."

"The best approach is to settle accounts after the harvest. If we win the competition, we can use the momentum to expose everything. Attacking with the wind at our backs is the best choice."

"So for us, the best choice now is to endure humiliation and avoid letting this matter affect our players' mentality as much as possible, and actively prepare for the competition. When we get good results at the World Championship, we can use public pressure to fight back against Long Yu Corporation."

"As long as we perform better than the other two clubs, then no matter whether we get the championship or runner-up, even if it's just a semi-final or quarter-final, we'll have a justification."

"At that time, we can say that the official differential treatment led to poor performance for the entire region. If we had received the same treatment, maybe our results would have been even better, and so on."

"In short, everything still depends on performance. Without performance, everything is useless."

Wu Yue was silent for a moment, then sighed softly. "It's difficult!"

"Although the paper strength of our current lineup is good, judging from the previous qualifiers, our strength is only on par with the other two teams, and we also benefited from the schedule. Maybe if we play another non-bladder game, we won't necessarily win against them." ("Bladder game" is used to refer to a long, drawn-out game.)

"The benefits of training in Los Angeles are obvious. We can play on the European and American servers with low latency, better adapt to the version, and play training matches with the currently strong European and American teams. Our strength will definitely improve faster than if we stay here."

"We can't just rely on wishful thinking to win against them."

Manager Lu nodded, agreeing that the situation was indeed very serious.

Esports isn't just about determination and perseverance, it also requires scientific training methods and good support facilities.

Many players are incredibly talented, but they can't achieve good results at certain clubs, which is often because the club's management is poor, the training methods are wrong, and the supporting facilities can't keep up.

Wu Yue said, "What if we also go to Los Angeles?"

Manager Lu was silent for a moment. "Long Yu Corporation is organizing their trip to Los Angeles because they can connect with Finger Company and get high-end accounts on the European and American servers over there, and they can officially arrange training matches with veteran European and American teams. Looking at Long Yu Corporation's attitude towards us, even if we go at our own expense, we definitely won't have those things!"

"We can't travel all the way to Los Angeles, only for our players to play low-elo ranked games on the European and American servers all day, can we? Wouldn't that just make them worse?"

"What's more, our large group of people will also be a big expense. If we go early and pay for our own food and accommodation, and we want to give the players good food, plus the accompanying staff... let's say eight people, that'll be at least 200,000 yuan. If we consider the training situation and bring our second team with us, that'll have to be doubled again."

"Of course, our club can afford the money, but the problem is that spending the money won't necessarily guarantee the training effect, so the cost-effectiveness is too poor."

Wu Yue thought about it, and that was indeed the case.

Long Yu Corporation is organizing the other two teams to go to Los Angeles for training because they have high-elo accounts and can arrange training matches with European and American teams. If we have neither, it's really not necessary to spend hundreds of thousands just to adapt to the environment in advance.

After considering it again and again, Wu Yue said, "It doesn't seem appropriate to bother President Pei with such a small matter. How about I call General Manager Zhang of the Tengda esports division and ask him to give us some advice?"

"If it's really not necessary, then we won't go. We'll stay in China and play training matches with domestic teams, and we'll wait until the World Championship to arrange the other training matches."

…

…

December 17th, Saturday.

Today was the routine meeting for the Failure-Experience Officers.

This year's Spring Festival was relatively early, January 23rd, so the exam week was also brought forward. The Failure-Experience Officers were spending a lot of time studying in addition to their work.

This Failure-Experience Officer meeting didn't have much information to pay attention to. After all, most of the products were still in the final stages of development. Products like the fully automatic smart counter-argument machine hadn't shown any signs of betrayal yet, so there naturally wasn't much useful information here.

Pei Qian knew that next month would be a tough battle.

The settlement period happened to coincide with exam week. It had to be said, this feeling was extremely refreshing.

Whether he could beat Old Ma in this exam depended on this final push before the exam.

The Failure-Experience Officers reported on the situation in their respective departments as usual. Soon, it was the turn of the Failure-Experience Officer from the esports division.

This Failure-Experience Officer had been following Zhang Yuan. He was originally responsible for DGE Club. After the establishment of the esports division and the GPL league, he naturally and smoothly integrated into the internal workings. Currently, nothing related to DGE or other clubs, or even the entire esports club, could escape his eyes.

"The GPL preseason is about to enter the second half. The matches are going smoothly so far. Any in-game bugs or equipment problems that have been encountered have been properly resolved, which should help accumulate a lot of experience for the spring season."

"Currently, the main lineups of the various GPL clubs have basically been finalized. Those teams that did not participate in the GPL preseason are also playing training matches and actively preparing for the spring season."

"DGE Club's new batch of players has been swept away again. Although their strength is somewhat inferior compared to the earliest batch of players, these people have good talent after all, and they have also been specially trained by the old players, so they are still playing as the main force in the various new teams..."

Pei Qian's hand holding the teacup couldn't help but tremble.

Although he had been mentally prepared for this, he still felt a tremor in his heart when he actually heard the news.

Another ten players, how much money was that going to be!

This batch of players was the second batch of players after Huang Wang, Jiang Huan, and the others were collectively bought out. They were still selling very well. This back and forth, the transfer fees alone would be enough to make President Pei drink a pot of wine.

There was a reason why DGE's players were selling well.

First of all, DGE Club had a good reputation. Potential newcomers tended to come to DGE Club to increase their value, and other clubs also felt that buying players from DGE Club would definitely not be a loss, so they bought them more decisively.

Truly capable potential newcomers were willing to come to DGE Club, because once they achieved good results, they could immediately jump to other clubs to get big contracts. DGE never engaged in contract stalling or benching, so newcomers felt relatively safe. For other clubs, DGE Club did not directly participate in the competition and did not pose a threat to their results, and also helped train players, so they were happy to buy people from DGE.

The old players who left DGE would often come back to guide DGE's new players, and over time, "every player who comes out of DGE can stand alone" became the inherent impression of the entire league's audience and clubs, allowing DGE's operations to enter a virtuous circle.

Thus, DGE's new players were like crops of chives, which could all be sold off every once in a while, earning a considerable transfer fee.

Pei Qian was powerless to do anything about this.

He pretended to calmly take a sip of tea and asked, "So, how much is the total transfer fee?"

The Failure-Experience Officer said, "Ten players. These people's performances are different. Some C-position players with strong operations or command capabilities are worth more. The highest transfer fee is more than 1.5 million, while if it is the kind that performs very generally, it may only be 700,000 or 800,000, around 1 million. These players combined, the transfer fee sold for about 13 million."

Pei Qian: "…"

The Chinese curse "cao" was almost blurted out.

This number seriously exceeded his expectations!

Previously, the transfer fees of Huang Wang, Jiang Huan, and others were around 2 million, so Pei Qian thought that the transfer fee for these young players would be capped at 1 million.

But obviously that was not the case!

In the beginning, the transfer fees for star players like Huang Wang and Jiang Huan were also slightly inflated, after all, the major clubs were aiming for the results of the GOG Global Invitational Tournament, for the high prize money and exposure.

But as GOG's market share gradually increased globally, the success of the GOG Global Invitational Tournament, and the rising popularity of the GPL League...

After a series of operations, the value of star players like Huang Wang and Jiang Huan was also rapidly expanding as more and more capital entered!

Now their transfer fees were not just a matter of 2 million.

As the value of the top players rose, the value of DGE Club's second batch of potential newcomers would naturally also rise.

Ten people seemed like not many, but the transfer fees added up to nearly 13 million.

What made Pei Qian feel a little nauseous was not this number, but the time!

After all, President Pei was also someone who had seen the world. He had seen hundreds of millions of funds come in and out several times, let alone this mere 10 million.

Anyway, it wouldn't reach his hands, it was just a number.

The key was how much time it took to earn these 10 million!

The introduction of this batch of players was in September, and now it was December. He had only trained them for three months, and selling them off for 13 million!

At this rate, DGE Club was earning more than 4 million per month, easily.

Not to mention DGE Club's commercial sponsorships and live streaming contracts!

And DGE Club's daily expenses were really not much. The training base was rented from President Li, and Manager Cui of Ming Yun Villas couldn't wait to treat President Pei like his own father, so the rent and utility fees didn't cost much.

The only places where money was spent were probably daily expenses such as eating and fitness.

But with Lazy Delivery and managed gyms, how much could these players spend even if they ate and trained as much as they wanted?

Pei Qian felt very tired.

Other people opened clubs to burn money, and his original intention in opening a club was also to burn money, but the more he played, the more he became profitable!

A club that specializes in buying and selling players to make money, a club that can't play matches but is more famous than the championship team, it was outrageous to think about it.

Everyone said that DGE Club was well-trained and should earn these 10 million transfer fees, but the problem was that these players were already good seeds!

Because potential newcomers were all breaking their heads to squeeze into DGE Club, treating it as their first choice, so just randomly trying out a few were potential newcomers.

Like many super middle schools, if you take all the surrounding high-quality students and enroll them, wouldn't the final results be good?

Pei Qian silently took a sip of tea to adjust his mentality. "Continue."

The Failure-Experience Officer continued, "Currently, many clubs have received sponsorships. Although the amounts vary and it is temporarily impossible to maintain club operations with these sponsorships, it is still a good start."

"Before the start of the spring season, some teams' team uniforms should have sponsor logos. Although too many sponsors are not good, not having sponsors at all is not good, it will make the audience feel that the league's popularity is not enough."

Pei Qian nodded slightly. Let the sponsors give the club money, it had nothing to do with him.

The Failure-Experience Officer changed the subject and said, "In addition, many sponsors have expressed strong interest in GPL's exclusive naming rights, including computer manufacturers, peripheral manufacturers, and apparel, digital products, automobiles, and other manufacturers."

"However, the specific prices have not been finalized and are still under negotiation."

"Currently, the exclusive cooperation price for a single type of merchant is approximately 5 million per year, while the exclusive naming price has reached approximately 20 million per year. Because some details are involved in the sponsorship, it is still being discussed."

"As for the live streaming platforms, the broadcasting rights for the GPL spring and summer seasons will be considered for authorization to three live streaming platforms. The base price is 10 million, and it seems that the bidding price should reach more than 12 million..."

"These are all still being discussed, and General Manager Zhang is also summarizing the information from all parties and should report it soon."

Listening to these numbers, Pei Qian felt a chill and his mind went blank.

He thought that DGE Club's crazy selling of people was already bad news, but now he realized that the real bad news was still behind!

Recently, Pei Qian's attention had been completely drawn to the IOI qualifiers and Cold Faced Lady, and he had not paid much attention to GPL, and he had not expected the situation to be so serious!

Actually, he should have thought of it earlier, with so many sponsors going to the teams for cooperation, there would definitely be more people coming to the official organization for cooperation!

Currently, the sponsorship prices for the GPL League are also tiered.

Exclusive cooperation of a single type refers to a brand that monopolizes a certain category of goods after sponsoring it. For example, if an apparel brand signs an exclusive cooperation with GPL, then GPL will not cooperate with other apparel brands in the future.

Of course, this does not affect the official organization from cooperating with computer, automobile, digital product, and other manufacturers.

As for exclusive naming rights, it can also be seen as the chief sponsor, which will receive the best official recommendation resources, and the price is naturally the highest.

As for the competition from the live streaming platforms, it is even more intense. After all, the major live streaming platforms are currently burning money and diverting traffic, and failing to obtain GPL broadcasting rights will give users a feeling that "this platform is not good enough", so the bidding price has been炒 de very high.

Having said that, this amount cannot be compared with the sponsorship fees of hundreds of millions or even billions in Pei Qian's memory.

But the problem is, where is this at?

The game GOG has been born for less than a year, and the domestic market does not recognize esports so much. Now it can ask for such high sponsorship fees, which is very outrageous in Pei Qian's view!

But after thinking about it carefully, there is a certain rationality to it.

Because of the popularity of the GOG World Finals, everyone has seen the huge potential of esports events, and GPL is also doing too well, with almost no competitors at present.

What's more, the entry of giant companies such as Shenhua and the news of sky-high GPL places are constantly stimulating the audience's nerves. Sponsors see the advertising effect brought by the huge popularity, and compare it with the quotations of traditional sports, and feel that it is very cost-effective, so they have entered the market.

Pei Qian silently calculated that GPL is very likely to earn hundreds of millions of funds through various sponsorships and broadcasting rights in the spring and summer seasons.

The good news is that this hundreds of millions of money is earned throughout the year, and it will be slightly easier to accept when it is spread out to each month.

And the bad news is that the sponsorship fees may be higher next year.

Pei Qian considered that this money might not be able to be pushed away.

In that case, he had to tell Zhang Yuan to have these sponsors pay in installments and spread the money out to each month, and never transfer it all at once, especially not at such a key node before the settlement.

Otherwise, President Pei would ascend to heaven in place.

"Is there anything else?" Pei Qian felt a little tired.

The Failure-Experience Officer thought for a moment: "Oh, there is one more small thing, about FV Club. It is said that Long Yu Corporation is going to arrange for domestic teams to train in Los Angeles, but left out the FV team..."

Wu Yue called Zhang Yuan to discuss this matter, and because there was no need to keep it secret, the Failure-Experience Officer also knew about it.

After listening, Pei Qian's eyes lit up.

How could this be called a small thing?

No amount of spending is too small!

This Wu Yue, this Zhang Yuan, both should be severely criticized! They didn't report this to me as soon as possible, what were they thinking?

Long Yu Corporation took two teams to Los Angeles, but left out FV Club?

Good thing!

This gave him a very valuable opportunity to spend money!

According to the expenses in Los Angeles, if he brought more people and set the highest food and accommodation standards allowed by the system... this could cost a lot of money!

After listening to so much bad news, there was finally some good news.

After the Failure-Experience Officer meeting, Pei Qian immediately called Wu Yue.

…

At FV Club, Wu Yue was struggling with the team's training. Seeing that it was President Pei's call, he quickly answered it.

"Hello? President Pei, what's up?" Wu Yue asked.

President Pei on the other end of the phone seemed a little unhappy: "Why didn't you tell me about the other clubs going to Los Angeles?"

Wu Yue was stunned for a moment and quickly explained, "Oh, President Pei, there's no need for you to worry about such a small matter, I can handle it."

Pei Qian: "What can you handle? Can you decide to arrange first-class air tickets and five-star hotels for all the team members, or can you find opponents for the team to train with?"

Wu Yue: "I..."

He thought about it, and he really couldn't. Although FV Club had enough money on its books, he really couldn't decide on his own to spend hundreds of thousands to go to Los Angeles in advance.

Pei Qian said, "There's no need to struggle with this matter. Immediately go and get expedited visas for everyone! How many people are there in FV Club in total?"

Wu Yue thought for a moment: "There are 5 players on the first team, 5 players on the second team, plus me, Manager Lu, and other staff members of the team..."

"Ah, but there's no need for so many people. Just let the first team players and Manager Lu go, six people is just enough for three standard rooms."

Pei Qian was very unhappy after listening: "How can six people be enough?"

"As the saying goes, the army hasn't moved, but the supplies have to go first. If you want to go to war, what's the point of fighting if the logistics supply can't keep up?"

"Los Angeles is an unfamiliar place. You have to find a translator, and then find a tour guide who is familiar with the situation locally, and there must be someone to arrange the food and accommodation. "

"Eating, absolutely can't be sloppy. Go there to investigate and see if there are any Chinese restaurants with better tastes to ensure that the players' daily diet doesn't have any problems and doesn't affect their physical condition."

"Hire four bodyguards, I heard that the security in the US is not good, you have to ensure the personal safety of the players."

"Bring a sparring team... I think SUG is good, so I'll pay to bring the players from SUG as well and go with you."

"Well, there are a total of 30 places, and we will arrange them according to the standard of 3,000 yuan per person per day for food and accommodation, and stay there until the end of the game, which is about five weeks?"

"Just the food and accommodation will cost 3.15 million. Well, when you get to Los Angeles, you may have to go shopping, buy some local specialties, and bring back some cheap digital products, plus the cost of finding a tour guide and finding a bodyguard, and considering some possible emergencies..."

"Let's make it a round number, 4 million."

Wu Yue was dumbfounded.

Spend 4 million to go to Los Angeles?

The entire FV Club is not worth that much money!

Wu Yue quickly said, "President Pei, there's no need for that! Finger Company will provide food and accommodation after the main game starts, so the only money we really need to spend is the round-trip air tickets."

"Even if we go one week in advance and pay for our own food and accommodation for this week, we don't need the standard of 3,000 yuan per person at all. Decent twin rooms near the venue can be taken down for less than 1,000 yuan."

"The accommodation arranged by Finger Company is better, but a twin room is only 200 dollars per night, which is about 1,400 yuan..."

Pei Qian didn't like to hear it at the time.

What do you mean, you don't want me to spend money?

According to your lowest standard, six people go and stay in a 1,000-yuan twin room for one night, and only pay for their own expenses for the first week?

I'm afraid it will be difficult to spend even 100,000!

Pei Qian immediately interrupted Wu Yue: "Do we have to go to the food and accommodation arranged by Finger Company? What if the food and accommodation conditions arranged by Finger Company cannot meet our requirements?"

"The players are going to a foreign country to play games from thousands of miles away. Can you take the responsibility if something really goes wrong? As the saying goes, foresight is better than hindsight. It's worth it to spend some money to eliminate these hidden dangers!"

"Just do as I said, the money will be transferred soon."

After Pei Qian finished speaking, he hung up the phone.

Wu Yue looked at the phone screen that had been hung up and fell into confusion.

30 places?

The first and second teams of FV Club, plus the five main players of SUG, are only 15 people.

Where can he find 30 people?