Chapter 1 Target: Champion?

The major professional teams could only laugh off Excellent Era's slogan.

If Excellent Era didn't have Ye Xiu, the teams would have thought that these guys, after accidentally defeating Excellent Era, thought they were the best in the world and started daydreaming. But since they had Ye Xiu, they shouldn't be so naive.

"Are they joking?"

"Trying to create buzz and attract attention?"

"Actually, they don't need to do that anymore. They already have a strong presence."

The teams' opinions varied, but they were basically all mocking. Target the championship? Most teams in the alliance wouldn't dare shout that slogan. Excellent Era really had guts!

However, Excellent Era had indeed been developing prosperously recently. After securing the Feike sponsorship deal, Excellent Era had successively secured two more sponsorship deals. These were sponsors who had always been interested in the Glory Alliance and didn't mind giving a share to Excellent Era. However, similar to the Feike situation, they also had a main sponsored team in the alliance. For Excellent Era, it was an investment plus an observation.

With three sponsorship deals, Excellent Era had received nearly 5 million in sponsorship fees, which was definitely a considerable support for a grassroots team. Then, the final championship prize money, broadcasting shares, box office shares, and other rewards from the Challenger League were credited to their account. Because the Challenger League was highly anticipated this time, both the broadcasting and box office shares had considerable leaps compared to the past. The Glory Alliance was also quite generous in hosting events, with teams receiving prize money and various revenue shares. Many miscellaneous events only gave out the event prize money.

In the Glory Alliance, the Challenger League champion alone had a prize of 5 million. This amount wasn't low considering the Challenger League's influence. The alliance was obviously considering that the champion would enter the alliance next season, and this money was considered support for the team. With the prize money and other revenue shares, Excellent Era had already profited over ten million from participating in the Challenger League. This made Chen Guo thoroughly feel the commercial vitality that Glory e-sports now possessed. Of course, this was also because this season's Challenger League was different, with higher revenue shares than in previous years.

With over ten million yuan in her account, Chen Guo felt much more at ease. Although Wei Chen had promised that the 18 million earned from selling skill points last year, excluding the materials, could be used for the team, this fund was too powerful. If it was really used, Chen Guo felt that her title as "boss" would be too unworthy. Now that the team had accumulated its own funds, Chen Guo felt much more comfortable using the money.

As soon as the money arrived, Chen Guo didn't say a word and took out all 5 million of the championship prize money, directly distributing it to everyone in the Excellent Era team. Although the Excellent Era players had always been indifferent to such matters, they couldn't just let it go. In the past, there were no conditions, so they just muddled through. Now that they had a great harvest, it was only natural to share it together.

The money was distributed boldly. Luo Ji and An Wenyi were still college students. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of yuan were in their hands, and they were a little overwhelmed for a while.

As for Ye Xiu, the bank card he received was immediately thrown into a drawer, instantly mixing with his pile of Glory alt account cards.

Wei Chen? With 18 million in hand, he was very confident. He nodded slightly when he received hundreds of thousands and said lightly, "Mm, not bad." Chen Guo wanted to slap him.

Tang Rou smiled and said thank you as she took the card without any pretense, but Chen Guo was fully aware that she was more qualified than Wei Chen to not take these hundreds of thousands seriously. But looking at her sense of propriety, Chen Guo deeply despised Wei Chen. So that night, after everyone returned to their rooms to rest, Chen Guo found that Tang Rou had forgotten her bank card on the table, and she was moved to tears. A low-level password of 123456, anyone could take this card and empty it. Young miss, you've never been so careless with your Soft Mist account card!

Steamed Bun, who came from looking after places, and still looking after internet cafes, was obviously from the super proletariat. The income of hundreds of thousands suddenly made him very excited, and he deeply sighed that he had finally followed a good boss, with a super bright future.

Wu Chen and Qiao Yifan, after all, had professional backgrounds. Wu Chen used to be the star player of a team, although the team was weak and the income couldn't compare with the gods, several hundred thousand a year was still quite easy. Qiao Yifan's income as a rookie wouldn't be high, but he mingled in a top team, so he at least understood the circle, and this bonus wasn't surprising to him.

When it came to Mo Fan, Chen Guo hesitated again. His appearances were few, that was secondary. This time, Chen Guo's bonus was completely divided equally among everyone, without calculating who contributed more or less. In the initial stage, the team was developing in multiple directions, and Chen Guo felt that it was impossible to calculate if they were too concerned about these things. At least Ye Xiu, who contributed the most, completely agreed to divide it equally this time, so what was there to worry about? On the other hand, Luo Ji and Wu Chen felt that they didn't contribute much in the matches and were embarrassed to be the same as everyone else, but Chen Guo insisted on them accepting it. Chen Guo's hesitation towards Mo Fan was really because of this guy's uncertainty. To put it bluntly, it was still because of the lack of communication, so they didn't know what Mo Fan was thinking, whether he was prepared to follow Excellent Era all the way down.

But on second thought, regardless of the future, at least Mo Fan had come through this year, although his contribution was quite limited, but since everyone had it, he shouldn't be left out. So in the end, Mo Fan also received the same share. After hearing the amount, he also showed a few rare expressions of surprise, apparently also from a proletariat background and not very wealthy.

There was another person who resolutely refused the money in the end.

Sun Zheping, who had already left Excellent Era. Chen Guo contacted him and said that she wanted to transfer money to his account, but he smiled nonchalantly and said, "No need, don't bother," and then hung up the phone directly.

That's too generous!

Chen Guo still wanted to persevere, but in the end, she listened to Ye Xiu's advice: "Forget it, he's not someone who will change his mind."

Chen Guo held this last card and didn't know what to say for a moment. Ye Xiu glanced at her: "Did you forget your own share?"

"Ah?" Chen Guo was stunned. She really didn't think about herself, but even if she did, she wouldn't think that she needed to take a share too.

"Just consider it residual value, belonging to the capitalist," Ye Xiu said.

"Hey, who's the capitalist!" Chen Guo didn't want to wear that hat.

Excellent Era had a small bonus, and when the alliance's overall champion came out, there were various large bonuses. The prize money for the alliance's overall champion was quite small compared to the Glory Alliance's influence, only 10 million, which was only double that of the Challenger League. In addition, there were also bonuses for the rankings in the regular season, but the amounts were even smaller. The total amount for 20 teams was 16.8 million, which was pushed down in an arithmetic progression according to the rankings. The team that ranked first in the regular season only received a bonus of 1.6 million, while the team that ranked 20th only received a pitiful 80,000.

Obviously, the Glory Alliance had developed to the point where it no longer relied on prize money to support the league. 10 million in prize money? This was definitely not the reason why any team would fight to the death.

What everyone desperately pursued was the supreme honor symbolized by the trophy. And the main source of survival for the teams was broadcasting fees, sponsorship fees, ticket sales, and so on. And for these revenues, the team's influence was crucial. As for the most direct way to increase influence, of course, it was to win the championship. Excellent Era's Challenger League championship brought various revenues, which was an example of the operation under this model system.

The smoke of an entire season fell with the determination of the overall champion. However, because of the major update this time, the league was suspended for a period of time in the middle. After the finals, it was already July in a few days. The players of each team began their vacations, but with the opening of the summer transfer window, it was the busiest day for the operators of the major teams.

On Excellent Era's side, the press conference that Feike had always wanted to hold was finally held, officially announcing its sponsorship of Excellent Era. Although the amount wasn't much, with the attention Excellent Era was receiving now, this was called spending little money to do big things, and Feike was very satisfied with this investment. Moreover, at this press conference, Excellent Era took the opportunity to announce that Su Mucheng was a free transfer. This wasn't a surprise to the outside world, but then, Dancing Rain settled in Excellent Era along with Su Mucheng, which was big news.

Dancing Rain was an All-Star character. Excellent Era, a grassroots team, actually had the courage to take her in. It seemed that their goal of winning the championship wasn't just talk?

Su Mucheng was a free transfer, so naturally there was no transfer fee to talk about. The media paid various attention to Dancing Rain's transfer fee. However, in the Dancing Rain transfer contract finally signed with Tao Xuan, the transfer fee was something that needed to be kept confidential. Tao Xuan obviously didn't want Dancing Rain's abnormal price to affect Excellent Era's sale. If everyone thought that Excellent Era was having a fire sale, and they all came to him with offers of tens of thousands, Tao Xuan would cry to death.

With Su Mucheng and Dancing Rain, the Excellent Era team suddenly seemed much more majestic. If Ye Xiu was included, Excellent Era was also a team with two All-Star players! Looking at the alliance, not even half of the teams were like this!

What big moves would Excellent Era make next? On the first day of the transfer window, Excellent Era unexpectedly became the protagonist, and the media began to speculate. Excellent Era was also a hot topic at this time. The transfer window had finally opened. Excellent Era had a lot of players and characters. After so long, if there were any transfers, they should have been negotiated almost, where would they go?

As for the Golden Generation that everyone wanted to see for a long time, there was nothing to see on this day. This year was the second renewal year for the Golden Generation players, so everyone was paying attention to whether any of them would leave their teams. As a result, starting in the first half of this year, the major teams had successively released news that the Golden Generation players, except for Su Mucheng and Xiao Shiqin, had all renewed their contracts with their teams.

Today, Su Mucheng had joined Excellent Era, so what about Xiao Shiqin? Which team would he choose? He was also a free agent, with a lot of room to choose.

As a result, before the media could wait for Xiao Shiqin's news, the first major news since Excellent Era was put up for sale finally exploded.

Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf were transferred to Team Samsara for a combined price of 28 million.