September 26th, Monday.

After eating lunch at Moyu Internet Cafe, taking photos and signing autographs for three enthusiastic fans, Pei Qian planned to go to the DGE club.

Pei Qian had been careful when signing, only writing the single character "Pei."

If he signed his full name, fans would definitely wonder, "Is 'Pei Qian' the name of an actor, or the name of Boss Pei?"

If it was an actor's name, then the actor and Boss Pei just happened to share the same surname? What a coincidence!

If it was Boss Pei's name, then... (Omitted: 50,000 words).

So, Pei Qian only signed "Pei," partly to prevent fans from drawing too many connections and protect his identity, and partly to express a beautiful wish.

Now that the weekend was over, there were fewer fans running into him at Moyu Internet Cafe.

This showed that Huang Sibao's "I am my own stunt double" strategy was clearly working, greatly reducing the number of fans interested in Boss Pei's identity.

As time went on, Pei Qian would be disturbed less and less.

As for the GOG Global Invitational Tournament, although it had concluded successfully yesterday, the subsequent buzz would continue for a while and involve many aspects.

For Shang Yang Games, the GOG Global Invitational Tournament was a crucial part of the international GOG promotion strategy and had achieved excellent results!

The tournament had partnered deeply with foreign live-streaming platforms, and viewership had repeatedly broken records, even surpassing IOI in popularity on foreign websites for the first time.

This marked a stage victory for GOG's big-spending promotional plan overseas!

Of course, the MOBA game genre was deeply rooted, and GOG was unlikely to completely overtake IOI overseas in such a short time, but in any case, it was an undeniable fact that GOG had begun to challenge IOI's established position globally.

Domestically, the GOG Global Invitational Tournament had further solidified GOG's throne and even attracted a large number of players from other games!

Ultimately, this success stemmed from several factors:

High prize money and a big-spending promotional campaign garnered extremely high popularity.

Overseas viewers saw veteran foreign clubs enter the top four, ensuring viewership before the top four. Although there were no foreign teams after the top four, the domestic teams delivered top-notch competitive performances, so they continued to tune in.

Domestic viewers saw domestic clubs beat up veteran foreign clubs, gaining a great sense of pride, enhancing their recognition of GOG, and deeply associating GOG with the concept of "e-sports."

The tournament format was cunning but very effective.

In addition, various memes emerged during the tournament, such as Huang Wang lifting the nearly 30kg trophy with one hand at the end of the tournament, which went viral online and had a "breakout" effect.

In addition to Shang Yang Games, many other industries also benefited from this tournament.

The managed gyms, of course, were packed, with many people queuing for spots on the app.

Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 also gained more attention.

Originally, Xiao Peng wanted to build Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 into a part of Tengda's large e-sports ecosystem. Now, under the influence of the GOG Global Invitational Tournament wave, this process had been greatly accelerated!

Huang Wang lifting the trophy and H4 Club winning huge prize money inspired countless high-ELO players, and now many people who wanted to become professional players had two paths:

One was to go to various clubs (including DGE) for tryouts, and these major clubs just happened to be in Jingzhou;

The other was to find excellent players on the ladder to team up with, go to Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 to compete and train, start with the internet cafe competitions, and then work hard to enter the professional scene.

E-sports clubs could only absorb a very limited number of reserve players. After all, clubs needed to produce results. If a tryout didn't work out, they would discourage the player, and wouldn't support so many idlers.

But Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 was different. If someone could keep winning in the internet cafe competitions, the prize money from those competitions alone would be enough to barely support the whole team and maintain a basic life, giving those dream-chasing youths another path.

As early as when Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 became successful, Pei Qian had agreed to Xiao Peng's continued opening of new branches. Xiao Peng had indeed opened Moyu Internet Cafe 3.0 in several densely populated areas of Jingzhou with many young people, and they had just welcomed their first wave of popularity in the last two days.

Pei Qian could only ignore these things.

He couldn't manage the internet cafe anymore. Open more branches, give out more prize money; as long as they didn't hand money over to him, he would let them do whatever they wanted.

As for whether it would have a greater impact on GOG in the future, that was definitely not something to worry about in this cycle.

As for why he wanted to make a special trip to the DGE club...

It was mainly because Pei Qian suddenly felt that the DGE club might be worth saving.

Pei Qian had been very disappointed with the previous DGE club, but now, the players had all been sold!

Huang Wang could lift the trophy if he wanted; he was now a member of the H4 club. Even if he brought a lot of popularity, it belonged to the H4 club.

Of course, in the short term, people would still associate these players with the DGE club.

But what about in three months or half a year?

The DGE club used to be popular because it was strong.

And it was strong because GOG was in its early stages, its infancy. DGE was ahead of other clubs, having undergone two months of high-intensity, professional training, so it quickly pulled away from other clubs.

But after the "scattered stars" operation, the competitive level of other clubs quickly caught up.

Now, if the ten new internet-addicted teenagers who had come to the DGE club played against clubs like H4 or EK, they would definitely be crushed to the point of questioning their lives.

In other words, the DGE club could no longer maintain its previous dominance.

E-sports was about strength. Without results, the DGE club would soon be forgotten, at most remaining as a meme in the e-sports circle, and it would no longer make Boss Pei a lot of money.

So, Pei Qian was going to take a look at the situation at the DGE club. If it was optimistic, he could trust them one more time.

For this reason, Pei Qian had even specially booked a table at President Li's Mingfu Family Banquet in advance, preparing to treat the players to a big meal.

...

DGE Club.

The new DGE first and second teams were practicing.

All ten people were focused, the sound of keyboards and mice clattering together, the team captains constantly giving instructions.

Zhang Yuan and Coach Ya Ling were watching from the sidelines, talking quietly.

"It seems the finals yesterday gave them quite a stimulus. They're all holding their breath today," said Coach Ya Ling.

Zhang Yuan nodded. "Yeah, definitely. Seeing their predecessors dominate the finals and lift the trophy with one hand, these guys must be very inspired."

"However, haste makes waste. If you want to improve your strength, simply increasing the amount of training is useless. The key is to pay attention to scientific training methods. I'm a little worried that their current state will be counterproductive."

"But there's no better way."

Coach Ya Ling looked at the whiteboard next to her, which showed the results of the DGE teams' practice matches against other clubs in the past two days, almost all losses.

Although these new players were selected from countless high-ELO ladder players who enthusiastically signed up, they were not regulars after all and lacked coordination, making them helpless against other clubs.

That was why the two teams were practicing so hard.

But e-sports was something where effort was important, but effort didn't necessarily mean a reward.

Many times, talent, a good mindset, and scientific training methods were more useful than inefficient effort.

And the more impatient the players were, the more easily they fell into this inefficient effort.

Zhang Yuan was very worried about this, but couldn't think of a better way.

Maybe it was time to find a coach?

But finding a coach meant having to trust the coach's arrangements wholeheartedly, and the current coaches were either poached by other clubs or were not good enough. Zhang Yuan couldn't find a suitable candidate for a while.

While he was racking his brains, Pei Qian walked in.

Zhang Yuan and Coach Ya Ling quickly stood up. "Boss Pei!"

Pei Qian greeted the two and found an empty seat to sit down.

He glanced at the practice match results on the whiteboard, and subconsciously revealed a happy expression.

The results were so bad?

These practice matches were all against domestic teams that had already been eliminated in the past two days, meaning they were playing against weak teams, but still lost more often than they won.

What good news!

Pei Qian couldn't help but nod slightly. "Well, it looks like the start is much better than the last batch of players!"

Why was the previous batch of players able to "scatter like stars"? Because they started too early, winning at the starting line.

And this batch of players lost at the starting line!

That was very comfortable.

But then, Pei Qian saw the players in the training room, who were focused and serious, and found that they all seemed to be highly focused and training hard.

Pei Qian frowned instinctively.

He couldn't be too optimistic, there was still a big hidden danger!

This batch of DGE players had tried out after the DGE club had already become popular. They were all very talented and very young high-ELO ladder players.

If they continued to practice so desperately, their strength would soon skyrocket, wouldn't they immediately fall into the previous vicious cycle?

DGE club demolishes other clubs in practice matches → the legend of DGE continues → sponsors invest money like crazy → other clubs offer high prices to buy players → DGE club becomes even more famous, and more high-ELO players come to try out.

If that happened, things would get out of hand!

Moreover, compared to other clubs, high-ELO players preferred to try out for DGE, in addition to the DGE brand effect, career prospects were also an important consideration.

Because other clubs would try to lower prices when signing contracts, and would be more inclined to sign three-year long-term contracts with lower salaries. It was difficult for many talented players to make a name for themselves before proving themselves in competitions.

And if they made a name for themselves after signing a long-term contract, the club wouldn't sell them, which was a loss for the players.

But at the DGE club, everyone knew that they would be bought quickly after making a name for themselves, making it a perfect stepping stone.

In other words, DGE didn't need to compete with other clubs, or even offer these players high salaries, they would flock to it!

Because the newcomers who came to the DGE club weren't there for the immediate peanuts salary, but for the big contracts that other clubs would offer after proving themselves!

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more worried he became.

If things really developed according to this script, monopolizing those talented players from the source, wouldn't the DGE club be hopeless?

No, no, the start for this batch of players was so good, he had to do something to maintain it! He absolutely couldn't enter that vicious cycle!

Obviously, the current players had all seen the GOG Global Invitational Tournament finals yesterday, and they were all energized, so he had to find a way to change their mentality.

Pouring cold water on them wouldn't work, and it would easily backfire. He still had to use generous conditions to corrupt their fighting will.

Pei Qian silently watched the practice from the sidelines.

...

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the practice matches ended.

Next was the post-match summary meeting and dinner time.

Zhang Yuan's expression was even more worried.

Because he could vaguely see that practicing like this wouldn't work!

In the past, when the DGE teams practiced against each other, it was a battle of the gods, because the two teams started early, and Huang Wang and Jiang Huan's understanding of the game surpassed that of other club players and coaches, so the two teams grew stronger and stronger as they practiced.

But now, when the DGE teams practiced against each other, it had become a battle of the chickens!

While other clubs had gotten on the right track and were constantly developing new tactics, the drawbacks of the DGE teams without a professional coach became apparent. With the captains of the two teams not understanding the game as well as other clubs, no matter how they practiced, it wouldn't have a good training effect.

But the key was that Zhang Yuan was just a manager. He could see some problems, but he didn't know how to solve them.

He could only let the two teams discuss the problems with their play styles. Although they seemed to be seriously summarizing, they couldn't quickly unify their thoughts and summarize the lessons. Instead, there were signs of shifting blame on each other.

Zhang Yuan subconsciously looked at Boss Pei.

Boss Pei hadn't said much since he came to the club in the afternoon, but had silently watched the two teams play practice matches.

Zhang Yuan felt that Boss Pei must have a special reason for coming at this critical juncture, right?

He was probably worried about the talent gap in the DGE club!

Zhang Yuan felt that Boss Pei must have seen the problems that he had seen.

He just didn't know how Boss Pei would solve the problem.

Zhang Yuan waited quietly for Boss Pei to speak.

Watching the players discussing intensely, Pei Qian's worries grew stronger and stronger.

Because the two captains were seriously summarizing the problems, and the players were also putting forward their own ideas. It looked like they were having a fruitful brainstorming session.

They were training hard, and the post-match review was also serious. If they continued like this, maybe the two new DGE teams would soon catch up with other clubs!

After all, the original two DGE teams had succeeded with this kind of training method. Pei Qian felt that he definitely couldn't fall into the same pit twice.