Chapter 10 Saturday, September 10th

The morning was the routine meeting for claims adjusters, but this time there wasn't any new information worth noting.

Ever since He An posted that long Weibo post explaining the deeper meaning of "Struggle," the game's reputation and sales had both entered a period of rapid growth.

After "Struggle" was hailed as a masterpiece, the content creators on Aili Island all started live commentary of "Struggle." Although most of them had only updated one or two episodes due to time constraints, the effect of some of the big creators with their own fan bases was terrifying. In a short period, they rushed to the website's front page and racked up millions of views.

Although there were many casual viewers, quite a few people who watched the videos went to buy the game.

The people who bought the game had different mindsets.

Some felt that even though they had seen it, the game format itself allowed them to get a better experience only by playing it themselves.

Some felt that whether they played it or not wasn't important, but this kind of classic game had to be bought to add +1 to their game library.

Still others felt that every choice a person made was a vote for the world they preferred. If you liked a game, a movie, or a book, you had to support it with real money. The more people who supported it, the more of this kind of work there would be.

If you thought something was good but didn't support it, don't complain if there was less and less of it in the future.

Similarly, if you thought something was good and supported it, so that more and more of these good products appeared, the credit belonged to all the supporters, even if it was just a simple act of word-of-mouth, it was considered contributing one's meager strength.

In addition to this, the official game platform was also sparing no effort to promote "Struggle."

Hu Xianbin and others were also working intensively to prepare the English version for release overseas.

Because the game itself was set in a foreign country, spoken in English, and the characters were all foreign faces, it should be well-received by overseas players.

Of course, until it was actually launched, no one knew whether overseas players would like this theme, or whether they would be able to understand the deeper meaning without the analysis.

But there was no harm in trying. A few more sales were still sales.

"A Beautiful Tomorrow" was a success overseas, so "Struggle" definitely had a chance too.

There was nothing Pei Qian could do about any of this anymore.

He couldn't control it!

The players were determined to buy it, and the officials were determined to recommend it. What could he do?

If the game was a domestic sales disaster and its reputation collapsed, Pei Qian could still persuade Hu Xianbin not to release an overseas version, and directly admit the game's failure. But now that the game was popular in China, Pei Qian really had no reason to disagree with Hu Xianbin wanting to try an overseas version...

This was very awkward.

Pei Qian now felt that he seemed to be trapped in a reverse Tacitus trap.

The so-called Tacitus trap refers to what Tacitus said when evaluating a Roman emperor: once the emperor becomes an object of hatred, then whether he does good or bad, he will arouse people's aversion to him.

And Pei Qian was facing a reverse Tacitus trap: once Tengda became a manufacturer that everyone liked, then whether it did good or bad, it would arouse people's love for it...

Of course, Tengda couldn't do real bad things, because the system constrained it, and couldn't cut corners or use inferior products. It had to guarantee quality, and at the same time, within the scope of matching the quality, the price fluctuated up and down.

Therefore, Pei Qian could only think of some clever tricks to try to dissuade everyone as much as possible, but under the effect of this reverse Tacitus trap, everyone interpreted these clever tricks as having other deep meanings...

This was very exhausting.

...

After the meeting, Pei Qian immediately rushed to Yuanda Tiandi in the city center, because today was the day when the first GOG Global Invitational Tournament would be officially held!

Pei Qian had been a little overwhelmed by the "Struggle" incident before, so he hadn't had time to go and see the venue after it was set up.

But it didn't matter whether he saw it or not. Anyway, this competition was mainly for burning money. For Pei Qian, as long as the progress was guaranteed, that was enough.

Before going to the competition venue, Pei Qian checked the competition schedule sent by Wang Xiaobin on his phone.

A total of 16 teams participated in this competition, 8 domestic teams and 8 foreign teams.

This ratio was not very scientific, but after all, the preparations were relatively rushed, so it could only be this way.

The foreign teams were all selected from the oldest esports teams. These teams had more financial resources, more scientific management, and the strength of their players would be stronger.

Teams that were too weak would not be invited, as the competition might not be entertaining.

Inviting foreign clubs was mainly to ensure that the competition had a certain degree of attention globally. After all, most players would still prioritize supporting their own country or region's teams.

And the domestic teams accounted for half, mainly to ensure the entertainment of the competition.

To put it simply, the domestic teams were responsible for making things interesting, and the foreign teams were responsible for filling the numbers.

Because the number of teams had doubled compared to the previous competition, the duration of the competition would naturally be extended accordingly.

September 10th to September 13th was the first round of the group stage;

September 15th to September 18th was the second round of the group stage;

September 20th to September 21st was the quarter-finals;

September 23rd to September 25th were the semi-finals, the third-place match, and the finals.

From the quarter-finals onwards, all were Bo5 (best of five).

More than two weeks, three weekends, the entire schedule could be completed, and there was basically rest time left in the middle of each round of the competition, although only one day.

As for why it was so rushed, it was of course because Pei Qian had to solve the prize money problem before September 30th.

If the competition was delayed until next month, how would this prize money be handled? Would this cycle still be losing money?

However, after this schedule was announced, most players were quite satisfied.

Sixteen consecutive days, with only the 14th, 19th, and 22nd as rest days, high-intensity entertainment, watch it all at once!

Of course, if the competition developed to a super-large scale in the future, and the semi-finals and finals had to be moved to different cities and venues, then it would be normal for the semi-finals and finals to be a week apart. After all, it was necessary to maintain the topic's popularity and try to adjust the competition time to the weekend as much as possible to ensure the venue's attendance rate.

But for the audience, waiting a week for a game was indeed quite painful.

In short, Pei Qian and the players were quite satisfied with this schedule.

More than ten minutes later, they arrived at the competition venue.

Yuanda Tiandi in Jingzhou was the second largest shopping mall after Huanyu Tiandi, and the difference between it and Huanyu Tiandi was that it had many large multi-functional halls that were sufficient to host large-scale competitions.

This time, they rented the largest multi-functional hall in Yuanda Tiandi, occupying the entire top floor, with a daily rental of 30,000. Although it was cheaper than the large shopping malls in the first-tier cities, this price still made most companies in Jingzhou feel daunted.

This top-floor multi-functional hall had an area of 4,500 square meters and a height of 12 meters, and could accommodate up to 1,800 people. Yuanda Tiandi itself was located in the most prosperous area of Jingzhou, with a subway station directly connected to the underground, making transportation convenient. Therefore, considering everything, this was the most suitable competition venue.

The decoration work for the venue was mainly focused on the main stage, and had already started more than a month ago, and now it had all been completed.

Pei Qian got out of the car in the square outside Yuanda Tiandi, and when he looked up, he saw a super-huge promotional poster hanging on the Yuanda Tiandi building.

On it were several iconic GOG heroes, as well as the words "GOG First Global Invitational Tournament." Of course, these heroes also included deeply rooted characters such as Modeste and Ruan.

Pei Qian looked at Modeste on the poster with some helplessness, feeling that this meme was not going to end.

In the future, as GOG became popular all over the world, he was afraid that he would see Modeste's image no matter where he went.

From the entrance to the venue, the entire route was guided by relevant elements, such as the war flags of the various teams and large original paintings of various heroes. The audience could easily reach the competition venue by following these elements and entering after ticket inspection.

The ticket prices were also set very low. Even the tickets for the finals day did not exceed 100 yuan. After all, Pei Qian was here to spend money, and the lower the ticket price, the better.

Of course, the anti-scalper measures still had to be implemented. After all, the lower the ticket price, the more likely it was to be targeted by scalpers. With TPDB website and Tengda account data and other information, scalpers could be screened out to the greatest extent.

At the same time, all tickets were real-name, could not be resold, and if something happened and they couldn't come, they could refund the ticket, and others could pick up the missed tickets through official channels. Private transactions were not allowed.

Pei Qian followed the crowd entering the venue and sat in the back row of the venue in a very low-key manner, preparing to see the situation of this GOG Global Invitational Tournament.

But this time, Pei Qian's mood was relatively relaxed.

Because he didn't expect much from this competition, and whether it was popular or not didn't seem to matter much, as it wouldn't affect this settlement anyway.

The structure of the main stage subconsciously reminded people of the layout of the Mo Yu Internet Cafe 3.0 esports lifestyle hall.

Obviously, Xiao Peng had been accumulating a lot of valuable experience in operating internet cafe competitions in the esports lifestyle hall, which could be used in this global invitational tournament.

Above the main stage was a super-large screen for displaying the competition footage, and on both sides of the large screen were two long screens for displaying the heroes and lineups of the teams.

There was also a small screen in front of the players to capture the expressions of each player.

At this time, the competition had not officially started, so Pei Qian took out his phone to check the situation of various platforms.

Domestic live broadcast platforms had opened up special live broadcast rooms for the GOG Global Invitational Tournament. Whether it was YY Live or ZZ Live, the popularity of the GOG Global Invitational Tournament on several large-scale live broadcast platforms had already exploded.

Because GOG had already held an invitational tournament for domestic teams before, and ZZ Live had also held a "make things interesting" competition, the game GOG had already gained extremely high popularity in the entire live broadcast circle. Now that the global invitational tournament had started, as long as it was promoted a little, a large number of viewers would flock in.

After all, this was a grand carnival.

In addition, Shang Yang Games had also contacted foreign live broadcast platforms in advance to conduct a global live broadcast of this Global Invitational Tournament.

The popularity abroad was not as high as in China, but it was also not low.

On the one hand, it was because GOG's overseas promotional campaign was fully launched. After the launch of Multiverse, this game had entered the vision of overseas players. Whether it was PC game players or mobile game players, they were already very familiar with GOG. On the other hand, it was also because eight overseas veteran clubs were participating in this Global Invitational Tournament, which would naturally cause discussion in the foreign esports circle.

In addition, Shang Yang Games also specially produced a promotional video for the first GOG Global Invitational Tournament.

In the promotional video, Lin Wan appeared as the director of Shang Yang Games and the head of GOG's overseas operations. Her fluent English and confident expression gained a lot of fans for GOG.

"The GOG Global Invitational Tournament is the grandest GOG event to date, and will also become the grandest esports event. Professional players from all over the world, a total of sixteen teams, will gather in Jingzhou to compete for the highest esports prize money in history."

"Tengda's purpose has always been to go all out and strive for perfection. We have invested a huge amount of money in this Global Invitational Tournament to prove our determination to promote esports activities and build an esports ecosystem."

"Here, I promise to GOG players all over the world that in the future, we will work hard to build GOG into the strongest electronic sports game. Please witness it with us!"

Lin Wan's expression on the screen was natural and full of confidence.

But netizens on foreign websites all understood the deep meaning behind these words.

Obviously, this was declaring war on IOI!