Chapter 124 Scathing Criticism

January 24th, the second day of the Lunar New Year.

The plane carrying Zhao Xuming and the Longyu Corporation team back from their inspection in Los Angeles landed at the Shanghai airport.

Stepping onto Shanghai soil again after more than a month, Zhao Xuming felt a sense of déjà vu.

When they left, it was Zhao Xuming, the Longyu Corporation employees, and representatives from two clubs, but only Zhao Xuming and the Longyu Corporation employees were returning.

That was because the two clubs had been eliminated after the group stage and naturally had no reason to stay in Los Angeles, so they had already flown back.

It had been a long time since news of these two clubs had been heard online.

The reason was simple: after such a poor performance at the World Championship, they had to play dead!

It had to be said, these two teams were quite effective at playing dead. By now, almost no one online was criticizing them anymore, and their public image had even improved somewhat!

This was partly because FV team had won the championship for Chinese players, and everyone was busy celebrating, too lazy to criticize these two teams that were just along for the ride. Another reason was that various news items from during the World Championship had gradually been revealed, and most people had realized that the failure of these two teams couldn't be blamed entirely on the players; there were many contributing factors.

With the blame spread around, these two teams naturally weren't being bombarded with criticism.

So, for these two clubs, the trip to Los Angeles hadn't yielded much, but it hadn't been much of a loss either.

At least their plane tickets and accommodations had been reimbursed, and the players got to participate in international matches, so they weren't really losing out.

But for Zhao Xuming, the entire Los Angeles trip had been a complete disaster!

On the return trip, since there were fewer people, Zhao Xuming had generously arranged for all employees to fly business class, finally making up for some of the frustration he had felt on the way to Los Angeles.

However, he had deliberately chosen a slightly later direct flight to Shanghai, because he didn't want to run into the FV team.

Otherwise, if everyone was in business class, and the FV team members were excitedly discussing their championship win, wouldn't that just be kicking him while he was down?

Logically speaking, Zhao Xuming was the head of IOI operations in China, so the fact that a Chinese team had won the IOI World Championship should have been a source of mutual glory for him. But the problem was that FV's championship win had absolutely nothing to do with him; in fact, it was a slap in the face!

If either of the other two teams had won, Zhao Xuming would definitely have been happy to ride their coattails and claim some of the credit for himself.

But with FV team winning, Zhao Xuming couldn't take any credit.

He couldn't exactly say, "Because I didn't take them to Los Angeles for early training, President Pei paid for a support team, which is why FV could win. Wasn't that a great contribution from me?"

So, Zhao Xuming had no choice but to sneak away from the FV club and return to Shanghai at a different time.

Thinking about it, this trip to Los Angeles was a complete failure for Zhao Xuming!

He didn't want to take FV team in the first place, but they went anyway at their own expense, and he ran into them at the airport.

He flew economy class, while they flew business class.

He stayed at the Courtyard hotel, while they stayed at the Ritz-Carlton.

He booked a small corner of an internet cafe, while they booked the entire second floor.

He walked to training, while they had chauffeured cars and bodyguards.

He had to beg and plead to find European and American teams to train with, while they had two in-house practice teams, and their training was even more effective.

The two teams he supported were both eliminated in the group stage, while they went 9-0 without losing a single round to win the championship.

It was a complete and utter defeat in every way!

The worst part was that it was the Spring Festival holiday. FV team spent the New Year in Los Angeles, which was very memorable, while Zhao Xuming spent the New Year in Los Angeles, which was just miserable!

So, Zhao Xuming had only one thought in his mind now: to return to headquarters as soon as possible, submit his report, and then go home to rest and soothe his wounded soul.

Leaving the airport, his subordinates had already arranged for a Longyu Corporation business car to pick him up.

Zhao Xuming got into the car without saying a word. After buckling his seatbelt, he closed his eyes and began to rest, not wanting to say another word.

The flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai took about twelve hours. Business class allowed him to sleep and rest comfortably, so Zhao Xuming didn't feel physically exhausted.

His exhaustion was mainly mental.

The Longyu Corporation employees who accompanied him were also core members of the IOI operations cooperation department. One of their important tasks on this trip to Los Angeles was to visit, communicate with, and learn from the headquarters of Finger Games, so they had also been following the IOI World Championship closely.

The others weren't as frustrated as Zhao Xuming. After all, they weren't directly responsible, so they treated it as a business trip.

On the plane, everyone had been sleeping or watching movies, with their phones turned off. Now that they were returning to Shanghai, many people turned on their phones and went online to check the latest news.

Suddenly, an employee said in a flustered tone, "Director Zhao! Something's wrong, it seems like our company is trending as a target of criticism! The PR department is looking for you!"

Zhao Xuming, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened his eyes instantly: "What?!"

How could they suddenly become a target of online criticism?

What had happened during those dozen hours on the plane?

Clearly, the criticism was mostly related to the IOI Global Finals. Zhao Xuming, as the head of the IOI operations cooperation department, didn't dare to be negligent and quickly took out his phone to check.

Sure enough, Longyu Corporation was trending as a target of criticism!

Many netizens were fiercely attacking Longyu Corporation, especially Zhao Xuming. One of the most representative posts dug up old dirt, dragging Finger Games, Longyu Corporation, and Zhao Xuming all together and unleashing a torrent of abuse!

"Let's take a look at the shady dealings of Longyu Corporation, the domestic IOI operator, while FV is working hard to win glory for the country!"

"Based on the information currently available, we can confirm at least the following points:"

"First of all, Longyu Corporation took the other two clubs to Los Angeles but didn't take FV at all. This is completely discriminatory treatment! If President Pei hadn't been so generous as to pay out of his own pocket, FV might have been left without any training matches!"

"Secondly, Finger Games and Longyu Corporation have messed with the game version, not only exposing the failure of the original IOI gameplay design but also seriously harming the interests of all veteran players! However, they have been using delaying tactics, hoping to cover up this issue with the popularity of the IOI Global Finals!"

"Finally, and most disgustingly, Finger Games secretly sent a game balance designer to coach the FRY team! I want to ask, how can the fairness of the competition be guaranteed when the organizers themselves personally coach a club?!”

"Obviously, Finger Games officials didn't want FV team to win this championship, so they came up with such despicable methods!"

"And Zhao Xuming of Longyu Corporation, as a partner, could he not have known about this? He definitely knew! But he didn't stop it. What does that mean? It means he was afraid, he knew that his discriminatory treatment of FV would be met with fierce criticism, so he didn't want FV to win the championship. The national and ethnic honor of competitive sports is less important than his personal gain in his mind. In the past, we would call this kind of person a 'traitor' or a 'national sellout'!"

"If FV team hadn't been strong enough to still win the championship under these circumstances, if someone hadn't exposed this matter, I'm afraid the uninformed masses would still be fiercely criticizing FV team, while Longyu Corporation and Finger Games, the two culprits, would be hiding in the dark and laughing!"

"This also shows the essence of Finger Games and Longyu Corporation:"

"Finger Games is not only full of discrimination and prejudice against domestic teams, but they are also a company that can't afford to lose. If they can't win with fair and aboveboard means, they resort to these dirty tricks."

"And Longyu Corporation, as a large domestic company, is helping them do evil for its own benefit in this situation, which is very contemptible!"

"With this kind of thing happening, the only thing players can do besides verbally attacking them online is to boycott them!"

"Players who don't play IOI should boycott them, because Finger Games and Longyu Corporation treat our championship team differently. Players who play IOI should boycott them even more, because Finger Games and Longyu Corporation have never truly respected the rights of players!"

Zhao Xuming was dumbfounded and his hands and feet were cold.

What was going on!

How was the news about Finger Games assigning a data balance designer to FRY exposed?!

He skimmed through all the popular discussion posts online, and his hands couldn't help but tremble slightly.

The public opinion was one-sided, and everyone was pointing fingers!

Whether for Longyu Corporation or Finger Games, this was an unprecedented public relations crisis. If it wasn't handled properly, the consequences would be disastrous!

Carefully examining these topics in the popular posts, most of the content had actually been gradually exposed before.

For example, when IOI initially pushed the new version, sacrificing the interests of old players, it caused an uproar online.

When the quarter-finals ended, someone revealed that FV team had gone to Los Angeles at their own expense, and Longyu Corporation hadn't taken them at all.

When the semi-finals ended, FV used tactics from GOG, and someone used this to refute the view that "IOI's design is superior to GOG's," arguing that GOG's gameplay and tactics were ahead of IOI's.

At the time, these posts had already had some impact online, but because the finals hadn't been played yet, the impact was limited, and they could still suppress it.

But now that FV team had won the championship, all these things had naturally been dug up by netizens, and they were starting to settle the score!

And the most critical trigger point was the foreign media report about "Finger Games sending a data balance designer to help FRY develop tactics"!

Clearly, as soon as this news came out, it directly ignited all the accumulated hatred!

Because although the previous things were also very bad in the eyes of netizens, they were still barely acceptable, but this thing was absolutely unacceptable!

Finger Games was, after all, the organizer of the event. The organizer sending a game's data balance designer to coach the FRY team, directly interfering in the finals of the two teams, wasn't that just showing favoritism?