Chapter 1 The First Performance Match

At 5 PM, amidst the earth-shattering applause and cheers of the live audience, the first performance match of the iCL League officially kicked off!

The host greeted all the viewers both at the venue and in the livestream with impassioned enthusiasm, striving to stir up the atmosphere.

Eric and Zhao Xuming, present at the scene, both felt a sense of pride.

This is ioi's own league; we finally have a league that can compete with the gpL!

It has to be said that the atmosphere at the venue was quite lively. After all, the staff found by the iCL League were quite professional, and the audience was made up entirely of loyal ioi fans, with a small portion specifically hired to lead the rhythm of the event. The applause and cheers were perfectly timed.

Seeing the match smoothly complete the Bp (ban/pick phase) and enter the game screen without any hiccups, Zhao Xuming breathed a sigh of relief. The big stone that had been weighing on his heart finally fell.

He took out his phone, opened Rabbit Tail Livestream, and wanted to see how things were going on the livestream side.

Logically, there shouldn't be any problems.

As long as there are no problems on-site, the signal transmitted to the livestream is fine. What problems could the livestream have other than lagging?

Zhao Xuming clicked on Rabbit Tail Livestream and quickly found the iCL League's livestream on the homepage.

The recommended resources were indeed quite generous. There was a very eye-catching banner on the homepage, and a special ioi game section was created. Clicking on it led directly to the iCL League livestream. Everything seemed fine.

Zhao Xuming felt much more at ease.

Although President Pei is a competitor and had just stirred up some trouble at the iCs, we've already signed a contract!

In any case, President Pei is still a very contract-abiding person and will definitely act in accordance with the contract.

However, after he clicked on the livestream and saw the number of viewers, he was stunned.

27985!

It was a precise number, and it was constantly changing, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing.

Zhao Xuming thought he was seeing things; was he missing a digit?

But he brought his face closer to the phone screen and looked carefully. After a long time, he finally confirmed that he was not mistaken. It was only five digits, less than 30,000 viewers in total!

Zhao Xuming was dumbfounded. He looked at the comments in the livestream; there were quite a few!

Various comments were scrolling by, and he could often see people sending small gifts!

Although the gifts weren't much, this was, after all, a tournament livestream, and there were usually not many people who sent gifts. The key was to look at the density of the comments.

Judging from the density of the comments, there weren't any major problems. After all, the livestream screen was only so big. As long as there were a thousand active people, the comments could keep scrolling; with ten thousand active people, the comments could flood the screen; and if there were tens of thousands of active people, the comments would have to be diverted, otherwise it would affect normal viewing.

The iCL League had been promoting for so long, and many ioi players would be drawn in, so it was normal for the comment density to be high.

The key was, what was going on with this viewership number?

Less than 30,000 viewers was just too embarrassing!

Didn't other livestream platforms have millions or tens of millions of viewers at will?

Even a small streamer would be embarrassed to greet people if they said their livestream only had 30,000 viewers.

Zhao Xuming's face immediately fell. President Pei was waiting for him here?

The other promotional materials were all fine, but he was secretly limiting the number of viewers on the livestream platform?

Obviously, the viewers had also noticed this number, and many people were discussing it in the comments.

"Isn't this an exclusive broadcast? Only less than 30,000 viewers in total?"

"So, there are only 30,000 people watching the iCL League worldwide? Pfft, sorry, I couldn't help but laugh."

"Alas, ioi is still dying, can't be saved."

"It's far from gpL, I'm not watching it anymore."

Zhao Xuming was very angry; Rabbit Tail Livestream was being too unethical!

Needless to say, it must have been President Pei's instructions!

Deliberately lowering the popularity of the livestream to create the feeling that iCL wasn't popular, his intentions were truly evil!

Eric also noticed this, and his expression wasn't very good either.

He had a kind of PTSD towards President Pei and was always afraid of being schemed against in some way, so he was always on guard.

Zhao Xuming immediately called Chen Yufeng.

Even if President Pei was making trouble, there was no need to be afraid; both parties had signed a contract!

If this kind of sneaky trickery was caught, Zhao Xuming could immediately demand that Rabbit Tail Livestream change it, otherwise, he could demand to terminate the contract freely and end the cooperation between the two parties.

The phone quickly connected, and Chen Yufeng's voice came from the other end: "Hello? President Zhao, you should have seen the iCL livestream, right? Any problems?"

Zhao Xuming sneered in his heart.

You still have the nerve to ask me if there are any problems? Isn't that a rhetorical question? (lit. asking a question when the answer is obvious)

Zhao Xuming: "President Chen, you guys are being unethical!"

"Why are you limiting the popularity of the iCL League livestream?"

Chen Yufeng was stunned for a moment: "Limiting popularity? No? Why would we do such a thing?"

Zhao Xuming was even more unhappy; how dare he deny it?

"President Chen, how can it only have more than twenty thousand viewers! That's not even as good as an ordinary small streamer on other livestream platforms! How are the viewers supposed to view the iCL League like that? The attention is not even as good as an ordinary streamer? Do you want them to think that nobody watches our league at all?"

Chen Yufeng smiled and explained: "President Zhao, you've misunderstood, that's the actual number of viewers!"

"We definitely didn't limit the popularity, and we won't limit the popularity. The number of viewers on Rabbit Tail Livestream is the real number, we will never falsify it."

"As for other livestream platforms..."

"Their number is the popularity, not the actual number of viewers. A livestream with three thousand viewers can have a popularity of hundreds of thousands; a livestream with twenty thousand viewers can have a popularity of five or six hundred thousand."

"So, if we calculate it according to the popularity algorithm of other livestreams, the popularity of the iCL League should be able to reach about one million."

Zhao Xuming opened his mouth, speechless for a moment.

If, according to Chen Yufeng, the livestream's popularity could reach one million, and the officials slightly falsified the data in the background, pushing the peak to about two million, then it should be about the same as the popularity of gpL on some smaller livestream platforms.

In that case, it would seem like there were no problems.

But the key was that, according to Chen Yufeng's meaning, Rabbit Tail Livestream didn't seem to be thinking of helping the iCL League at all!

Zhao Xuming was very speechless: "President Chen, do I really have to spell it out for you?"

Chen Yufeng: "Spell out what?"

Zhao Xuming: "Falsifying the data! You guys are running a livestream platform, wouldn't you know about this? In order to make the audience feel that this thing is very popular, shouldn't you increase the data a bit?"

"Now the number of comments is fine, the discussion is also fine, and the livestream is very smooth and doesn't lag at all, but it's just this popularity and viewership..."

Chen Yufeng flatly refused: "Oh, President Zhao, is that what you mean?"

"Then I'm really sorry, President Pei specifically emphasized when Rabbit Tail Livestream was first established that all of our data must be authentic and absolutely cannot be falsified. So sorry, we can't make an exception for this."

Zhao Xuming felt a little inexplicable: "Not even once?"

Chen Yufeng: "If we do it even once, the website's credibility will be gone. Even if we release the real data in the future, it will be useless. I hope President Zhao, you can understand."

Zhao Xuming was speechless for a moment.

What a mess!

What Chen Yufeng said was reasonable and well-founded. This was a matter of principle that Rabbit Tail Livestream had been implementing since its establishment. It didn't seem to be specifically targeting the iCL League.

But the problem was, which livestream platform doesn't falsify data now?

If you don't falsify it, the scene will be too shabby!

This viewership of less than 30,000 people was making Zhao Xuming very uncomfortable.

Zhao Xuming didn't want to give up just like that: "But, our contract stipulates that your company will cooperate with us in promotion, this popularity..."

Before Zhao Xuming could finish speaking, Chen Yufeng had already replied: "President Zhao, our contract doesn't stipulate that we have to help you falsify data! I'm afraid this can't be considered a normal operation and promotion strategy, right?"

"Look, we've done the promotion and marketing work on the livestream platform, and the effects are obvious to all. The bandwidth of the livestream is also no problem, and the audience's viewing experience can be fully guaranteed."

Zhao Xuming: "This..."

It seemed that that was really the case. The contract didn't mention anything about falsifying data!

The main reason was that Zhao Xuming and Eric both felt that since Rabbit Tail Livestream had spent a lot of money to buy the exclusive broadcast rights to iCL, they would definitely do their best to promote it. After all, if iCL was successful, it would also bring a lot of popularity to Rabbit Tail Livestream.

Falsifying data was the basic skill of a livestream platform; how could they not have it?

But Rabbit Tail Livestream really didn't have it!

Zhao Xuming said: "But, in this way, the promotion of the iCL League will definitely be greatly affected, and the effect will be greatly reduced!"

Chen Yufeng chuckled: "President Zhao, don't worry, the promotion of the iCL League is on us, and there will definitely be no problems!"

"Be patient and observe for a few more days, the popularity will definitely continue to rise!"

Zhao Xuming hesitated, but he had no other arguments, so he reluctantly hung up the phone.

Eric saw Zhao Xuming hang up the phone and asked: "What did they say?"

Zhao Xuming repeated Chen Yufeng's words.

Eric also fell silent.

This matter was awkward.

Rabbit Tail Livestream was indeed acting completely according to the contract. They were not the wrong party, and Finger Company and Long Yu Group naturally couldn't directly terminate the contract.

Of course, they could use the forced termination clause and pay 7 million yuan in liquidated damages.

But the problem was, it wasn't worth it!

Currently, Rabbit Tail Livestream's livestream and promotion work for the iCL League were all quite satisfactory. The only thing was that the number of viewers in the livestream wasn't falsified, and the real data looked a little hurtful.

But just because of this one reason, throwing away 7 million yuan to terminate the contract with Rabbit Tail Livestream? Returning the exclusive broadcast fee? And then finding another livestream platform to cooperate with?

You'd have to be out of your mind to do that.

Zhao Xuming and Eric both fell into a dilemma.

This was obviously not a big problem, but it was like a small bug constantly crawling around in their hearts.

After carefully considering it, Eric said: "Let's wait and see for a few more days. If the effect is really bad and has a serious negative impact on iCL, we'll settle the score with President Pei!"