December 30th, Friday, 8 AM…
Pei Qian turned off his alarm and struggled to get out of bed.
He had made up his mind to revise for the past two days and had finally achieved some results. He had at least read dozens of pages of the notebook. It was a good start.
It was the same today. He would wake up in the morning and revise as much as he could while his mind was clearer in the morning. That way, he would not have to worry about being a lazy bum every afternoon and night.
He looked at his cell phone as he brushed his teeth.
“Eh? The IOI International Finals started at midnight yesterday? Oh, that’s right, it seems to be today.”
“The competition seems to be ongoing.”
The competition had started at 11 AM yesterday in Los Angeles, which was also at 3 AM Jingzhou Time this morning. They were playing six rounds a day, and they were now in the fifth round.
If the domestic audience wanted to watch the competition, they stayed up all night, watching it from dawn until morning.
Pei Qian was not that interested in IOI’s competition. After all, he had not played it before and did not know much about it. The timing was not suitable. What’s more, FV Club did not need to play in the group competitions.
Thus, he did not pay much attention to this matter. He only opened the live-stream platform to take a look after seeing the relevant news today.
Obviously, IOI’s global finals were still quite popular domestically thanks to Long Yu Corporation’s huge publicity efforts. All major news apps were promoting the news, and various live-streaming platforms had given a lot of recommendations. It looked very popular.
In addition, the GPL’s pre-season competition had just ended a few days ago. The spring competition had not started yet. During this period, many players who had nothing to do would choose to watch IOI’s global finals.
Pei Qian clicked into the live-stream and realized that there were two foreign teams that he did not know at all. They were currently in a state of equilibrium and were fighting anxiously.
The scene looked tense, but the bullet screen comments were not discussing the competition itself. Instead, fans on both sides of IOI and GOG were fighting wildly.
“Trash! The unveiling battle has been pushed to a draw. Stop playing the competition and swim back!”
“They’re fighting so ridiculously that they are not even using their best heroes anymore. They are not using their original tactics anymore but are learning from foreign teams? They can’t even learn properly!”
“It’s just like a toddler learning to walk but lost whatever they had learnt previously! The playstyle is too ugly!”
“Such a good venue and great opening ceremony. The competition was so well-respected, but the domestic team was beaten up. Isn’t that disgusting?”
“Everyone, please be more tolerant. This is only the first game. What’s more, they have to learn it. The version has already changed. They will only lose more miserably if they continue playing in accordance to the previous version.”
“F*ck, I stayed up all night, and this is all I got? If the GPL Spring Competition had not started, I would not have come to watch this lousy competition to suffer!”
“Then hurry up and go back to your GPL! It’s a rubbish game that only our countrymen play.”
“Oh, let me tell you something. The foreign market share of IOI and GOG has long been equal. GOG is not only played by our countrymen. It’s just that GOG’s domestic teams beat foreign teams.”
“I don’t know if you saw the GOG logo on the foreign club uniforms. Don’t tell me you’re blind and can’t see it?”
“It’s ridiculous enough to go against GOG’s standard for the IOI Finals. Finger Games is probably going to explode in anger.”
“That can’t be helped. The club has already accepted sponsorship. We can’t possibly force them to pay the penalty fee, right? We can only say that Finger Games did not think of this before. They did not forbid the club from accepting GOG’s sponsorship.”
“Stop arguing. GOG’s results are indeed good, but that’s only because Tengda is unreasonable! If IOI’s E-Sports environment was not so badly squeezed, how could it be so weak?”
“Didn’t Long Yu Corporation say that they brought their team to Los Angeles to play mock competitions? It’s the classic blame the environment for not being able to do well.”
No one was discussing the competition itself on the bullet screen. They were all arguing.
Pei Qian looked at the results of the previous competition and realized that both domestic teams had lost a competition today.
The first match was the opening battle, and they were defeated in thirty minutes. The fourth match, on the other hand, lasted for more than forty minutes. They did not manage to catch their last breath, and the opponents seized the opportunity to end the competition in one group battle.
They had lost both games. It could be said that the world had collapsed.
This was because the competition schedule for this competition was rather special. Each group had three teams and only one team would qualify. It was a double loop BO1, but every point was extremely important.
Losing the first round already made the qualifying situation very serious.
What was more important was that the two teams that lost were not the strongest teams in Europe and America. That was because the first seeded team of Europe and America was the same as FV Club. They did not even need to play group matches. They were waiting for the top eight.
If they could not even defeat the non-seeded teams in Europe and the United States, how could they survive when they met the strong teams?
Many viewers had stayed up until three in the morning to watch the competition. In the end, after waiting for so long, they had only watched two failed competitions. They must have been so angry that they could not sleep and were about to burst out in the live-stream.
What’s more, it wasn’t just the live-stream. The gamers on the various forums and video websites had also flamed it.
“There is such a huge gap between domestic teams and Western teams?”
“Yes, it’s a good thing.”
“FV’s team has about the same strength as these two teams. Since both teams had been defeated, FV team will probably be knocked out in the first round for the top eight. It won’t be too popular.”
Pei Qian could not help but feel optimistic. He used his cell phone to project his phone on the big television, intending to quickly watch the highlights of the previous few competitions.
On Aili Island, IOI’s official account had updated the opening ceremony of IOI’s global finals and the highlights of the previous competitions.
The opening ceremony had invited a certain European and American singer to sing the theme song. There was also a dance team doing cosplay. The overall feeling was not bad, and it was rather impressive.
The venue was huge and crowded, so it looked more impressive. It was obviously much better, compared to GOG’s international invitational tournament. That was why the bullet screen comments were more enthusiastic.
However, when it came to the main competition, the overall situation changed drastically.
Pei Qian jumped up to take a look at the two domestic teams that had lost. He realized that it was not wrong for these two teams to be scolded. If he had stayed up all night to watch these two matches, he would definitely scold them as well.
The first round of the competition was a draw. The second round of the competition had been drawn out for a long time. They had missed many opportunities before being swept away by the opponent. It was really hard to say which was more infuriating.
The key was that, perhaps because of nervousness or some other reason, these two teams did not seem to have the strength to fight. Their decisions were hesitant and their operations were restricted.
What’s more, none of the heroes that Pei Qian had seen before had appeared.
Pei Qian had seen IOI’s qualifiers in Shanghai before. He was familiar with the traditional lineups. He knew the heroes’ appearance even though he did not know what the heroes’ skills were.
However, they did not select heroes for the competition this time. It did not match Pei Qian’s impression of the competition at all.
Pei Qian suddenly wanted to know more about FV Club.
Ever since FV Club arrived in Los Angeles, Pei Qian had not paid much attention to them. There were more than ten hours of time difference between the two places after all. It was not very convenient to link up with them.
However, the timing was perfect. Thus, Pei Qian gave Wu Yue a video call.
At first, Pei Qian was a little worried because most stadiums had bad internal signals. If Wu Yue and the others were still at the competition venue, he might not be able to take the video call.
However, after a while, the video call connected.
“Boss Pei!”
Wu Yue was obviously not at the competition venue but in the hotel. He had used the hotel’s wireless network to make this video call, so the signal was quite stable.
Pei Qian nodded. “How’s the situation over there?”
Wu Yue immediately understood. “Boss Pei, are you worried about our situation because you saw the other two domestic teams losing badly?”
“Don’t worry about that. Our team members have been training hard all along. We don’t dare to say that we will definitely win, but we will definitely show off our skills.”
Wu Yue did not dare to brag too much. FV Club had always been training with SUG and had never touched European teams after all. He did not know what would happen if they really fought.
It would be too embarrassing if he bragged too much in front of Boss Pei and ended up losing in the top eight competition.
Pei Qian nodded. Wu Yueyi did not look very confident. It should not be a problem.
However, Pei Qian did not think that FV Club would really be eliminated in the first round of the top eight. After all, his luck was bad, whatever he hoped for never happened.
They could still make it to the top four if they could stand up to it.
They would be able to save face if they were eliminated in the top four.
At that time, netizens would definitely focus their firepower on the other two clubs. FV Club would still be the strongest club in IOI’s local server…
That wouldn’t do!
Pei Qian suddenly felt that the current situation was still not very stable. The main reason was that the performance of the other two clubs was too sloppy, which fired FV club up.
FV Club would still be the best performing domestic team if they made it to the top four without winning the championship.
At that thought, Pei Qian said, “I saw that our club’s official Weibo has been posting daily photos and videos recently.”
Wu Yue immediately understood. “I understand, Boss Pei. Are you saying that the competition is around the corner and that we should not publish such things so as not to attract hatred and affect the players’ mentality? I’ll tell them to stop posting on Weibo.”
Pei Qian raised his hand. “No! That’s not what I meant.”
“I mean, this is a very good thing. We have to work harder on it!”
“You have to post on Weibo with high intensity every day to maintain the presence of the players.”
“Not only that, we also have to work on Weibo to mock the other teams and comment on the competition that just ended. We have to specifically pick on the problem of winning teams.”
“Jokes, an emoji pack, do everything you can! Bring high traffic!”
Wu Yue was a little confused. “Huh? Boss Pei, this is attracting hatred!”
He could imagine what the outcome would be once the content was published. It would definitely be criticized by gamers. What’s more, gamers would take screenshots and dig graves for themselves!
Currently, FV Club was the number one seeded team. They could sit this one out and reap the spoils laters before the top eight competitions. Of course, it would not be a problem for them to talk about the other teams, but that would definitely offend the fans of other teams and might even cause passers-by to feel disgusted.
It would be alright if FV Club won the competition, but they would also be crushed if they lost!
Wu Yue was a little hesitant. “Boss Pei, this… doesn’t seem appropriate. Domestic players don’t like such high-profile behavior.”
Pei Qian pondered for a moment. “Hm… you mean that domestic players don’t like it and foreign players like it? Hm, that’s right. What you said makes sense.”
“How about this, your club will register on the foreign websites, such as twitter and the like, and work in sync with Weibo to make a complete English version!”
“We’ve coincidentally invested in some overseas clubs. I’ll let their official accounts interact with you guys. There’s no need to worry about not being able to attract traffic.”
“Alright, it’s settled then. We’ll start the performance after the competition ends today. I’ll check it tomorrow. I’ll hang up first.”
Wu Yue: “Boss Pei…”
The video call was hung up before he could finish speaking.
Wu Yue was helpless, but he had no other choice but to do as he was told.