March 7th, Wednesday morning.
The first water-testing performance of the ICL league would begin at five tonight on Bunny Tail Live-Stream. The two teams would be the two domestic teams that had previously obtained domestic slots and entered the IOI global finals but were eliminated in the final group stages.
Even though both teams had been eliminated in the group stages and looked less impressive, they were still considered the best teams in the country apart from FV and SUG.
What’s more, they had also looked for FV Team to play mock competitions after they returned from the world finals. Their skills and overall strength had obviously improved.
Zhao Xuming believed that if these two teams appeared in front of the audience again, they would definitely show a completely new side to them!
There would be an exhibition match between FV Team and SUG Team tomorrow, which would be Thursday. The attention would definitely be a lot higher.
The reason why they did not arrange FV and SUG’s match today was mainly because they were afraid that something would happen on the first day.
All the lights, equipment, conductors, and arrangements for Bunny Tail live-streams at the competition venue had to be adjusted. It would be too disappointing if the computer lagged for the entire process if FV and SUG’s exhibition match was scheduled for today. It would hurt the popularity of the league instead.
Therefore, the best choice was to arrange for two teams that did not have high traffic but had certain strength and fame.
Of course, this would also bring about a problem. What about the popularity of the competition?
At the moment, ninety percent of the popularity of IOI in the local IOI field was concentrated on FV Team. If FV Team did not appear, wouldn’t it be very awkward if not many people watched the ICL exhibition match on the first day?
However, Zhao Xuming felt that this was not a big problem. After all, data was easily fungible. He understood everything.
The live-stream platform could totally give a fake popularity of a few million views, add more repetitive bullet screen comments, and arrange for a group of fake reviewers to speak crazily… It could also increase the popularity of the live-stream. At the very least, it could achieve the effect of making the fake real.
There might be no detailed agreement in the contract between both parties but didn’t live-stream platforms always do this?
There was no need to explain such things deliberately. It was an unspoken rule in the industry. The staff at Bunny Tail Live-Stream would naturally arrange it.
Now, Eric and Zhao Xuming were inspecting the ICL league competition venue to check on the preparations.
The ICL league venue was also an indoor venue. It was a large-scale recording studio in Shanghai.
In fact, Eric had considered large stadiums in the beginning, but he quickly gave up. That was because even though these large stadiums looked more imposing, there were many corresponding problems.
For example, large outdoor venues were severely affected by the weather. The live audience would suffer no matter whether it was heavy rain or scorching sun.
The bigger the venue, the more money they would have to spend to renovate it. They were not afraid of spending money, but they were afraid that the audience would not be satisfied. That would be very awkward.
What’s more, the traffic in large venues might not be very convenient. If there were concerts or basketball competitions, the ICL audience would leave with football fans or fans of singers. The scene would be quite chaotic and difficult to handle.
Thus, after some consideration, he decided to rent an indoor recording studio like the GPL. That way, the traffic could be more convenient and the overall effect would be guaranteed.
Eric went to the backstage of the recording studio and asked the staff about the adjustment of the various equipment in detail. He then went to the stage and the audience to take a look at what was lacking from the perspective of an audience.
Zhao Xuming followed Eric the entire time, occasionally explaining some details.
Eric had specially studied the GPL competition venue before and had a lot of experience to learn from. Eric had also given many instructions for the preparation of the ICL.
Eric sat in the audience for a moment and said, “Isn’t it a little too similar to GPL?”
He only realized this point now.
That was because Eric had subconsciously taken in all the good parts of GPL when he was preparing for the ICL league. For example, the team flags used to decorate the venue, the big screen on the stage, and the players’ positions.
It was not a problem to take these details out individually, but once they were put together, there would be an inexplicable sense of familiarity…
Obviously, the staff subconsciously referenced GPL’s approach in their minds as they worked on it, so it did look a little similar.
Zhao Xuming opened his mouth but did not know how to answer.
It was obvious that Eric already had an answer in his heart since Eric asked this question.
If he said “no”, Eric would definitely think that he had bad taste.
However, Zhao Xuming could not nod and say “yes” because Eric would definitely ask him, why didn’t you remind me earlier?
What Eric needed the most now was a reliable solution.
However, the competition was going to start tonight. How could there be a solution in these few hours?
He could not possibly remove all the decorations and change them within a few hours, right? Wouldn’t that be nonsense?
Zhao Xuming had an idea and thought of an excuse.
“It does look a little like GPL, but I think it’s alright.”
“This might have a negative impact on public opinion but it also means that the GPL audience will not have too many thresholds after transferring to our ICL league.”
“I can only say that there are pros and cons, but the pros outweigh the cons.”
“In the future, we can slowly adjust the decorations of the stadium and try to remove the GPL elements.”
Eric seemed satisfied with this answer. He nodded. “Yes, that’s the only way.”
The two of them sat in the audience for a while. Eric asked again, “I heard that Tengda Corporation is also preparing for the overseas league. How’s the current situation? Is there any news?”
Zhao Xuming quickly answered, “Some news came out.”
“At the moment, Tengda Corporation’s overseas league should still be in the preparation stage. I heard that they are going to collaborate with overseas companies to promote it. The various agent companies will decide on the specifics of the overseas league. Tengda Corporation will only serve as a guide and a barrier.”
“As for which companies to work with, the specific tournament format, schedule, and teams for the overseas competitions… I haven’t heard anything about them yet.”
Eric nodded and smiled. “We’re finally better than the overseas league. IOI’s international regional leagues started earlier than GOG. Moreover, Finger Games established branch offices in various places to directly manage them. They obviously have the overall advantage in this aspect.”
Zhao Xuming asked, “I was also very surprised when I heard this news. It doesn’t look like Boss Pei’s style. Wouldn’t it be awkward if we cooperate with other companies and let these companies lead the preparations for the overseas league?”
Eric smiled. “Do you think Boss Pei doesn’t realize that? He did, but he had no choice.”
“Tengda Corporation does not have much experience overseas after all. It would be very difficult for them to take charge by force.”
“Dayak Corporation is a multinational corporation that has good influence in many areas around the world. Finger Games is also an American company.”
“In other words, Tengda has a natural advantage in the domestic league. However, in the overseas league, this situation is completely the opposite.”
“Based on what I know, Finger Games’ headquarters are almost ready for the league in the Northern American Region. The current price for the slot is…”
“Seven million US dollars.”
Zhao Xuming was stunned. “So expensive!”
That was the price of a single slot.
Previously, they had all said that Boss Pei had sold the GPL slots at an astronomical price. However, the average price of the slots was about twenty million yuan. After some calculations, it was only three million US dollars.
On the other hand, IOI’s Northern American Regional slot price was double that of GPL!
Eric smiled. “It looks a little expensive at the moment, but it might not be so in the future. What’s more, many clubs will buy it for seven million US dollars.”
“The clubs in the Northern American Region are much wealthier. Buying a slot with seven million US dollar was painful to them but they would never give it up.”
E-Sports industries developed at different levels in different regions. E-Sports industries in Europe, America, and Korea developed relatively quickly, but the Northern American Region was definitely the richest in terms of financial resources.
Of course, many large financial groups were stationed in the domestic e-sports industry. The financial resources of the various clubs were also increasing rapidly. However, their financial resources were still far inferior compared to the clubs in the United States.
Finger Games’ pricing in the Northern American Region was not a sky-high price, but a combination of the financial resources of the clubs, IOI’s influence and popularity in the Northern American Region, and the price of other e-sports industries.
Eric did not ask for a high price from domestic e-sports clubs. The ICL league slots were basically half bought and half given. This was not because he was a philanthropist, but because he knew that domestic clubs could not squeeze out that much money out.
What was the point of setting a sky-high price?
However, the situation from the Northern American Region was different. This was Finger Games’ headquarters. It was related to the league, live-stream, and the club’s derivative industries. This was a huge gold mine. Finger Games did not want to sell all the slots. They had to make a good profit.
They did not have any surplus. Finger Games had been spending money crazily to promote the domestic market. Where was the money coming from? Didn’t they still have to earn it back from other markets?
Eric said confidently, “It’s hard to say for the other regions, but Finger Games has the absolute advantage in the Northern American Region. It won’t be that easy for Tengda to organize the Northern American Region league and compete with IOI!”
Zhao Xuming nodded slightly in agreement.
Indeed, Tengda’s achievements so far were mainly domestic. As a domestic company, Tengda had an advantage in this aspect.
However, the Northern American Region was Finger Games’ home ground. Tengda Corporation could not interfere directly. They could only let other games companies represent them. The difficulty would definitely increase.
Eric and Finger Games’ confidence obviously made sense.
At that moment, Eric’s cell phone rang.
He took a look and frowned. When he picked up the phone, his expression changed.
“What? I’ll go take a look.”
These two sentences were spoken in English. Obviously, this call should have come from Finger Games’ headquarters in Los Angeles.
Zhao Xuming asked, “What’s wrong?”
Eric’s expression was ugly. “For some reason, the forum in the Northern American Region is abuzz. They say that we treat the two zones differently!”