Of course, Pei Qian did not intend to remind him. It seemed to be a good option for Old Ma to be forgetful as well.
However, He Desheng stood up.
He quickly tried to smoothen the situation when Boss Pei did not reply. “Boss Pei, I can vouch for Boss Ma. He had been carefully screening investment projects recently!
“However, Boss Ma had kept your teachings in mind and strictly required the element of ‘hidden gold in dreams’. Therefore, he did not manage to find a suitable project to invest in.
“Boss Ma actually did a lot of work but did not try to mess up!” Pei Qian, “…”
He did not want to bring this up initially.
Ma Yang understood immediately. “Right, Brother Qian, I actually looked through many projects but did not find a suitable one! You cannot blame me for that!”
Pei Qian patted his shoulders. “Old Ma, don’t worry, I have absolute confidence in you. You never lied. If you said you did it, then it must be true.”
However, Pei Qian knew very well that there was no conflict in him looking seriously for a project and him happily playing games now. He could only say that Old Ma gave up after searching for a while and left the matter behind his head.
Pei Qian looked at everyone. “Everyone has to learn from Boss Ma. It is better to have nothing than a substandard choice for our investments. Take a break, play games… it would be much better than investing in non-suitable projects.”
He Desheng and the rest nodded.
As expected of Boss Pei, what great words!
Of course, they were even more certain now that Boss Ma must have blocked an atomic bomb for Boss Pei previously.
Ma Yang was very happy that he was praised. “Brother Qian, come have a round with us. You can play as the Coin-Scattering Hedgehog; you will surely be able to carry us all! Come, come, come, let’s start another round!”
Pei Qian’s face blackened. Old Ma was good in many things, except that his EQ was a little lacking
However, on second thought, that matched his IQ and personality. Moreover, Old Ma was stupid. His intelligence and EQ are normal, but he would often miss the connection and fall through the center of the earth.
Pei Qian waved his hand dismissively. “No, I still have some business.”
He looked towards He Desheng. “There shouldn’t be any new investments by Dream Realization Ventures, right?”
He Desheng nodded. “No, Boss Pei, don’t all investment projects require your approval now?”
Pei Qian was very satisfied with this answer. It seemed like there was not much problem with Dream Realization Ventures. The importance of Manage Loss Trainees was even more apparent now. In the future, these things would be left to them.
Pei Qian looked towards Zhang Yuan. “How’s the club coming along?”.
Zhang Yuan sighed silently. “I’m sorry, Boss Pei, nothing is up yet.”
Pei Qian was even happier now. It was rare to see Zhang Yuan with low efficiency!
The Best Employee Selection was over in February, which was more than two months ago. Zhang Yuan’s esports club had yet to materialize.
How delightful!
As expected, Zhang Yuan’s main interest was in internet cafes and ROF Computer-Installation. He might have been the ‘first-place-eliminated’, but he was still obsessed with the old business and found it hard to part with it.
That meant to say that the first-place-elimination system had achieved unprecedented success!
Pei Qian was very happy. Dream Realization Ventures and the Club did not deal any damage to him. That was very comforting.
However, Pei Qian did not forget to investigate the last hidden danger even though he was happy. “Why did you come to Dream Realization Ventures today then?” “This was what happened, Boss Pei. I had been thinking about the issue of the Esports Club for some time now, but I never had a very good idea. I struggled for more than one month just to decide on the game.
“The current esports field is in its transition period. Real-time strategy and first-person shooter games from esports projects had to be more mature before it could work. However, it seems to be going downhill now so no new players have joined in…
“Forming a team now to play real-time strategy games would be akin to being a eunuch for 12 years, isn’t it?”
Pei Qian became more solemn. It seemed like Zhang Yuan’s analysis of the current environment was quite accurate.
Zhang Yuan continued. “Therefore, I had been thinking that I should find a new project with good prospects. I looked around and found that GOG is a good candidate.
“It just so happened that GOG was having a leveling activity. I followed the ladder and contacted the players one by one, thinking I can poach a few people to join the club. “In the end, I contacted a few of them, but I was rejected by all of them.
“I was late to some of them who had already signed on to other clubs. However, some had not signed with any clubs. They were purely uninterested in the terms I offered.
“I thought about the offer I was giving. I’ve arranged for five social insurance and one housing fund, a high basic salary, and a good bonus. The offer is better than most clubs in China so why am I being turned down?
“Finally, someone told me-apart from the truth-everyone had a career in an investment firm.
“I felt something amiss. I inquired and lo and behold, they are all in Dream Realization Ventures!
“Therefore, I decided to come over.
“Then Boss Ma was very interested in the affairs of this club and chatted with me for a long while. He even got me to play with them so… it became what you saw.”
Pei Qian could not help but have question marks floated around his head after listening to what Zhang Yuan had to say.
The entire process was too bizarre. Pei Qian did not manage to react to it.
“Boss Pei, Boss Zhang is telling the truth. However, we accidentally obtained the bonus from the Great Master through some casual play. We did not deliberately do this!”
Pei Qian understood now.
GOG created an in-game ranking system for giving out coin rewards. Kill the Great Master, and one would be able to get money. It made players participate with vigor.
However, who exactly could kill the Great Master or the King?
It had to be the skilled masters from Gods Rising.
There might be certain differences in the gameplay, but they were similar types of games. Skilled players in Gods Rising had much a better understanding of the game than the novices. They did well in the operations and could definitely do better in a shorter while.
Therefore, the top ranking for the Spring Competition was almost all old players from Gods Rising and IOI. That was inevitable.
The new geniuses would only be able to surface after a few months. Geniuses required practice as well.
The employees hired by Ma Yang and He Desheng happened to be the best players of Gods Rising, who knew a bit about investment. They were nearly at the professional-player level.
What was more, these people had directly participated in GOG’s development. They made numerous suggestions and had a much deeper understanding of the game than ordinary players. For example, they could adjust their style of play after knowing the GOG game mechanism and support. It would be easier for them to win the game. Zhang Yuan started digging from the top of the leaderboard, and the probability of hitting such a group of people was too great.
As for why they went for the GOG ranking… wasn’t that obvious? There was nothing much to do at Dream Realization Ventures. Kill the Great Master in GOG would get one money. It might be from their other sister company, but it would be a waste not to take it.
Pei Qian could not help but sigh. “Zhang Yuan, your line of thinking is correct and seems to have no problem with your judgment of this industry.
“The overall idea IS all right, but you missed out on a hidden condition.
“The operator of the game, or the organizer of the e
vent, cannot have a conflict of interest with the team participating in the event…”
Zhang Yuan’s expression froze.
“Huh?”
Chapter 491 - DGE Esports Club
Pei Qian felt even better as he looked at Zhang Yuan’s confused expression. Haha, you didn’t see this coming, did you?!
All of you used to fill my mind with question marks all the time before. Now, it’s my turn to do the same to you! Are you surprised? Are you shocked?
Actually, Pei Qian had already thought about this before. He had just set the trap without realizing it. Still, seeing Zhang Yuan fall for his trap so naively looked humorous in a dark way.
Would esports be that popular in the future?
Pei Qian thought that the MOBA games would become the most popular. While FPS games were not bad, they probably would not do that well in China.
If everything developed mechanically based on Pei Qian’s memory, esports would be dominated by games like IOI and Gods Rising in the future. Other projects would lag far behind.
However, everything could be different in the parallel world. Thus, Pei Qian could not be sure how things would develop.
Take IOI for example. Although it looked like LOL, there were also many differences between the two games. For instance, the worlds in IOI and LOL were different, and so were the gameplay, the timeline, and other details.
The butterfly effect was terrifying. Often, the slightest misstep made a world of difference.
Pei Qian pondered for a moment. Gods Rising was not as good as DOTA to begin with, and there was still no news that it would be made into an independent online game. Pei Qian guessed that that would not happen any time soon.
Something had gone wrong somewhere. IOI was much worse than what he remembered of LOL, and both the gameplay and Finger Games’ concept design were problematic.
On the other hand, his own GOG was rising rapidly to success in the local market as if it was on steroids. Pei Qian was bewildered. If this carried on, Pei Qian guessed that Gods Rising would be in the most dangerous position. Until now, it was not a complete and independent online game with a good matching mechanism. Of course, it could not match up to GOG and IOI. In the end, either IOI or GOG would be used for esports. What was interesting was that both of those games belonged to Tengda! There was no need to elaborate on GOG. Tengda had developed it and was now managing it.
On the other hand, Tengda was in charge of IOI’s operations because Dream Realization Ventures and Shang Yang Games were subsidiaries of Tengda Games.
In the world of esports, the organizers of competitions could not form teams to participate in the same competitions. That would be like dropping soil onto one’s pants: no matter how much they tried, things would not be clarified well.
Even if the team operated completely independently, would the audience believe it? Would the other clubs believe it?
How could one prove that there was nothing dirty going on behind the scenes?
Then, if various clubs dissed the results and accused the team of being in cahoots with the organizers, winning the championship would mean nothing.
Even if the team failed to do well, the audience could accuse them of being rubbish because they didn’t win even though they were in cahoots with the organizers.
Thus, Pei Qian only had two options:
Zhang Yuan’s club could go out on their own, cut off all ties with Tengda, and participate in GOG’s competition.
Alternatively, Zhang Yuan’s club could work on other games. The former was impossible. As for the latter… since the club would not be able to take part in GOG or IOI, it would not become popular. Thus, any effort that they put in would go to waste.
What’s more, most esports clubs in this world were incurring losses all year round. They were only being used as marketing gimmicks by rich companies.
Pei Qian could not help but feel proud of himself. No matter how he looked at it, he was going to emerge victorious!
Zhang Yuan, how are you going to fight with me?
At that moment, Boss Pei wanted badly to laugh maniacally for three minutes. He had finally allowed his outstanding employee to experience being stabbed in the back without any warning whatsoever!
Zhang Yuan was still speechless. He had intended to lead an esports team to compete in GOG, but Boss Pei had rejected this proposal without another word.
The esports business had not developed properly yet. It was not famous or structured. Thus, Zhang Yuan did not know that the organizers could not form teams and ended up causing a big hoo-ha.
There was a big problem now. What should he
do?
Zhang Yuan subconsciously turned to Boss Pei. He was in a fix, and only Boss Pei could solve his problem.
A hint of a smile tugged at Boss Pei’s lips at that moment. He looked like he wanted to say something
Zhang Yuan could not help but feel puzzled. What did Boss Pei’s expression mean?
It was horrible that the club could not form a team to compete in GOG or IOI. Why wasn’t Boss Pei upset?
Does Boss Pei have a solution that he’s not telling me about? Does he want me to figure it out on my own?
He frowned and tried asking, “Boss Pei, what game do you think the club should form a team to compete in, then?”
Pei Qian sniggered. “GOG.”
Since you’re asking me for help so sincerely, I’ll give you the answer just as sincerely. First, GOG was likely to lose to IOI. If the club formed a GOG team and GOG became outdated, the team would become equally outdated. Their efforts would go down the drain.
Second, even if GOG did not become outdated, the team would still be disqualified.
No matter what, Pei Qian would emerge victorious! Of course, Pei Qian would never explain those reasons to anyone.
Zhang Yuan was tongue-tied. Obviously, he was shocked by Boss Pei’s answer.
At the end of the day, they were back at GOG? They could not compete in that game!
Zhang Yuan was beginning to feel light-headed. It was hard to understand Boss Pei’s wisdom.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with Zhang Yuan’s expression, and he had no intention to explain why he thought the club should compete in GOG.
The more he spoke, the higher the chances of making a mistake. It would be terrible if his words caused a mysterious and unwanted chemical reaction.
“So… does the club have a name?” Pei Qian tried to change the topic. Zhang Yuan seemed to still be hung up over the previous topic. He looked stunned for two seconds before he replied, “Er… I thought about an impressive name before… World Champion. However, we realized that the name’s acronym was problematic when we were trying to design a logo. That’s why we gave up on it.
“Boss Pei, do you want to come up with a name for the club?”
Pei Qian sniggered again. “Alright.”
Pei Qian was very familiar with the names of various esports teams, such as World Elite, Invictus Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, Funplus Fhoenix, and the like. All of them were pretty good names.
However, Boss Pei always prioritized good luck when naming his projects. He was not being superstitious; saying the names just made him feel better.
The above names were not bad, but the problem was that they had achieved too much success. Obviously, they did not match Boss Pei’s expectations for his own team. After some time, Pei Qian suddenly thought about a team that could never win.
“Our team’s name will be DGE!”
Zhang Yuan blinked. “What… is that short for?”
Pei Qian explained, “Dark Genius Esports!”
As for the name’s real meaning…
It was short for Da Gan Er, which meant ‘big godson’ in Mandarin.
Lao Gan Die[1], which meant ‘old godfather’, could come in last in esports. Surely, the godson would be able to surpass the godfather… and do even worse.
As for why Pei Qian did not want to call the club ‘little godson’, he was worried
that it would backfire because two negatives made a positive.
Zhang Yuan pondered over the long English name and said, “What a good name! It sounds powerful, and it rolls off the tongue. Even its full name seems to be of a certain standard.”
Pei Qian had more or less completed what he needed to do for Dream Realization Ventures and the esports club. It was unlikely that the tables would turn against him in the future.
However, considering Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan’s relationship, Pei Qian decided to leave a few more instructions.
Obviously, Ma Yang was far more interested in the esports club than Zhang Yuan was.
Thus, Pei Qian could not rule out the possibility that Ma Yang would ‘lend’ Dream Realization Ventures’ employees to Zhang Yuan.
All of those employees were extremely good at Gods Rising, and they could easily become Great Masters at GOG as well. Although they were over twenty years old and were considered quite old now, a professional gamer community for GOG had not formed yet. For all Pei Qian knew, those employees could kick off a new trend.
Thus, Pei Qian had to instruct Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan to keep Dream Realization Ventures and DGE Esports Club separate.
At the same time, since DGE Esports Club was fated to incur losses, Pei Qian had to instruct Zhang Yuan to spend generously. If he remained this stingy, Pei Qian could end up losing only one or two million yuan in the end and be utterly embarrassed.
Pei Qian cleared his throat. “It’s right to poach those who are at the top of the charts, but I think you must keep age in mind. Young people move faster and possess greater potential. Choosing them to become professional gamers would be more appropriate.
“If branch managers of internet cafes refer to themselves as gaming gods and ask to join the club, do not believe them. Instead, chase them away at once.
“Lastly, do not scrimp and save on the club’s physical gathering place. Rent a villa. Let me know once you’ve selected a suitable location. I’ll arrange for Fish-Catching Take-Out to deliver your meals.
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