What’s more, it was not easy to refute this. FRY and the other veteran clubs had indeed received Tengda’s sponsorship. Tengda’s logo was even on their uniforms, anyone with eyes could see them.
Once this post was published, it immediately had the effect of killing the competition and was reposted by other players!
“Oh my god, FV Club has gone crazy… After they were done messing with the local and foreign clubs, they are now playing with the mentality of these participating teams…”
“They can’t do anything useful but are best in performance!”
“I’m convinced. Their performance has indeed shown the standards of the first seeded team of our country.”
“That’s strange. FV Club’s Weibo wasn’t like this before. Why did they suddenly change to a new media operations editor?”
“I guess it was suggested by the club owner!”
“This wave must have been planned by Boss Pei. It’s the same as the IOI qualifiers before. Everything was planned!”
When FV Club’s first Weibo post was published, it indeed aroused the disgust of many people. After all, the entire performance was like trash talk. If they wanted to create a program effect, it would definitely cause a portion of people to feel disgusted.
However, many people suddenly accepted this setting and found it rather interesting after FV Club persisted on a few posts!
That was because FV Club did not only open fire on domestic teams, but also on foreign teams. They treated everyone equally and brought a lot of joy to the netizens. It also diluted the depressing atmosphere of the previous two teams losing the competition.
Coupled with the updated food and accommodation conditions on FV’s Weibo, all the attention, be it domestically or overseas, were focused on FV Club.
They had yet to compete but the attention that FV Club received still increased rapidly, and it quickly surpassed the other two clubs!
…
At the same time, in a hotel near the headquarters of Finger Games…
Zhao Xuming swiped his cell phone and said with a dark expression, “Sh*t, how unlucky!”
For the past two days, Zhao Xuming had been visiting Finger Games. Chrétien had asked the employees of Finger Games to accompany him the entire time. It could be said that he had given him a lot of face and maxed out the treatment.
Zhao Xuming had also gone to the competition venue to watch the two domestic teams’ matches today. In the end, he was filled with anger.
It was too embarrassing!
It would be alright if he won one of the two rounds. At the very least, they would win the first round.
In the end, both teams lost. One lost as though they had diarrhea while the other lost like they were constipated. It was hard to tell which team was more embarrassing.
Of course, Zhao Xuming had the right to be angry. After all, Long Yu Corporation had spent money to arrange for these two teams to come to Los Angeles for training in advance. They only managed to come up with this after training for so long?
All the money had been wasted!
However, Zhao Xuming did not say anything. After all, this was only the first day of the competition. If these two clubs played well, they would still be able to qualify. Thus, he decided to comfort them and not be too harsh on them as it would affect the players’ mentality.
Initially, Zhao Xuming had already adjusted his mentality. However, FV Club’s actions had caused him to collapse again.
Previously, Zhao Xuming had thought that the situation could not be any worse after both domestic teams lost on the first day of the group match, right?
He realized now that he was too inexperienced.
FV Club worked hard on Weibo and Twitter, and even interacted with foreign clubs. It directly attracted most of the domestic popularity and also attracted many fans overseas.
Many people might be criticizing them but being criticized was part of being popular.
FV Club was originally just a small club and had no reputation overseas. This wave of Weibo posting directly raised its status to the same level as established European and American clubs like FRY. It could be said to be profitable.
Of course, Zhao Xuming could not accept this.
That was because everyone knew that FV Club was a club that Tengda had invested in. The stronger FV’s presence was, the worse Zhao Xuming would feel.
However, Zhao Xuming did not have any good ideas. He could not possibly tell Weibo and Twitter to block FV Club’s official account, right? That would not do.
He could only feign ignorance.
At that moment, there was another notification on his cell phone. It was a new Weibo post from FV Club.
Zhao Xuming was speechless. “Again? When will they be done!”
He clicked on it and realized that it was a Weibo post on Tengda’s family tree. Not only was there FV club, but there were also clubs like FRY that were sponsored by Tengda.
“What the hell is this?!”
“This is too much!”
Zhao Xuming was even angrier when he saw this post.
He had already noticed that many veteran European and American clubs had Tengda’s sponsorship logo on their uniforms.
GOG’s logo was actually on the team uniform on the stage of IOI’s international finals. That was too embarrassing.
This matter was like a thorn in Zhao Xuming’s heart, this thorn burrowed deeper into his heart after this Weibo post was up.
How did the clubs become Tengda’s sons?
Once this picture was posted, it gave the netizens a feeling that the clubs in the finals were from Tengda and had nothing to do with Finger Games.
This was akin to riding their faces into the ground!
“Boss Pei had already sponsored these clubs a few months ago. Now that I think about it, he is really sinister!”
“If we continue like this, GOG’s logo would appear on screen, be it in the small windows of the players in the competition or in the interviews after the competition. Wouldn’t that be akin to advertising for GOG?”
“What’s more, the more powerful teams there are left, the more frequent this situation would become…”
Zhao Xuming suddenly realized that this was a very serious problem especially if they were to think about the beautiful web of interconnectedness of the situation.
In the semifinals, perhaps all four teams would have GOG’s logo on them. After the competition, they would be able to see GOG’s logo no matter which team went on stage…
Terrifying!
In fact, it was equivalent to IOI spending a few million yuan to organize a grand international finals but in the end, Tengda Games they took advantage of the popularity of the IOI Finals to achieve excellent publicity through sponsoring a few clubs…
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The more he took a step back to think, the more he felt he was in a disadvantageous state.
After much consideration, Zhao Xuming decided to give Chrétien a call.
It was not impossible to remove GOG’s logo now.
All he had to do was ask the clubs to breach the contract and pay the penalty.
However, he could not allow the clubs to fork out their own money. This money could only be paid by Finger Games. Of course, Zhao Xuming did not know how much the sponsorship fee was or how much the penalty would be.
However, they should choose the lesser of two evils. Instead of being taken advantage of by GOG from beginning to end, he might as well cut his losses and spend a sum of money to get rid of all the elements related to GOG in the group stage!
…
30 minutes later.
Zhao Xuming had been waiting for Chrétien’s call. However, he couldn’t help but feel worried since there was no response after waiting for so long.
Chrétien also agreed with Zhao Xuming’s point of view. He felt that the frequent appearance of GOG’s logo in the IOI global finals was very uncomfortable.
Thus, Chrétien decided to
give the various clubs a call to ask how they had signed the sponsorship contract and how much they would have to pay if they broke the contract.
That took a long time.
Finally, the phone on the table rang. Zhao Xuming quickly picked it up.
Chrétien sounded a little helpless on the other end of the line. “I just asked. Tengda has sponsored ten clubs in total, one million US dollars each. They would have to double the compensation if they were to breach their contracts.”
“Most of these clubs are in the world finals.
“I expect five such teams to enter the top eight, two to three teams to enter the top four. If we consider the top eight, we would have to pay ten million US dollars for breaching the contracts; if we consider the top four, we would have to pay four to six million US dollars for breaching the contract.”
“This sum of money… is a little too much.”
Zhao Xuming was at a loss for words.
Boss Pei had sponsored so much money?!
Previously, Zhao Xuming did not know the exact amount. According to the domestic price standards, each club could obtain a logo after sponsoring one million yuan, which was about 150,000 US dollars.
They could pay double the penalty fee if it was at this price.
He had not expected Boss Pei to spend so much money to sponsor these clubs. One million US dollars per club!
The clubs would definitely not be able to fork out the money themselves if they wanted to breach the contract. Dayak Corporation would have to fork out the money. However, they would have to fork out four to six million US dollars even if they only allowed the top four teams to breach the contract. This amount was really unacceptable.
Chrétien said, “I think it’s too much of a loss for such a huge sum of money, so… forget it.”
Spending millions of dollars just to remove the GOG logo on the participating teams? That was too stupid.
After a moment of silence, Zhao Xuming said, “That’s true if we only consider the international competition, but… what about the leagues after that?”
“There will be competitions in the various regions soon. Most of the seats for the spring competitions in the two regions in Europe and America will be given to these veteran clubs. If we don’t make up our minds now, then the spring and summer competitions in the various leagues in the future…”
“GOG’s logo will appear very frequently!”
“What’s more, Tengda is obviously making use of this to make a statement. We can tell from the tweet that FV Club sent.”
“All the clubs have become Tengda’s godsons and have nothing to do with Finger Games. What if Tengda continues to make an issue out of this in the future?”
“As long as GOG’s logo is printed on the team uniform, it would be a slap to our faces!”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line.
Indeed what would happen to the leagues once the international competition was over!
Tengda had basically sponsored the strong teams in the European and American competition zones. What would happen if the top few teams and the most popular teams all had GOG’s logo on their uniforms?
Even if Chrétien wanted to do the opposite and sponsor GOG’s team, it would be useless since they were impenetrable…
There were only two choices now: either bear with it and pretend not to see it, and wait for GOG’s logo to be hung on all the teams in the international competition and various regional league teams; or spend a lot of money, even if they could not make all the sponsors violate the contract, they had to at least make sure that GOG’s logo did not appear on the celebrity teams.
After a long silence, Chrétien said, “This is a very serious problem indeed. I’ll report it now and hold a meeting to discuss it.”
It was now the critical period for the world finals. Every extra day that GOG’s logo appeared meant extra loss to Dayak Corporation and Finger Games. Therefore, they could not delay this matter and had to hurry up to hold a meeting to discuss it.
If he really wanted to breach the contract, he had to do it as soon as possible. That was because the earlier he did, the less impact it would have!
…
…
December 31st, Saturday…
Pei Qian was sleeping soundly.
He had been revising seriously without paying attention to anything else after watching IOI World Finals yesterday.
FV Club had followed his instructions and posted a lot of Weibo, which had already filled the hate points.
This morning’s IOI’s competition was between two other teams in the morning. There were no competitions with domestic teams in them, so Pei Qian did not pay attention to it since they could not stab him in the back.
No matter how he thought about it, today was a perfect weekend. He should have a good sleep.
However, his cell phone suddenly vibrated before 9 am.
Buzz… Buzz…
Pei Qian opened his sleepy eyes a little angrily. He turned around and tried to ignore it.
However, his cell phone kept vibrating.
Pei Qian could not fall asleep anymore. He sat up and looked at the caller ID speechlessly. It was He Desheng.
“Could there be something new on the Cold-Faced Lady’s end?”
“That’s not right. I’ve sold all of Cold-Faced Lady’s shares, right? It should have nothing to do with Cold-Faced Lady.”
“Then why is He Desheng calling me?”
Pei Qian was confused. He picked up the phone. “Hello?”
He Desheng sounded very excited. “Boss Pei, I have good news!”
Pei Qian: “?”
Pei Qian shivered subconsciously when he heard the words’ good news’.
However, he could not think of any good news.
Could it be that Dream Realization Ventures had recently invested in a very promising company, and its valuation had suddenly skyrocketed, selling its shares to make a huge profit?
But there were no signs before this?
Pei Qian tried his best to remain calm. “What good news?”
He Desheng said, “Boss Pei, do you remember the foreign e-sports clubs that Dream Realization Ventures sponsored previously?”
Pei Qian’s mind went blank.
Sponsoring… foreign E-Sports Club?
Pei Qian tried hard to recall. Finally, he remembered that Dayak Corporation had forcefully paid them a huge sum of money to buy the shares of Tengda Corporation’s Finger Games. Pei Qian spent all the money that month because of his anger.
Amongst them, ten million US dollars was used to sponsor ten more well-known veteran e-sports clubs overseas and allowed them to set up a GOG branch. Then, they printed GOG’s logo on their team uniforms and advertised GOG.
While this job should be done by Shang Yang Games, they had their own specializations after all. Thus, it was left to Dream Realization Ventures and He Desheng.
However, Pei Qian no longer cared about that after that.
After all, the money had already been spent. These teams would at most publicize GOG during the live-stream without causing much of a stir.
Pei Qian asked, “What… happened to these clubs?”
He Desheng could not suppress the happiness in his voice. “Boss Pei, I thought that you only sponsored these clubs to advertise GOG. I didn’t think that there would be such a deeper meaning!”
“The bosses of five clubs contacted us just now. They said that they want to terminate the sponsorship contract with us and are willing to pay double the compensation according to the contract!”
“In other words, they have to compensate us with ten million US dollars!”
Pei Qian was flabbergasted. A string of question marks floated above his head.
???
10 million US dollars?
Compensate us?
Are these clubs crazy?
Pei Qian had only spent ten million yuan on sponsorship previously. Now, five of the clubs had to terminate their contra
cts and were going to pay another ten million yuan.
The money that he had spent previously came back!
No matter how one looked at it, Tengda was making a killing.
That was because the sponsorship of the other five clubs was still in effect. The five clubs that had terminated their sponsorship contracts had already advertised GOG for a long time. It was impossible for them to deduct the advertising fees.
It was as if the five clubs had advertised for nothing, and had each lost a million US dollars!
Pei Qian felt a little dizzy. He did not understand what was going on with these clubs.
Did water enter their brains, or did they think that they had too much money?
What was going on?
He Desheng was very happy and continued, “Boss Pei, I asked the person-in-charge of these clubs briefly before I knew what was going on.”
“It was ordered by Dayak Corporation and Finger Games!”
“Finger Games could not stand seeing GOG’s logo on the team uniforms of these teams. Considering the influence of the international competitions and the competitions after that, it was equivalent to advertising for the competitor GOG. Therefore, they decisively terminated the sponsorship contracts of these clubs!”
“This sum of money is definitely not from the clubs. It’s from Finger Games.”
“Even so, the clubs are still making a loss. After all, they lost a million dollars and spent so much money advertising for nothing. Finger Games would not give them any additional compensation.”
“However, Finger Games had promised these clubs a seat in the league as a form of compensation. After all, the other clubs would have to pay for it if they wanted the seats.”
“All in all, Boss Pei, you spent ten million yuan to sponsor these clubs. Not only did you achieve a good publicity effect, but you also took back everything!”
“Your operation is too perfect. You have predicted the mentality of Dayak Corporation and Finger Games perfectly. It’s actually equivalent to an investment even though it’s a sponsorship. What’s more, it’s a huge profit!”
Pei Qian could feel He Desheng’s elated expression through the phone.
Who would have thought that the money that they had spent would grow wings and fly back?
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