594 Where did It Go Wrong?

Team Leader Su and Zhang Yuan chatted in the hall while Huang Wang brought the team members around the villa.

"This is the massage room, where people will give us full-body massages regularly to prevent us from developing neck aches or backaches.

"We can come to the balcony once in a while to enjoy a breeze and some alcohol or something. However, we can't drink too much. We can only drink a little.

"This is our conference room, where we discuss battle strategies…"

Huang Wang casually introduced each room to the team members of H4 as the latter became green with envy.

They even had a massage room and a balcony to enjoy alcohol!

We didn't even dare to dream of such things!

Pang Ling stopped in front of the whiteboard in the conference room. He was becoming increasingly interested in the training schedule written on it.

"You wake up so early?

"You go to sleep so early?

"You even have additional meals?

"You work out for two hours every day?"

Pang Ling turned to look at Huang Wang as if finally understanding how he had developed his muscles. The training schedule had completely overturned Pang Ling's expectations!

After walking one round around the DGE Club, Pang Ling's competitive mindset had completely dissipated. It was not because he had figured things out or changed his mindset. Instead, it was because he had been dealt with such a huge blow that he could not afford to compare anymore!

The only thing that Pang Ling could be proud of before this was that the H4 Club was a longer-standing club with better living conditions and more legitimacy in various aspects.

However, after seeing DGE's living conditions, he immediately felt like H4 was nothing more than a peasant club.

DGE had a massage room and several additional meals for fuller nutrition each day!

Just one look, and he could tell how legitimate this place was. They probably had a nutritionist do up their training schedule!

Pang Ling could not understand some other details in the training schedule such as why they had to work out for two hours each day. However, if a professional had done up the training schedule, there must have been a deeper reason for it.

Pang Ling silently memorized the training schedule.

Now that he thought about it, there was a reason that they had lost the earlier mock competition. It was not because they were less talented… but because they were less scientific!

"It's time to eat! The take-out is here!" Zhang Yuan shouted from downstairs.

Huang Wang was almost done showing everyone the entire place. At once, he invited everyone back downstairs to eat.

Pang Ling heaved a long sigh and said to himself, "That's good. At least we can earn more points in terms of food."

Before this, H4 had ordered take-out as well. However, just two weeks ago, their boss decided that having take-out regularly would not be good for the members' health. As a result, they had just hired a cook for their meals.

Now, it looked like the DGE Club was still stuck at the take-out stage.

That meant H4 was leading in that aspect, and it had scored a win.

However, when Pang Ling got downstairs, he saw the rows of lunch boxes lined up in the cafeteria, and the exquisite, delicious, and flavorful dishes inside each of them. It was then that he realized a problem.

It was take-out, but it was very different from the kind that they had ordered…

After having a taste, Pang Ling felt that organizing a mock competition in the afternoon would be useless. They had already been attacked from all directions. He was now having a complete mental breakdown!

…

…

July 23rd, Saturday…

GOG and IOI's competitions were taking place on the same day!

One competition was being held in the east while the other was being held in the west, but both were in average-sized halls. The journey from one to the other would take more than half an hour.

Small halls would not be impressive enough, but large halls were difficult to rent and took longer to prepare. Thus, both organizing teams simultaneously chose the middle ground without prior discussion.

Although they chose halls of average size, the total amount of money they spent was anything but average. Needless to say, loads of money was spent on related facilities and advertising in the venues, so that they were beautifully done.

On top of that, both sides had also spent tons of money on marketing!

IOI, in particular, maniacally marketed the competition in games, websites, and other channels under the name of an 'international invitational tournament'. The posters of local and foreign players alike had garnered a lot of attention.

On the other hand, since GOG did not have locals and foreigners fighting head-to-head, it could not make a big issue out of the same thing. Instead, it had no choice but to depend on their huge player base.

In short, both organizing teams had done everything they could beforehand. What was left was to observe the results today.

At 1 PM, Pei Qian arrived at the site of IOI's international invitational tournament on time.

According to the schedule, there would be four games today, and the top four would be determined. Shang Yang Games had very intelligently arranged for a local team to go against a foreign team in every game. Obviously, they wanted to emphasize the confrontation between the Chinese and foreigners from the get-go, to attract as many viewers as possible.

Tickets for both competitions were priced so low that it was practically no different from giving them away. After all, neither side was aiming to earn money. They were only trying to get as much attention as possible.

Pei Qian had bought a ticket for a seat in the back row so that he could supervise the competition. He could only depend on the live-stream to observe how GOG was doing.

Tengda Games and Shang Yang Games had both prepared live streams without agreeing on it beforehand. What's more, they had done sufficient marketing for the live streams as well.

At the moment, the popularity of livestreaming was increasing at a rate that was visible to the naked eye.

If livestreaming had been 'on the up' two years ago before too much capital had been poured into the industry, then the figures for the livestreaming industry was looking different every single day now.

Moreover, livestreaming platforms were following Aili Island's model by including bullet screen comments, thus enhancing the viewing experience.

At the moment, competition between the two biggest live-streaming platforms—ZZ Livestream and Waiwai—was already getting heated. As more and more livestreaming platforms appeared, the competition would only get even more heated.

Pei Qian had thought about creating a live stream platform to burn more money as well, but he had to wait for the opportune moment.

It was still too early to enter the industry now. If he was not careful, he could accidentally monopolize the market. Then, he would be done for, wouldn't he?

Thus, Pei Qian wanted to wait for other live-streaming platforms to develop first. Once they took off and the industry became a sunset one where nothing could be gained, he would enter it. Only then would he be able to steadily incur losses, right?

Pei Qian had arrived just in time, but there were already so many people present that there were hardly any seats left.

That was to be expected. If the seats were empty, IOI would already lose out in terms of atmosphere. As a result, even if they had to hire actors, they had to ensure that the seats were filled.

Pei Qian accessed the live stream of GOG's competition using his cell phone, wanting to check how big the difference in popularity was.

Hmm… there was not much of a difference.

GOG's competition was slightly more popular, but IOI's was not bad as well.

Pei Qian was not sure if the numbers he was seeing were forged by the platform, but judging from the number of bullet screen comments, there was a significant number of people watching IOI's international invitational competition online.

A 'Sino-foreign confrontation' was very intriguing indeed.

Yes, it looked like the concept behind the competition was correct. IOI had hope of making a comeback!

Pei Qian could not help but celebrate inside. After all, he had thought of the idea himself.

There would be simple cosplay, as well as singing and dancing at the opening ceremony. After that, the teams would enter, introduce themselves, and warm up; the commentators would chat awkwardly, and then the games would begin.

The segments at the start were kept simple because most people were here to watch the competition. Singing and dancing could be used to balance out the event, but too much would cause the entire screen to fill with question marks.

Soon, the local and foreign teams started fighting. The two commentators were passionate and professional, and the audience was very supportive. From time to time, clapping and cheers would erupt.

Pei Qian observed the situation for a while before taking his phone out quietly.

The most embarrassing part was that he could not understand what was happening! That was because he hardly played IOI, and IOI released new heroes very quickly. Thus, Pei Qian did not recognize more than half of the heroes being used in the games.

At the same time, Pei Qian was very curious about how GOG was doing. Thus, he secretly checked their situation using his cell phone.

"I am definitely not surrendering to the enemy! My heart is still with IOI! I just want to check how badly GOG is failing."

Pei Qian found GOG's live stream platform on his cell phone and then clicked to access it.

The first games at both competitions were entering their most intense period. The situation was changing rapidly, and there was a barrage of bullet screen comments.

However, after reading the bullet screen comments, Pei Qian's entire body went cold.

That's not right…

Why weren't people discussing the competition itself, but trolling instead?

"GOG's competition is much better! It's so exciting!"

"That's right! There are all sorts of operations, traps, and teamwork, and their plays look very complete. Somehow, it looks different from 'professional rounds' in the game. Is this the strength of professional teams?"

"It's much better than IOI! There are only lousy teams fighting each other at IOI's competition!"

"Their battle skills are not even on the same level. I took a peek at IOI's competition as well. They say it's a 'Sino-foreign confrontation', but it looks no different from playing professional rounds with random people in the game. They're all in a state of disunity!"

"Exactly! I think I derive more joy from observing competitions in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe! The competition that took place at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Live Esports Museum's opening ceremony was much more interesting than this 'Sino-foreign confrontation'!"

"We should just stick to watching GOG. It's no fun watching lousy teams fight each other there."

With a bad feeling rising in his gut, Pei Qian quickly accessed IOI's live stream. It was strange to watch the live stream while he was at the competition venue, but Pei Qian could not care less by now.

There were much fewer bullet screen comments here than in GOG's live-stream.

"What are they doing…? Is this the standard of the 'Sino-foreign confrontation'?"

"Lousy teams fighting one another."

"Is this a ranked promotion for Silvers?"

"How boring. I'm leaving, I'm leaving."

"That's it? That's it? That's it? That's it?"

"What are you talking about? I think it's quite interesting."

"Hehe, I pity you for being a country bumpkin. Look at GOG's competition. See what real professional teams are like. See how exciting competitions are meant to be!"

Pei Qian was furious.

Where were those trolls coming from?! Don't be bewitched by them, everyone!

However, when he returned to the room list on the livestreaming platform, he noticed that the gap between both rooms was expanding rapidly!

GOG was getting more viewers, but IOI was losing theirs.

Pei Qian began to panic.

Everyone, don't do this! This is only the first 'best-of-three' match on the first day. Just wait and see before you run away!

"I have to stand on IOI's side without wavering."

"What? GOG's teams have chosen Ruan and Modest?"

"No way, I have to control myself. I'm on IOI's side!"

"I'll just take a look… that's alright, right?"

"…"

"Strange… GOG's competition does seem to be of higher standards. The games look more exciting here…"

Unable to hold back, Pei Qian began watching GOG's competition. The more he watched, the clearer the problem became.

Most viewers were not experts, but they could differentiate between lousy teams and incredible teams and determine each team's tactical standard fairly easily.

GOG and IOI were of the same genre. Of course, they could easily compare them.

How solid were the players' basic skills? Were there exciting operations like limiting counter-attacks? How good were the teams' strategies, and how well-coordinated were they?

How many amateur mistakes were there?

Were the team battles exciting…?

Viewers could determine the difference in standards of each competition based on those factors.

Now, GOG's competition was far better than IOI's, both in terms of competition standards and pleasurability. On top of that, GOG was more well-known than IOI. As a result, many people jumped ship mid-way after watching IOI's competition.

"What's going on?" Pei Qian scratched his head, not being able to comprehend the situation.

Veteran clubs had established teams for GOG and IOI at about the same time, right? Some clubs had even established their IOI teams a bit earlier.

Why were the competitions so different now?