Chapter 268: Smile for Me, Bro

The match went on, we got swept in one go, won, no suspense at all!

This disappointed the Chinese audience, way too weak!

There are no bullet comments yet, but there's a comment section, and the comment section is full of people cursing "noob"!

Those few players saw themselves getting cursed, and their faces went dark too.

If you don't play well, you have to let the audience vent — otherwise, what are you here for? It's all for the audience to watch.

Cloud players are like that.

The current Chinese teams are indeed pretty weak, unlike European and American players who have grown up playing Dota and Warcraft, with much richer gaming exposure.

Many Chinese players don't actually have much time to play games; many still sneak around to do it.

Games are still taboo after all, and don't have the great environment of later Black Myth, with the mainstream jumping in to promote it.

Right now, criticism is still the dominant voice.

The matches ran from morning to night, the battles were intense, but the number of viewers watching the livestream hovered only around three or four hundred thousand, with no significant increase.

It's like that when it's not the finals.

However, Fang Hong had people cut up the highlights of the livestream event and post them on various video platforms, continuously building hype, paying them to build hype.

Things like so-and-so's classic comeback kill, so-and-so's god-tier play — these kinds of highlight moments.

This not only draws attention to Hero Glory, but also creates "gods" — raising the personal fame of the players.

Letting them earn money through sponsorships and ads, and also through merchandise and fan economy.

Individuals can also earn money through livestream income!

Including the Hero Glory client announcing their names and IDs, letting them get as popular as possible.

This is the supporting process for the event — only by building up the players' fame and letting them monetize and earn money can more teams be attracted, letting more people join in. This is the celebrity effect.

For example, although Ruofeng, Changzhang and these others lost, didn't even make the quarterfinals, after the matches they found their fame had risen.

There's also the media interview segment. When Zhou Hao of the we team was interviewed by reporters, he said:

"It's a pity we didn't do our job well enough, which led we through a sad process. If we had been fully prepared, we would have won the championship."

Other team members also took turns being interviewed, which made them quite flattered, with bewildered looks on their youthful faces.

Including Li Min, the person in charge of this event, who also told reporters: "we is a very excellent team. With more practice, they will win the championship."

The continuous hype-building, although they lost, gave this team enough exposure.

This made we even more confident to come back next year!

Honor in defeat, after all — there are only two Chinese teams, if you don't build them up, who will you build up?

Yutu has a complete marketing team, all trained up before, and of course the marketing money comes from the gaming department.

ig, in the Group Stage, advanced to the quarterfinals as second place, and was ultimately eliminated in the Group Stage round of 8 to 4, stopping at the quarterfinals.

Same routine as before — continuous hype-building, creating hot topics. For example, pdd shows signs of blowing up.

Xiao Wang also posted on Weibo: "You worked hard!"

Fang Hong didn't show favoritism just because of Xiao Wang's cocky attitude toward him? He treated everyone equally.

To do this game well, you can't let personal feelings get in the way — you have to broaden the perspective, help them build up their team brand, and make it an asset.

In the previous life, in the esports field, esports wasn't built up by Tencent. For esports to rise, Xiao Wang is a figure you can't get around — he put in a lot of effort.

He established Pusi Investment, acquired the then top-tier domestic club ccm, and formed the ig club.

The top-tier ccm at the time couldn't even pay salaries — Xiao Wang brought a sack of cash and put it in front of those players.

Ten thousand per person in salary — ten thousand was a very high income at that time.

After raising the pay, he also set up a marketing and packaging team, responsible for players' endorsements, matches, offline exposure, and commercial performances, pulling up the salary level of the entire industry.

This was at a time when clubs were falling apart and sponsors had no interest in esports.

It can be said Xiao Wang's contribution to esports development is undeniable.

He also, to address the chaos of player transfers and trades within the esports circle, established the ACE Alliance — that is, the China Esports Club Alliance.

This organization is responsible for the registration, management, transfers, event supervision, and many other aspects of domestic professional esports teams.

It also issued regulations on the management of professional league participating clubs, professional players' personal conduct codes, and many other rules.

Although this alliance didn't have much authority, it did keep the entire esports industry in line for a time, regulated it for a time.

With this man's influence, later on, the various rich second-generation kids also poured into the esports field one after another.

It's just that all the effort ended up for nothing — later the peaches were plucked by Tencent.

Fang Hong isn't plucking his peaches for now, and instead is adding fuel to the fire, only because the esports circle really does need someone like this to give it a boost. The matches kept going on, and Liu Tianxian found watching them quite interesting — she usually watches Fang Hong play too, and plays alongside him.

She felt the game she played and the one the pros played were completely two different games — in over ten minutes, the total deaths on both sides were only a handful.

One match drags on forever, cautious and careful, half the time they can't even start a fight.

When they play games, they're dying to rush in and kill, completely ignoring awareness or not — someone shows up, just go.

In over ten minutes, both sides rack up dozens of kills.

Watching the match gives you the illusion that you know how this game should be played.

"Hey, I know how this game should be played now."

Liu Tianxian placed her hand on Fang Hong's shoulder, leaned her little head close, with a smile on her face.

The two had just finished watching the match and were by the Huangpu River.

It was late at night, the high-rises on both sides of the river were still flickering with lights, providing some illumination for the riverbank, but it was still quite dim — people looked hazy and indistinct.

You could only see rough outlines; you had to be close to make out a person clearly.

Fang Hong wore a trench coat, hands tucked into his coat pockets, leaning back against the railing.

The weather on an October evening was still quite cool. Liu Tianxian wore a leather jacket, looking quite edgy.

"How to play?" Fang Hong tilted his head slightly, looking at Liu Tianxian right by his shoulder.

"It's all about the back-and-forth. You come, I run; you run, I chase. The moment you slip up, I'll rush in and kill you." Liu Tianxian said with great enthusiasm.

"The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy retreats, we chase; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we strike. Isn't that how it goes?" Fang Hong said.

"Right, that summary of yours is spot on." Liu Tianxian shifted her posture, leaning sideways against the railing.

"When you're chasing, aren't you afraid of an ambush, someone hiding in the bushes waiting for you?" Fang Hong looked at her, brushed a strand of hair from her face—the wind by the river was quite strong.

"So you have to be careful, always keep track of where the enemy is." Liu Tianxian began discussing tactics.

"When you're watching from the sidelines, you think 'I could do that too.' But once you actually try it, it's a whole different story—noob is still noob." Fang Hong needled her.

Liu Tianxian was not pleased: "So what if I'm a noob? I'm a noob and I'm learning!"

"Yes, yes, yes." Fang Hong nodded in agreement.

"It's not like you—clearly you're no good yourself, yet you always blame me." Liu Tianxian said.

"I'm no good? You're a noob and you won't even let people say it?" Fang Hong couldn't stand her saying he was no good.

"Did I ask you to let me? Every time I haven't even gotten ready yet, and you've already gone in."

"If I wait for you to get ready, the chance will be gone."

"Fine then, you look down on me being a noob, so next time don't come find me to play. Go play by yourself." Liu Tianxian waved a hand, unhappy.

The two had been talking nicely, and now they were bickering again.

Usually when the two had nothing to do, they would play games, and it was generally Fang Hong who invited her.

"Look at you, getting mad again just from talking. How could I do without you? Without you as the foil, my skill level wouldn't show, right?" Fang Hong put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her.

"So basically you're using me as a negative foil, huh? Then from now on I won't play, and you're not allowed to play either." Liu Tianxian was unhappy, turning her head to the side.

What he had just meant was that it was only by contrast with her being a noob that his own skill looked good; without her, there'd be nothing to set it off.

Being told he couldn't play, Fang Hong instantly felt there was no fun left. He coaxed: "Aiya, don't be mad, I was just kidding with you."

Having said that, he used one hand to turn Liu Tianxian's head back toward him, teasing: "Look at you, your little mouth is pouting again. That doesn't look good at all."

"If it doesn't look good then it looks good—who asked you to look?" Liu Tianxian kept a straight face.

"Muah! Muah!"

Fang Hong kissed her twice in a row. Seeing her expression soften slightly, he went "muah muah" and kissed her seven or eight more times, watching her hazy face.

"Give Brother a smile."

"Hee hee hee!" Liu Tianxian bared a row of teeth, smiling very affectedly, and giggled: "How's your little sister's smile?"

"Your smile isn't good enough, you need more practice." Fang Hong shook his head deliberately.

Liu Tianxian lightly patted his head.

The two walked hand in hand along the riverbank; the gentle river breeze blew across Liu Tianxian's face, very pleasant.

"It's been so long since I felt a breeze like this. So nice!"

(End of chapter)