Chapter 392: Good Riddance, Don't See You Off

In mid-October, besides the huge hit of "Dad Where Are We Going," the Golden Horse Awards also announced its nomination list, and Yutu Film's "The Partner" received multiple nominations.

"Now You See Me" also received multiple nominations, and Liu Tianxian was once again nominated for Best Actress.

This is her third Best Actress nomination.

It seemed like she was pulled in just to make up the numbers, because the nominations required five films, and there weren't many good ones this year.

But there was one masterpiece: "The Grandmaster."

Even so, being nominated was already enough to make Liu Tianxian very happy, and she immediately reported the good news to her mother.

Liu Tianxian ran to the kitchen: "Mom, I've been nominated for the Golden Horse Best Actress again — again — again."

"Why do you say 'again again again'?" Liu Xiaoli was washing dishes and didn't even turn her head.

"Because this is my third nomination!" Liu Tianxian held up three fingers.

"Probably 'again again again' you won't get it." Liu Xiaoli poured cold water on her, and she said it in a rather funny way.

"Why say that? What if I win?" Liu Tianxian was unhappy.

"If you win, I'll call you Mom." Liu Xiaoli said casually.

Knowing that her daughter winning an award was a difficult thing — partly because of her status, partly because of her professional ability.

"You said that?" Liu Tianxian confirmed.

"I said it, but don't come to me with those filler awards to fool me. As long as you win an award, let alone the Golden Horse, any Class A award — whatever you say goes." In front of her daughter, Liu Xiaoli was just like a girl who never grew up.

But this was also encouraging Liu Tianxian to move forward.

"I will definitely win an award."

Liu Tianxian first said it with certainty, then hugged her mother from behind, rested her chin on her mother's shoulder, and said sweetly: "But even if I win an award, how could I bear to have you call me Mom? You'll always be my Mom."

"Don't say all that useless stuff, win it first then talk." Liu Xiaoli turned her head and bumped her daughter's head with hers.

The mother-daughter pair got along quite well.

Liu Xiaoli asked: "Hey, when are you going to Hubei with Xiao Hong?"

"In about two months, I guess." Liu Tianxian said.

"Another two months? You're deliberately dragging him out, aren't you." Liu Xiaoli said.

"Not at all, you can't blame me for this. Fang Hong is very busy — he has to handle company matters, prepare for the film shoot, and has been invited to attend the China Economic Annual Summit;

My "Four Great Constables 2" is also about to be released, so I have to do a good job on the Propaganda Department work for them, attend the Golden Horse Awards ceremony, the Macau ceremony, Weibo and all kinds of other events, and also attend the red carpet event held by Vogue fashion magazine."

Liu Tianxian added: "How can we go to Hubei before we finish all these arrangements?"

"You two just stay busy. Anyway, if you're not in a hurry, I'm not in a hurry either. I'd be happy if you never got married." Liu Xiaoli put the washed dishes away.

"Who says I'm not in a hurry? I'm very much in a hurry. I can't wait to get married right now and become a wife." Liu Tianxian said shamelessly.

"."

Time passed quickly. On October 15th, "Hero Glory" finally welcomed its Global Grand Finals.

This edition of the Global Grand Finals broke a new record in viewership, reaching 32 million people, refreshing last year's record — four times the audience of last year's Grand Finals.

And the 32 million was the total viewership across all matches; the concurrent viewership was 8.5 million.

It can be said that this year was the year esports grand events opened up, and also the year Swan Castle pushed "Hero Glory" onto the international stage.

At the Las Vegas Grand Finals venue, people of all colors who had come to watch the match cheered — black, white, yellow, and those who were neither black, nor white, nor yellow.

Some of them had team logos tattooed on their faces; even the smooth cheeks of little white girls had logos tattooed on them.

Some held up banners, cheering on the teams they supported.

On the big screen, the Korean team SKT and the Chinese team Royal RYL were in an intense battle.

Korean team SKT's mid-laner Faker was at the height of his powers; his appearance made the Chinese team Royal RYL pale in comparison, and he ultimately defeated Royal with an absolute 3-0 advantage to take the championship.

The moment the championship was born, streamers flew across the entire venue, the audience in the stands all stood up, and thunderous cheers immediately erupted; some people hugged each other in excitement.

The scene was one of fervent jubilation, very much in an uproar.

This match was the beginning of Faker's legendary path, and also the first world championship of his career.

Of course, this match had far-reaching influence. While having extremely high popularity on the internet, it also made "Anti-Korean" a hot topic.

"Anti-Korean!"

"Anti-Korean!"

"Anti-Korean!"

This became the obsession of all-Chinese-roster esports players, and also ignited the fighting spirit of all Chinese esports people.

It also caused the LPL China "Hero Glory" Pro League, established just a few months ago, to rapidly grow strong.

LCK Korea Pro League; LEC Ouzhou Pro League; LCS North America Pro League; VCS Vietnam Pro League, etc., were successively established this year or last year.

Those that hadn't been established were also preparing to be established.

"Hero Glory" continued to gain global popularity, reaching its peak, and Swan Castle took the opportunity to announce the championship Skin.

The official "Swan Castle" posted on Twitter to express congratulations: "Congratulations to SKT on winning the championship. The 'Hero Glory' championship Skin will be distributed free to all players."

At the same time, they posted the same message on domestic Weibo; if they hadn't, people would have accused them of differential treatment.

Some people are especially sensitive about this kind of thing!

Swan Castle is the official operator of "Hero Glory," and this was the first time facing the player community.

The "Swan Castle" logo is an image of a beauty holding her head high, displaying the perfect curve of a "swan's" neck.

It's not a real photo, but a drawn curve illustration.

This beauty strongly resembles Liu Tianxian, and this neck strongly resembles Liu Tianxian's neck.

Liu Tianxian's fans all knew what it meant, but overseas players didn't care about this and couldn't understand it. They only knew that "Hero Glory"'s act of distributing championship Skin to global players deserved their collective thumbs-up.

"Very good!"

"Oishi!"

"Nice!"

"."

Twitter has all kinds of languages.

This is the first time Hero Glory has fully released skins globally; last year they didn't release any.

Of course, only the signature heroes of a few champions, like Jie, who shone brightly under Aker, got skins—only Jie's skins, no other heroes.

This boosted the game's popularity while also giving the champion team a sense of honor and commemorative value.

As soon as you log in, you can see their champion skins.

Unlike in the past life's Honor of Kings, where you had to pay to buy them—those who didn't buy couldn't see them at all.

This release of champion skins gave Hero Glory tremendous popularity, and online rates surged again.

Swan Castle spokesperson announced: "Hero Glory's global concurrent online users exceeded 7.5 million, daily active users reached 27 million, and monthly active users hit 67 million, marking Hero Glory as the world's number one game."

The moment the news broke, it ignited the global gaming circle—Hero Glory could no longer be stopped, sweeping across the globe.

The game's sustained popularity attracted two global partners: Mercedes-Benz and OPPO!

This news was also made public.

The sponsorship fee was fifty million per year; they directly collected one hundred million—it was the companies that came to them, simply because esports had so many young people, and these brands needed youth.

If they took on a few more sponsors, they could earn hundreds of millions per year just lying down.

There were also special cooperative partners; you could say this esports event allowed Chang'e Technology to recover all its costs.

Of course, this income came from the esports event—they sponsored, meaning next year, when organizing matches in various regional leagues, their logos must be displayed.

Online, someone said: "Hero Glory is a Chinese game—why let foreigners participate? Let foreigners win the championship?"

"Open your eyes, kid! To you this is a game; to us it's esports!"

"We finally have a domestic game foreigners love—yet you people want to confine it to just your little patch of land? How cheap!"

"Jealousy makes people lose their minds."

Someone else said: "This game looks like Honor of Kings—why doesn't anyone play Honor of Kings?"

"Game downloads are speed-limited—you need Blue Diamond!"

"Never mind whether the game is fun or not—how can a company that restricts its own game's downloads still have a market? It's bizarre."

Tencent's downloader currently limits downloads—you need Blue Diamond to remove restrictions.

Even downloading their own games works this way—it's absurd.

But this is very Tencent—later, when all logins required phone numbers, they wouldn't even pay for SMS fees—they made you send the SMS yourself.

Many players have probably experienced this.

Another netizen gave the real answer: "Honor of Kings was optimized terribly by Tencent—it constantly lagged and spun circles, clearly not intended for proper operation."

"Skins are too expensive, bring zero revenue, just make you experience the game—unlike Hero Glory, where you need skins for ranked matches and heroes for matchmaking, giving you motivation."

"Honor of Kings changes too frequently—when it loses popularity, they constantly tweak items; if you don't log in for three or four months, you feel alienated."

But Hero Glory is different—it changes slowly, bit by bit; even when changes happen, they add one thing and remove another, giving players enough time to adapt."

"In short, a garbage game—the official does nothing."

"."

Online, there wasn't just discussion about this Grand Finals, but also about why Hero Glory became so popular.

It's still the same old saying: treat players like humans—that's all, no fancy tricks.

Hero Glory's sustained popularity made Tencent and Riot envious—they sued the game in court.

They accused it of plagiarism—not in gameplay, but in hero design, such as early heroes like Frost Archer and The Promise Sword Saint, which were somewhat similar.

Gameplay-wise, Honor of Kings also copied others—they couldn't sue over that, so they sued only over hero design, specifically the few heroes from before Fang Hong's rebirth.

This sparked media attention and heated player discussion.

"This clearly looks like free-riding on hype—who still pays attention to Honor of Kings?!"

"Yeah, those heroes do look pretty similar."

"Tencent itself copies—yet sues others for copying? What a trash company."

"It's normal for this kind of game to have similarities—play whichever one is fun."

"."

After being sued, Swan Castle ignored them entirely, choosing silence—they'd just respond in court when the day came.

Worst case, they'd remove a few heroes and publicly claim they were remade.

Swan Castle already has a dedicated design team—the Honor of Kings design team—and they can design different heroes easily.

Ignoring them is simple—Hero Glory is hot right now; responding would drag them down to the same level as the opponent.

It would give them a chance to ride the hype—not worth it.

If possible, Fang Hong would just tell them: "Die already!"

(End of Chapter)