Chapter 314: The Turning of History

The heat of related entries about G2's championship on Twitter is still surging.

Originally, LOL's popularity on Western networks was far inferior to Dota, but this wave of G2's championship win was truly legendary, bringing an unparalleled thrill to European LOL players.

Loyal and fervent G2 fans—actually, from this day onward, all Western LOL players could be called G2 fans, even the fans of the arch-rival TSM now had dual fan status—flooded the entire Western internet with posts.

The breakout effect was extremely terrifying; this wave of storm even spread to the financial circle.

The next day, Hong Kong-listed TX's stock hit the limit-up within five minutes of opening; after the restriction was lifted, it hit limit-up again, then gradually retreated, and by closing, the final gain stabilized at 13%.

This is a very terrifying thing.

You should know, a company of TX's size normally doesn't see large stock price fluctuations; the average daily volatility is only around 3%.

But today it jumped 13% straight up—utterly fantastical!

Of this 13%, LOL players probably contributed little; it mainly came from capital's optimistic assessment of LOL's development momentum, with TX, as the wholly owned parent of Riot Games, also benefiting.

This year, the global number of LOL players had swollen considerably, though the main contribution still came from domestic servers; the surge in domestic player numbers drove the total increase, while the European and American servers also grew, but by far less compared to the domestic ones.

But G2 rewrote history.

At this year's MSI, G2's embarrassing blunder was already quite a breakout; thus, when ordinary people learned that G2 had entered the S6 World Championship, they instinctively felt G2 had no chance, even secretly mocking: 'What a disgrace to Europe!'

But who would have thought? Once G2 entered the World Championship, it was like leveling up and defeating monsters!

Quarterfinals, semifinals, final!

The storm kicked up by G2 surged forward in waves!

By now, G2 had perfectly walked a legendary path!

When the news of G2's championship completely broke out, ordinary people took one look and thought, 'Holy shit, that's amazing?' Their hearts filled with surprise and shock, sparking curiosity about related matters.

Once curiosity arises, what happens next can be predicted:

How exactly did this happen?

How did they win the championship?

Go watch the match.

Oh no, what to do if I can't understand it!

But these highlights are super fun, played in a flashy, dazzling way—really interesting!

Especially that bald monk, who kicked several opponents into the air with one kick!

Hey, Eastern guy, you're pretty handsome!

And the dual-wielding one—fires a barrage of shots in the blink of an eye, BiuBiuBiu, rat-tat-tat! Holy shit, so cool!

This player is also quite handsome, with clear eyebrows and eyes, and even plays guitar—has a bit of an artistic youth vibe; I didn't expect wielding guns to be this violent, hehehe……

This game seems kind of fun—come on, let's give it a try!

LOL, launch!

……Omitted is a 10,000-word story of getting beaten after jumping in……

In short, tap water comes about like this.

Without a doubt, in the next one or two months, the number of European and American League of Legends players will surge dramatically; under the impetus of the European and American big brothers, some small regions and countries will naturally also be swept up by this wave, including the Middle East, Australia, Southeast Asia, and so on……

Simply put, G2's championship won't greatly affect LCK's popularity, but it subtly makes players in other regions satisfied, thereby directly boosting LOL's global popularity.

Riot Games had foresight, so they awarded the FMVP to Perkz.

Because Riot Games had foreseen that the two mid laners would eventually leave G2; if they had given the FMVP to Liang Yan, then when he departed the EU region to return to the LPL, Western fans' enthusiasm would inevitably be dampened, possibly affecting this surge of LOL.

Giving the FMVP to Perkz was much better.

This amounts to erecting a new banner for Western fans, which can reduce the impact of Liang Yan's departure and avoid major upheaval. Although some veteran players who understand the game might feel pain, compared to that it would indeed be much lighter.

Moreover, most of the new players brought in by this wave have never watched the World Championship; many only know that the FMVP is Perkz, and naturally regard him as their idol.

The heat that G2's championship brings to the Western world can be sustained.

Put bluntly, it's all business.

Liang Yan, being a veteran, can easily understand why Riot Games did this.

And there is no objection.

Because players and the game are interdependent.

The higher the game's popularity, the greater the match excitement, the better the player treatment, the harder they fight in matches, the more enjoyable the matches become, and the game's popularity rises…… This is a virtuous cycle.

But the world line that Liang Yan has experienced is a vicious cycle.

In that timeline, SKT won the championship, Faker achieved double crown and ascended to godhood, SKT built a three-peat dynasty, further solidifying LCK's dominance. The LPL region saw no hope, players began to leak out, and by 2016 the global LOL player count had essentially peaked.

You should know, domestic players account for half of the global player base; with such a massive player foundation, when domestic players start to leak out, domestic popularity noticeably drops, and the impact on LOL worldwide becomes plainly visible.

At that time, the parent company TX also had foresight; shortly after SKT's championship, they had Riot Games announce that S7 would be held in China, and simultaneously disclosed the specific venue.

From Wu Han to Guangzhou to Shanghai, and finally to the capital's Bird's Nest, the city tier rose step by step with the intensity of the S7 Global Finals battles; plus, TX jointly with the host cities' officials launched vigorous promotion, and the higher-ups also had the idea of using this east wind to pull up the esports industry—thus the General Administration of Sport of China stepped in, giving Riot Games' publicity stronger support—how intense the S7 pre-event publicity was, locals of the host cities should still remember it to this day.

S7 pre-event publicity

Objectively speaking, Riot Games' direction in 2017 was correct.

Back then, if any final had featured an LPL team, after S7 the popularity of LOL would absolutely not continue to decline, but instead would welcome a new peak.

As it turned out, no one expected that LPL would encounter a Waterloo in S7, with two Korean teams meeting at the National Stadium……

This match completely shattered the backbone of domestic players' hearts; instantly their morale vanished, they didn't want to play the game, didn't enjoy watching matches, and couldn't muster enthusiasm for anything.

From that day on, domestic LOL popularity plummeted; countless domestic players uninstalled the game, triggering a massive wave of quitting, with uninstall screenshots flying everywhere, and the event quickly broke out.

When domestic ordinary people found out, they exclaimed, 'Damn, what a disgrace!'—the championship of this game's matches was completely monopolized by Mu Fengzi; play a treasure!

Newcomers didn't want to join, veterans gradually leaked out, the capacity to replenish was gone, and the number of domestic LOL players began to decline year by year.

Those who remained often had their knees broken and were forced to kneel, becoming whatever the LCK's remote farming…… In every World Championship, it was SKT invincible, Faker invincible, LCK supreme.

Looking at it with Liang Yan's veteran eye, it's easy to see:

S6, S7, are the falling phoenix slope of LOL, and moreover the doom of the LPL.

From then on, although lol still year after year dominates the domestic online game popularity throne, in reality it's merely because a dead skinny camel is bigger than a horse; what latercomers see is nothing more than the ruins left by a prehistoric super civilization.

So, Liang Yan clearly has no fondness for the LPL, yet why must they return? Precisely because they once felt that pain, and now they have this ability, they wish to guard the backbone in the hearts of domestic server players.

Since we are Chinese, what difference does it make which region we play in?

In theory, that's correct.

But the slogan that the officials put out back then was:

Go, China team!

Liang Yan certainly doesn't want to sit in the Bird's Nest player's seat and be scolded hj.