Chapter 80: A livestream with over two million concurrent viewers

"This kid."

The staff member responsible for the official account was also hanging out in Su Xing's livestream. He couldn't help but laugh when he heard him tell the viewers to report the top-ranked player.

In truth, this was an impromptu decision from above.

Firstly, the people playing training matches with Su Xing tonight were all streamers without any negative baggage; secondly, the officials had realized that the popularity of the Old Man Cup was actually higher than that of the MSI tournament, so they had made some corresponding changes.

Furthermore, there was an even more important reason: following the retro lineups Su Xing and his team had chosen, the officials noticed that the number of online players had begun to skyrocket. It was one thing for popular servers like the First District to have queues, but even some of the backwater servers were starting to see them.

One must realize that it is 2024, not 2014. The number of League of Legends players has long since plummeted; even servers like the First District, Ionia, would only see login queues at specific times.

For instance, in the past, after LPL teams won the S8, S9, or S11 championships, such situations would occur. But now, without any events or other situational bonuses, the major servers were actually reaching full capacity.

Moreover, the officials discovered a very interesting phenomenon from the backend data: among the suddenly crowded servers, a large number of accounts were those that hadn't been active for several years.

This meant that Su Xing's livestream tonight had genuinely caused a large group of old players who had long since quit the game to start returning one after another. Even if these people were just on a whim to play a couple of games, it was an extremely rare phenomenon for the officials.

"Did the higher-ups ask me to send Su Xing another Treasure Map?"

The staff member glanced at the messages in his work group on his phone. Just as he was thinking about how to operate the gift-sending, the smile on his face gradually froze in the next second.

【System detected that this account's behavior has violated the Huya livestreaming platform's community guidelines. The ban period is ten years.】

"."

The moment he saw the ban notification, he felt like cursing. You guys report just because the streamer tells you to? And Huya, you want to rebel against the heavens, right? Does every report have to result in a ban?

Helpless, he could only pick up his phone and start contacting the Huya staff. This wasn't a big deal; a single phone call could get it unbanned, it was just... just a bit embarrassing.

"Still sending?"

The minion waves in the game had already started to refresh, but at this moment, Su Xing felt his game frame rate start to drop again. At the same time, a notification popped up that the League of Legends officials were sending him gifts again.

"Official big brother, please, stop sending."

Su Xing was somewhat helpless and explained, "There are too many people in the livestream. Every time you send a gift, hundreds of thousands of comments appear at the same time. My computer can't handle it. If someone who doesn't know better sees this, they'll think the streamer is downloading something in the background."

"Ah, the computer isn't good enough?"

Hearing this, Uzi chimed in, "I'll push Qingwa's WeChat to you in a bit; let him build you a top-tier computer."

"Sure, find Qingwa."

AJ laughed, "For a 30,000 configuration, he'll make at most 28,000 off you."

"Too many people..."

Su Xing was a bit troubled. The setup Gao Wen had arranged for him definitely wasn't bad; it was just that the number of people in the livestream tonight was simply too high. Usually, when he streamed playing LOL, he could stably lock at 240 FPS.

Now it was actually only 150, and every now and then it would drop to 120 and then return to 130. Such fluctuations in frame rate might be at most a bit uncomfortable for ordinary players, but for retired professional players like them, frequent frame drops were the most unbearable.

However, at this very moment, another Treasure Map notification appeared in the livestream, with the ID "Huya Qingwa" and a message attached.

"Gou Ye has spoken, arranging it immediately, free of charge!"

Su Xing:... It's over, the frame rate is jumping again.

It must be said that Qingwa really has a business mind. A Treasure Map is 5,000 yuan, and a computer configured for a professional player would cost at most 50,000 to 60,000, which is more than enough.

Spending this little money to run an advertisement in a livestream with over a million concurrent viewers—no matter how you calculate it, you won't lose.

Meanwhile, the staff at Huya were also working overtime to maintain the servers. Even though they were prepared, they hadn't expected the traffic Su Xing could attract to be this massive.

In the conference room, the once bustling crowd had dwindled to just five people: Guo Hao from TES, Lan Lianhua from JDG, Zuo Wu from LNG, Hou Lin, the manager of BLG, and Ai Xiao, the manager of AL.

The five of them weren't idle; while watching Su Xing's livestream, they were constantly lobbying their backing financial groups on WeChat to provide more funds so they could persuade Su Xing to return to the competitive scene.

Moreover, just a moment ago, the LPL officials had once again upgraded some preferential conditions. As long as they could sign Su Xing and get him back to the competitive scene, the league would cooperate by making more concessions.

There was no helping it; the traffic Su Xing carried was too terrifying. Just by choosing some retro, nostalgic heroes on stream, he could get a large number of players who had quit to log back in. Once he was persuaded to return to the competitive scene, the popularity of the Summer Split would be guaranteed.

Whether it was the LPL officials or the managers of the major teams, everyone knew that this situation was irreproducible. This was a rare opportunity; whoever could seize it would enjoy the huge benefits that came with it.

"I say, you two teams that already have mid-laners, why are you joining in the fun?"

Guo Hao, looking confident, put down his phone and looked at the BLG and LNG managers beside him. Recalling some friction he'd had with these two teams, he joked, "Can your clubs' salaries even afford Su Xing?"

"There's no rule saying a team can only have one mid-laner, right?"

Zuo Wu said indifferently, "You can't possibly say Belle Group is richer than Li-Ning Group, right? If you can afford it, we naturally can too."

"Indeed."

The BLG manager also seconded this, "Stop pretending, you guys can't sign him."

Lan Lianhua spoke calmly, "Let's not talk about how much money for now. Both of your teams' players have already hit the salary cap, right? I'm afraid that even if you could sign Su Xing, you wouldn't have the money to pay this luxury tax to the league, would you?"

Every team has a salary cap standard. Once the sum of the team's player salaries exceeds this standard line, an additional luxury tax must be paid.

Currently, BLG has two top-paid LPL players in the top and mid lanes, and the other three—jungle, support, and AD—aren't cheap either. Plus the coach's salary, they have almost reached the salary cap standard.

And LNG goes without saying: the mid-laner is a world champion, the AD is an MSI champion—these are all players signed on solid high salaries. Even the jungler was signed for a huge sum in the Spring Split. Added together, they also exceed the salary cap standard.

In this situation, if they wanted to sign Su Xing, they would inevitably have to pay a luxury tax, and it wouldn't be a small number. According to LPL rules, the luxury tax rate is 0.25-0.5.

For example, if these two teams spend 30 million to sign Su Xing while exceeding the salary cap, they would need to pay an additional 15 million in luxury tax.

And looking at this trend, 30 million might not even be enough to sign Su Xing. "It sounds like you don't have to pay it?"

Zuo Wu sneered and said, "AL is a bit better, but you two aren't any better off." "Don't talk nonsense, I don't have to pay."

Guo Hao spread his hands and smiled, "Yu Wenbo's contract goes through the Belle Group's process; what does that have to do with the Top Esports team?"

Zuo Wu:... Damn, forgot about that.

The fact that Yu Wenbo's salary can go through the Belle Group is actually exploiting a bug in the LPL, but the problem is the officials have no way to deal with it, so they can only turn a blind eye.

And according to Top Esports' habits, it's estimated that the contract to sign Su Xing would definitely go directly through the Belle Group's process. This means that no matter how high the price to sign Su Xing is, they wouldn't have to pay a single cent in luxury tax.

"Yeah, he could also go through the JDG Group's process."

Lan Lianhua commented sharply, "But can your LNG go through the Li-Ning process? You lost quite a bit terminating Tarzan's contract last year, right? Doesn't Li-Ning's top management care?"

"By the way, BLG is about the same, right?"

Guo Hao also started coordinating with Lan Lianhua, saying, "How come I heard Bilibili is even cutting livestreaming contracts? Is Ping An Bank preparing to withdraw capital? Can you really still afford the money to sign Su Xing?"

Everyone:... Fine, fine, fine. In the entire LPL, who doesn't know that you two clubs are wearing the same pair of pants? Singing in harmony to disgust people, right?

"Argue if you must, just don't start a fight."

Gao Wen, who was working overtime, also appropriately raised her head and said something to stir the pot. Otherwise, you guys are just hanging around with nothing to do, waiting for Su Xing to come over. I should have already gotten off work and be lying in bed watching Su Xing's livestream.

Time passed minute by minute.

Su Xing originally thought the number of people in the livestream would be a temporary peak value, but he didn't expect that the longer he streamed, the more people there would be. By the time he and Zitai reached the third game, the number of concurrent viewers had already soared to 2.4 million!

The key was that even at this time of eight or nine o'clock, this peak didn't drop but continued to rise. The situation of tens of thousands of comments appearing every minute made Su Xing feel like his computer was playing a slideshow.

"Can't do it, can't stream anymore. My computer is overheating."

Su Xing looked down at the host. He felt that if he went to the kitchen now and found an egg to put on top of it for a while, it would probably cook.

"Ah, not playing anymore?"

Uzi was a bit surprised, but then understood Su Xing's situation and said, "Then let's log off first. I guess you'll have plenty to be busy with tonight."

The fact that club managers were blocking the entrance to Huya waiting for Su Xing couldn't be hidden at all. Now, some marketing accounts on Weibo were starting to fabricate all sorts of news.

"Tomorrow, then."

Su Xing smiled and said, "It will be much better to get a new computer tomorrow."

He would go to Huya later and see if he could snag a better computer; presumably, Gao Wen wouldn't mind.

"OK, then let's talk tomorrow."

Just like that, Su Xing exited YY. After glancing at the concurrent viewers in his livestream, he sighed slightly.

He hadn't expected that one day his livestream viewers could break a million—no, now it was 2.5 million concurrent viewers. A livestream of this magnitude, if he learned to sell goods, he'd probably make 10 or 20 million in one night, right?

"Um... goodnight everyone. My computer is too laggy, I really can't stream, I have to log off first. I'll come back tomorrow."

Su Xing said calmly, "I can understand why everyone came here by reputation, but how should I put it? I appreciate everyone's kindness for coming to Huya to watch my stream today. There's no need for everyone to spend money to send me gifts. Yeah, that's it, goodnight everyone."

Although Su Xing had a lot he wanted to say at this moment, he thought about it and decided against it. Everyone was just here to join in the fun; maybe they'd disperse by tomorrow.

"Don't, streamer, logging off just like that?"

"Holy crap, a livestream with over two million concurrent viewers and you just log off? Big brother, at a time like this, you could casually ask for gifts and receive one or two million. You're just logging off?"

"Indeed, it's a bit hard to understand, but it's clear the streamer is a person with a bottom line. This must be praised."

"I saw on Weibo that marketing accounts are saying the streamer is preparing to go talk contracts with professional teams for a comeback? Is it real or fake? Is there any big shot in the livestream to explain?"

"It must be fake. With the streamer's current popularity, he can easily make tens of millions a year streaming. If he goes to Douyin and learns to sell goods, wouldn't he make one or two hundred million with his eyes closed?"

"Stop slandering. If the streamer wanted to make money, he could just ask for it. Why bother?"

"It's true. My uncle works at Tengjing. When we were eating just now, he said the higher-ups gave an order for major clubs to try their best to persuade Su Xing to return to the competitive scene."

"My family's dog knows the dog that guards the gate at Huya. It also said that Guo Hao is currently refusing to leave Huya, waiting for Su Xing to go over. Do you believe me or the marketing accounts?"

"Uh, that... is there a possibility that Guo Hao is really there right now? Huya employees have already leaked on Weibo that Guo Hao, Lan Lianhua, and Zuo Wu are all in the conference room."

"What?! Guo Hao really went? This is solid now. Who doesn't know that TES's Brother Hao has the 'money power'..."

"Don't slander. That's not money power; it's just that there's a gold mine under the TES club. Guo Hao goes to dig when he runs out of money, which is why they can sign so many people every season."

"Seriously, if the streamer goes to TES, then everyone here will really have a chance to see the birth of the strongest all-Chinese team in history."

"That... does 'strongest' refer to being shaved by G2? Where did you put BLG?"

"BLG, don't come to mooch. You are the strongest all-Chinese team I've ever heard of, even the peak RNG couldn't compare, so don't come to touch porcelain with TES. Do you understand the gold content of three world championships?"

"I suspect you're a troll, but I have no evidence."

After Su Xing logged off, he didn't notice that a large group of people were still arguing in his livestream. At this time, he had already changed his clothes and was preparing to go out and hail a taxi to the place where the Huya company was located.

Gao Wen indicated she wanted to send someone to pick him up, but Su Xing politely declined. It was just a taxi ride; no need to be so troublesome.

"Taking a taxi is really convenient now."

Before long, Su Xing arrived downstairs at Huya's branch in Hai Cheng. He looked up at the building, which was still brightly lit, and sighed that nothing is easy to do nowadays. It was already past ten o'clock, and the people in the whole building hadn't gotten off work yet.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 81 =====