Full-time: Starting from Ye Xiu vs. Faker

Chapter 449: Blue Rain's Path to Expansion (Part )
That day, the cheerful children and the cheerful Blue Rain executives met each with their bonuses, which should have been a happy occasion for everyone.

As a result, after about half an hour, both sides left with redness on their faces.

Winning the world championship is such an honorable event that Blue Rain naturally attaches great importance to.

Needless to say, there was a lot of external publicity. For the meeting with Zeng Zhuojun alone, it was Blue Rain's general manager who personally went to greet him.

But what’s funny is that Manager Lan Yu is only in his thirties, looks relatively young, and wears glasses.

When he and another kid of the same age of 34 or 35 stood there, it was hard to tell who was the manager and who was the player.

As soon as the two parties met, the manager held the kid's hand and praised him, saying that he was worthy of being a legend in fighting games and that he had given the club such a big surprise right from the start. He said that the club was lucky to have him, and so on.

The kid quickly waved his hands, saying that his victory was also due to the good environment and training provided by the club, even though he had never stayed at Blue Rain's training base for even a day before today.

Originally this tactical exchange of flattery was going quite well, and it seemed that it would continue with great pleasure for both the host and the guests.

As a result, halfway through the conversation, I don’t know if the child let down his guard or what, he suddenly sighed:
"To be honest, this year is a very good year. There are high-prize tournaments to participate in right from the start. The club should not lose money this year."

The manager was feeling happy when he suddenly heard the kid talking about losing money. At first he thought there might be some news about a new competition system in the Street Fighter project that was disadvantageous to the club. The kid, as a top player, heard the news first.

So without thinking too much, he immediately went to ask the child for advice, while at the same time wondering whether he should go back immediately to hold a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

When the child saw his look, he thought he was a sucker and finally realized that he had wasted his money.

However, Tencent Esports' generosity in prize money made him more confident about his own and the industry's future.

He felt that with such a strong support, the future of the fighting game circle might not be comparable to those monster games, but at least the circle would be better than before.

In this case, it doesn't seem like a good idea to keep making people waste money.

So he honestly told his manager the general income situation of the original fighting game circle.

Then the manager blushed.

No, are we in Blue Rain that shabby?
Use 1.5 million to buy out a world champion's prize money for one year?

What kind of extremely poor club would do such a rotten job?
Ever since the kid won a championship for Blue Rain right from the start, the attitude towards him within Blue Rain has changed to:

As long as he is still willing to use Blue Rain's name, it doesn't matter if he spends a little more money.

Blue Rain, which is now collecting various sponsorships every day, is not short of money at all, but lacks results. The more the better.

Zeng Zhuojun is a super player who can consistently bring championship-level honors to the club without spending much money or effort. In Blue Rain's view, it is worth spending any amount of money to sign him.

As for economic benefits, will the projects that Tenghai is optimistic about be short of money in the future?
There’s no need to think about the future. After the kid won the championship this time, several gaming peripheral companies immediately approached Blue Rain for sponsorship with their new generation of hitboxes tailor-made for Street Fighter.

Of this money alone, the portion given to Blue Rain is almost enough to cover the kid's salary.

So the manager got angry, at least on the surface.

He realized that now was the best time to give the fighting game community a little Blue Rain shock.

So he angrily scolded the kid for not trusting Blue Rain's magnanimity and sincerity, and at the same time, he waved his hand and increased the bonus the club would give the kid for winning the championship from 200,000 to 500,000.

I spent an extra three hundred thousand dollars, which is about two million. In the glory era, it was enough to buy a second-tier character or player, but it was not enough to buy an All-Star.
In LPL, you can buy a starting player for a playoff-level team, or the core of a bottom-ranked team.

And in the fighting circle, it is enough to shock all professional fighting players, including the GOAT in front of them.

So, that day the kid came happily with $100,000, and left confusedly with $600,000 and a new contract that was much more than the $1.5 million contract that he was already very satisfied with.

He started the show that night with a confused look on his face, and was then overwhelmed by a large group of jubilant Blue Rain fans.

Blue Rain's die-hard fans have never seen such a fierce player. The home team's Huang Shaoyu is still trying his best to win his first world championship.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties came here and brought back the championship with ease.

And because of the invitational tournament's format and influence, basically all the famous and capable fighting game masters in the world are present.
The value of this championship, ignoring the differences between games, is even higher than those of the individual race championships won by Comrade Xiao Shiqin next door.

Previously, Blue Rain fans had been arguing online, and because they did not have many champions, they were always suppressed by Fanhua fans.

Even if Blue Rain won the LPL championship, they would still not be able to stand up to the world champion Fanhua.

I thought that I could only be proud of myself after Blue Rain won the S Championship.

And now suddenly he won the championship for free?

As many temple fans celebrated together, the already good impression on children suddenly became even better.

Even the fat boy's belly began to look pleasing to the eye.

Uncle, you helped us Blue Rain win the championship, and I have no way to repay you. I heard that you guys in the fighting circle aren't very well off financially?

Then the gold coins will be exploded and that’s it!

It’s a pity that the old fans in the fighting circle originally belonged to the kid. They were very happy to see the kid win the championship. They think that the kid is really a role model for our generation as he is still in good shape and can win the championship at this age.

So we discussed and gathered some gifts, ready to add icing on the cake when Director Kid’s show starts, and have fun together with Director Kid.

As a result, as soon as I came in, before I could give out the gifts in my hands, I saw a group of fanatical Blue Rain fans coming in and extorting gold coins.

The explosion made the little gift in my hand look so shabby.

Fortunately, the coach himself was as confused as they were, and the Blue Rain fans were new to the place and had no idea that the coach's place could host sponsored matches.

In the end, the poor buddy used the money he had originally saved for gifts to play a sponsored match, and successfully attracted several world-class masters, including the child guide, to play a few five-game series. This was considered a smooth ending.

Then, Xianyu Live’s new big contract arrived, albeit late.

So, within these few short weeks, everyone in the fighting circle witnessed, as if they were looking at a god, the kid's leap from being already awesome to becoming even more awesome than they could have ever imagined.

What followed was the rise of the entire fighting circle.

The first step is to recruit new members.

Fighting games are something that have a high threshold for playing but a low threshold for watching.

Just like the game halls back then, you might not understand what they were doing, what they were doing, or what increasing or decreasing frames meant, but you could still have fun just by watching the fun.

After watching this, many people will naturally think, "I can do this too," and go out to buy a game to try it out. However, this Street Fighter game has a "Modern Mode" specifically designed to cater to the experience of new players.

To put it simply, it is to use simplified versions of the operation, such as one-click dragon rise, one-click CA, etc., to lower the entry threshold for novices, so that even if they don’t know much about the moves, they can still use very gorgeous moves.

The price is that the damage of CA three-qi is reduced by 25%, and some specific moves are no longer available.

Although many veterans in the fighting circle are quite dissatisfied with this model, they believe that it tramples on the techniques that old players have practiced for many years.

But it turns out that with the modern mode, the probability of those players who play on a whim being transformed into real fighting game players has greatly increased.

The ladder soon had a large number of Jamie brothers who were obsessed with drinking, Shu Ting and Gu Liezi who were squatting without any flaws, and the gi system that was obsessed with Shenglong...

All in all, the old Dengs had a lot more small fries to fish out.

The fighting circle has ushered in another prosperous scene after a long absence.

Then there is the circle of professional players, where if one person succeeds, everyone else will benefit.

This merger of Blue Rain and the kid was very subtle.

The professional players watched as the kid went from a salary of 1.5 million to a championship bonus of 100,000 and an astonishing 500,000 club bonus in just a few days.

Then there are large rewards for the live broadcast room and new live broadcast contracts.

The income the kid earned in these few days could probably equal half of his career.

This is still a child, a man standing at the top of KOF and Street Fighter.

The prize money earned by other ordinary players would probably be hard to catch up with the kid's salary of 1.5 million even if they spent their entire lives.

Now, the players in the fighting circle, who had no feelings about the "entry of old clubs" in the first place and even made fun of it, welcomed the club's entry with all their heart and wanted to call it their daddy on the spot.

The club was also envious and jealous, but the target was Blue Rain.

The club's way of thinking on this matter is completely different from that of ordinary players.

What ordinary players see is that the Blue Rain people are stupid and have a lot of money. Seven-digit gold coins explode like they are free. The kid coach makes a lot of money.

What the club saw was that Blue Rain only spent a few million dollars to recruit a super player who was in a relatively influential project and could steadily bring world-class awards to the club.

They will not underestimate Zeng Zhuojun's talent just because the fighting game circle seems to be not that big now. The game field that Tencent Hai has favored and invested in may lack anything, but it will not lack market potential.

A few million can buy a GOAT, and even bring world championship-level honors to the club soon after joining...

This business is really profitable.

The kid definitely won't be able to sign. Blue Rain is not stupid and will not allow their honor harvester to be poached.

But if you have to settle for the next best thing, signing some other outstanding professional players and reaping some second-level honors is also acceptable.

It doesn’t even cost that much.

The professional players wanted to curry favor with the club, and the club wanted to sign players, and the two sides hit it off. Soon after, quite a few players got the contracts they had expected.

Some clubs have even signed top players from Japan or South Korea. After all, they pay really a lot. There are basically no such generous clubs in Japan, and South Korea's enthusiasm for fighting games is average.

Thus, the first wave of Street Fighter craze came from all directions.

Tenghai also joined in the fun and announced the schedule for the official Street Fighter series events at this time.

The most eye-catching event was the final Tenghai Cup.

The reason is very simple, the Tenghai Cup champion, the prize money is three million.

Knife music.

This number directly refreshes the prize money cap for all existing e-sports events.

Even Honor, which was known for its generous bonuses in those days, had never seen such a scary bonus.

Street Fighter is a single-player sport.

As for how much this will stimulate the professional guys, that is another story for later.

The person at the center of this frenzy, Zeng Zhuojun, returned home with the bonus that made him dizzy, but was immediately driven back to the base by his sister-in-law.

Blue Rain values ​​you so much and gives you such favorable conditions. Why don't you go to the base immediately to train day and night to keep in shape and serve the club? Instead of running back home, what are you doing?

The kid thought so too, so he packed up his things, took his golden joystick and ran to Blue Rain’s base to live there.

After staying at the base for two days and getting familiar with the local conditions, more than 20 players and coaching staff from four teams moved in.

Looking at their enthusiastic training, the children couldn't help but feel a little envious.

Although the fighting world is getting better every day since Teng Hai came in.

However, there is still a certain gap compared to truly phenomenal e-sports projects such as League of Legends.

For example, the age of the players. There are many in the fighting circle who are still fighting in the arena in their thirties like this kid.

It is unimaginable to see dozens of young talents gathering together like this.

So the kid connected his peripherals and computer to the screen in the main hall of the Blue Rain base, sat on the sofa, played ranked games while observing the situation of the LPL teams, and thought about what was worth emulating.

He couldn't help but get distracted while thinking, so he used a little more strength in his hands, and used Jamie to beat the master Luke rookie on the opposite side twice, and his Tao heart was directly shattered.

Just when he was about to start the next game, suddenly, a round-faced young man wearing glasses staggered out of the LPL training room.

He looked around at the door for a while, and finally locked his eyes on Zeng Zhuojun: "Uncle, can you tell me how to get to the toilet?"

"Over there." Zeng Zhuojun switched the operation on his hand to one hand again and continued to bully Luke, while using one hand to point the way to Xun.

"Thank you, uncle!" Xun came back from the toilet quickly. When he was about to go back, he looked at the kid who was considering whether to change his role and continue to bully. After hesitating for a while, he spoke:
"Uncle, it's time to work now, so you should play less games..."

(End of this chapter)