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Chapter 590 0578 [Old Master Chen's S2 World Championship]

Rewind to mid-October, the Oracle Era S2 Global Finals are about to begin.

That very high-ranking leader suddenly came to inspect Chen Guiliang's company.

The leader must really like science fiction, he even invited authors like Liu Cixin to a symposium.

"Neither 'The Three-Body Problem' nor 'The Wandering Earth' can be filmed in two or three years. In fact, the script might not even be completed in two or three years."

"Take the TV series 'The Three-Body Problem' for example. The producer and director have been selected, and they have finished their respective work and started discussing the script of 'The Three-Body Problem' last month."

"They have assembled a scriptwriting team, which currently consists of 12 writers. The goal of the scriptwriting is to be as faithful as possible to the original work, but there will definitely be slight changes to the details."

"Furthermore, before writing the script, we need to learn as much as possible about science fiction and scientific common sense. Next, the screenwriters will visit and learn from major universities and research institutions across the country, and hire many scientists and science fiction authors as consultants. The script is learned, written, and revised at the same time, and it may take three or four years to revise the script..."

"Before filming the TV series 'The Three-Body Problem,' we will first produce an animated version of 'The Three-Body Problem'..."

"As for 'The Wandering Earth,' we plan to integrate the worldviews of several of Liu Cixin's works to construct a magnificent and grand future world. We are currently working on the story outline and will first develop the 'The Wandering Earth' game. The film director will be sent to Hollywood next year for an exchange program to learn and master Hollywood's science fiction filmmaking techniques..."

Chen Guiliang elaborated on the film, game, and animation adaptations of "The Three-Body Problem" and "The Wandering Earth".

The leader nodded approvingly, saying, "Your arrangement is excellent. You didn't rush into filming just to make a quick buck while the novel was riding the wave of its award. Profound literary works should be developed step by step like this..."

Chen Guiliang said, "Whether it's making online social products, games, or mobile phones, our principle is to lay a solid foundation. A product must be of high quality before we dare to release it to consumers..."

Chen Guiliang accompanied the leaders on a tour of ByteDance's headquarters, providing detailed explanations of social media products such as Weibo and WeChat, especially how they cooperate with relevant departments to combat the overwhelming online rumors.

The leader asked, "Is ByteDance, the company that's going to film 'The Three-Body Problem,' not located in this office building?"

Chen Guiliang explained, "ByteDance Pictures, Byte Music, HarmonyOS, and other companies are all located in the ByteDance Building in Shunyi. This year, we acquired land nearby and plan to expand it into a group park. Once the park is completed, ByteDance's headquarters will also move there."

The leader asked a few more questions and then went downstairs to visit the headquarters of Youke.

Chen Guiliang explained, "The current game industry is divided into several major types, including PC games, mobile games, web games, single-player games, console games, and handheld games. This year, the total revenue of Chinese games may exceed 1200 billion yuan, with online games accounting for about 75%. These figures do not include the revenue of Chinese games exported overseas."

"If we only consider game revenue, Yuke's overseas revenue for the first three quarters of this year is approximately $4.3 million."

The leader was somewhat surprised: "So many?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Our PC games, web games, and mobile games are all making a concerted effort in markets around the world. While making money, we also try our best to export Chinese culture. For example, the most popular game from Youke in Japan is a web game set in the Sengoku period of Japan. Of course, the game content has to be tailored to the preferences of Japanese players, but in the details, we have also added books, goods, famous people, and so on from the Ming Dynasty."

"The same applies to the Middle Eastern market. We create a browser game specifically for Middle Eastern players. It incorporates the concept of the Silk Road, introduces some information about ancient China, and also produces a small number of character cards from China."

"Future Era is very popular in Southeast Asia and Europe, and it contains a lot of Chinese elements. Many foreign players have learned about the concepts of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism through this game. The game's soundtrack also features a lot of traditional Chinese music. There are even Chinese culture interest groups in the gaming communities of Southeast Asia and Europe."

“Since last year, ‘Wulin Gaiden’ has become a hit in South Korea, with its online player count consistently ranking among the top five in the South Korean MMO charts. This game is set in the Ming Dynasty and incorporates elements of ancient Sino-Korean exchange. Last year, it also won the Special Award for Cultural Exchange at the Korea Game Awards, established by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of South Korea.”

"Oracle Era is a global phenomenon this year..."

The leader nodded repeatedly and continued the tour with great pleasure.

Chen Guiliang then talked about Youke's branches in Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as its subsidiaries in Europe, North America, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. He then called Dong Qianqiu over and had him talk at length about cloud computing.

The leader was very interested in cloud computing and kept asking some basic questions. As Dong Qianqiu answered, Chen Guiliang deliberately steered the conversation towards cloud-based government affairs and smart city construction, which further pleased the leader.

As the leader was about to conclude his inspection, Chen Guiliang shamelessly asked for a piece of calligraphy.

In the days that followed, executives from ByteDance and Youke nearly fought tooth and nail over the calligraphy. Left with no other option, Chen Guiliang could only mediate, rotating the display at the two companies' headquarters each month.

"Is this considered gilding the statue?" Ao Yanchen said, looking at the inscription on the wall.

Chen Guiliang said, "It's just a leader's inscription, how can it have such great power? Let's continue to strengthen our in-depth cooperation with state-owned asset management institutions."

……

The S1 finals of Oracle Era were held in Europe last year, mainly to consolidate the European market and continue to crush the struggling European League of Legends server.

This year's S2 World Championship Finals will be held at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing, China, with the total prize money increased to $300 million!
This is a prize pool that surpasses all other esports events.

In order to expand the influence of "Oracle Era", Chen Guiliang has been inviting TV channels and online platforms around the world to broadcast or rebroadcast the game for free since the S1 tournament.

Not only do they not charge a single penny, they even sponsor those platforms to do live streams.

Workers' Stadium.

S2 World Championship Opening Ceremony.

Uncle Hat and security personnel arrived early to maintain order.

More and more people gathered outside, waiting to have their tickets checked and enter.

Passersby were not surprised and assumed it was another celebrity concert.

But the audience who actually bought tickets to attend were quite surprised, because no offline esports event had ever been this big before.

A game that can attract two or three thousand viewers is considered very popular, while one that can reach five thousand is considered extremely popular.

"Fuck, so many people?"

"Isn't that obvious? OE is so popular."

"I heard that Mr. Chen will personally attend the opening ceremony and has invited many celebrities to perform."

"Girls' Generation, I know them."

"Jay Chou and JJ Lin are coming. I heard they also play Oracle Era."

"Hilarious, I've even watched Lin Junjie's live stream."

"Zeng Xiaoxian is still doing live streams; he even brought Zhang Wei on last time." "..."

People slowly poured in through the ticket gates, and some didn't even go directly into the venue, but stood outside waiting for the stars.

But soon security personnel came and invited the audience members who refused to go in and take their seats.

Reporters have already set up their cameras and microphones.

At this time, public opinion in China still viewed video games as a scourge, but it was much more tolerant than in previous years.

Chen Guiliang made this a large-scale event and invited many media outlets to report on it, in order to open up a breakthrough in public opinion.

Luxury cars arrived one after another, and 16 esports teams from around the world stepped out of those cars and onto the red carpet.

Many coaches and athletes were astonished that they could actually walk the red carpet, especially with so many reporters on both sides.

This is unprecedented treatment!
The large screen inside the venue displayed live footage of esports players walking the red carpet.

When spectators saw their favorite contestant, they immediately cheered and shouted.

After checking into the hotel, the athletes had already given pre-match interviews, and now they walked across the red carpet directly to the rest area.

Next up on the red carpet are the celebrities, who are also today's performance guests.

Jay Chou walked the red carpet and said in the interview area, "I also play OE sometimes. I'm really good at playing Sword Master."

Phoenix Baron said, "I don't play games much, but I have a strong connection with Oracle Era. Last time I held a concert, some fans even called me 'buff'."

The translator assigned to Girls' Generation said, "They said 'OE' is very popular in Korea, and they are very honored to be invited to participate in the opening performance of the S2 World Championship."

Then four more foreigners arrived, who turned out to be Imagine Dragons, a band that had become wildly popular in Europe and America since last year.

Imagine Dragons has also gained some popularity in China this year, mainly among students and white-collar workers.

The record company they signed with also wants to expand into markets outside of Europe and America. They heard that OE's S2 opening ceremony will be broadcast globally, and they are even willing to participate at 80% of the market price.

These four foreigners were quite business-like; during the interview, they kept saying things like "I love China" and "I love OE."

In the VIP section of the venue, Principal Wang sat with his new girlfriend, and next to him was his good friend Lin Gengxin.

"Wow, they even invited Menglong?" Principal Wang exclaimed in surprise, looking at the big screen.

Lin Gengxin asked curiously, "Is Menglong very famous?"

Principal Wang said, "It was a huge hit this year, and the record sold millions of copies."

Tao Chenggang also brought his young girlfriend, sitting a few seats away from Principal Wang.

Seeing that Chen Guiliang was involved in esports and live streaming, this guy also invested in esports clubs and live streaming early on.

Moreover, his esports club is called BLG—an abbreviation of Bailian Technology Gaming Club.

Tao Chenggang spent a lot of money to buy well-known players and made it to the finals of last year's S1, but unfortunately only won the runner-up.

In that crucial match, Tao Chenggang's BLG lost to Principal Wang's IG.

The guy sitting between them was a rich second-generation heir whose family was in real estate. He was also a hardcore gamer, having built the Royal Guild in multiple games; his current esports team was called Royal.

Another rich kid was sitting nearby, the owner of the OMG esports team.

This year, 16 teams participated in the finals: 3 from mainland China, 3 from Europe, 3 from North America, 3 from South Korea, 3 from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, and 1 from Oceania.

The three teams representing mainland China are Royal, OMG, and IG.

Tao Chenggang's BLG team, which made it to the semifinals last year, didn't even qualify for the finals this year. He wouldn't have bothered coming if Chen Guiliang hadn't invited him.

Lin Gengxin is also an avid gamer. He chatted with Principal Wang and asked, "Can IG retain the championship this year?"

"Of course we can," Principal Wang said confidently.

Lin Gengxin said, "I think it's a bit risky. I heard the Korean team is very strong."

Principal Wang said, "What a load of rubbish. None of those three South Korean teams last year even made it to the semi-finals."

Since Oracle Era was first launched in mainland China and Europe, teams from these two regions were also formed earliest. In last year's S1 World Championship, all four semifinalists came from mainland China and Europe, and the champion and runner-up were both Chinese teams.

South Korea felt deeply humiliated, and their clubs poured even more resources into the effort, determined to win the S2 World Championship.

Lin Gengxin said, "I've seen clips of the game from the Korean server, and there's a mid-laner named Faker who's really good."

Principal Wang said, "No matter how good he is, he can't beat China's mid laner."

Oracle Era is a purely Chinese game, and it was first launched in mainland China, giving it a significant head start over other countries. Isn't it normal for the Chinese team to win the championship?

Faker was sitting in the rest area, silently playing with his fingers.

"Old Ancestor Chen!"

"Old Master Chen has arrived!"

"Holy crap, why is he with Dilraba Dilmurat?"

"Damn you, Old Master Chen! Let go of my Xiao Di!"

(End of this chapter)