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Chapter 591 0579 [The First Year of Commercialization of Esports in China]

ByteDance Pictures has a small number of signed artists, less than twenty in total.

They signed Zhao Liying earlier this year and even cast her in a TV series, but she only gained minor popularity. The real star is Dilraba Dilmurat, who played the female lead in the hit drama "Silk Road Smoke and Dust."

Chen Guiliang naturally had to promote his own popular artist, so he brought Dilraba Dilmurat along to generate buzz and have her perform a neck-twisting dance at the opening ceremony to increase her exposure.

The camera lens turned towards Chen Guiliang, filming him, and the image of him waving and smiling immediately appeared on the big screen.

Cheers immediately erupted from the crowd.

In addition to being the richest man in China, Chen Guiliang is also the owner of Youke, and the audience members present were all Youke players.

The camera panned across the room, and Dilraba waved and smiled, followed by the other people in the VIP audience.

At this very moment, domestic platforms have already started live streaming.

The barrage of comments completely obscured the live stream, prompting viewers to switch to a sparser comment mode.

"Xiao Di!!! Xiao Di!!!"

"Who is that beautiful woman next to Old Master Chen?"

"Dilraba".

"Damn, I thought she was Old Master Chen's girlfriend."

"Maybe she really is his new girlfriend."

"Old Master Chen has been corrupted by Principal Wang; he's started changing girlfriends."

Who is that person next to Lin Gengxin?

"The boss of the royal family. I even killed him in 'Conquer Online 2'."

Wow, there are so many audience members here! Is this a big event this year?

"Of course, Jay Chou is here."

"..."

Just as netizens were sending random comments, the live stream screen changed to a bilingual (Chinese and English) announcement of the "2013 OE Global Finals Opening Performance," followed by the Game Science logo and the Oracle game logo.

The stage lights went out, and an animation appeared on the big screen accompanied by the intro music of the song.

It started with a group of teenagers eating instant noodles in a simple house. They seemed to hear a call from somewhere.

The scene then switches to the game character, Lu Jinglan (similar to Riven), a female hero who has been exiled and secluded. While hunting in the mountains, she suddenly turns around and sees thick smoke billowing from the small village that took her in.

Several lines of text (in both Chinese and English) appeared in the lower left corner.

The theme song for the 2013 OE World Championship was "Legends Never Die".

Lyrics by: Chen Guiliang
Composer: Chen Guiliang / Bian Guanyue

Performed by: Zhang Liangying/Deng Ziqi

Of course, if you're going to copy, you have to copy the whole thing. Chen Guiliang even forgot some details of the lyrics and music, but he clearly remembered the climax of the song.

Bian Guanyue had been resting during her pregnancy for the past few months, so Chen Guiliang simply hummed a tune and asked her to compose a melody based on it and make continuous revisions.

"Legends never die, the world is calling you."
Can you hear someone calling your name?

On the big screen, several teenagers put down their instant noodles and donned their team uniforms. Meanwhile, the female hero in the game put down the wild boar she had hunted, drew her broken sword, and raced down the mountain.

G.E.M., who became a sensation in Hong Kong and Taiwan this year and is also somewhat famous in mainland China, has slowly risen from obscurity to the center of the stage.

"Never give up, no matter how many challenges and harsh words you face."

"Born to be tenacious, never afraid of strong winds and raging waves."

As Zhang Liangying sang the climax, she slowly descended from above the stage.

In the scene, several teenagers are standing in the passageway leading to the competition stage, while the female hero, wielding a broken sword, charges towards the enemies who have destroyed the village.

"This song is so energetic!"

"Lyrics and music personally composed by Chen Laozu?"

"Old Master Chen can write songs?"

"You guys are obviously new fans. Old Master Chen has written several poems about you."

"I know Zhang Liangying, but who is that Deng Ziqi?"

"G.E.M. is very popular; she has a huge number of fans on ByteDance Cloud Music."

"..."

It's not just domestic platforms that are broadcasting it; multiple television and online platforms around the world are also broadcasting it live.

This is an English song.

Western netizens were also excited and started asking about the two female singers. Some Koreans living in Europe and America even claimed that Zhang Liangying and G.E.M. were Korean singers, leading many Western netizens to believe it.

After "Legends Never Die" was performed, there was no host to introduce the next song.

We were really hyped just now, it's time to relax. Lin Junjie is singing "Remember Me a Thousand Years Later".

After Lin Junjie finished singing, the next song got even more energetic.

Many viewers on domestic live streaming platforms burst out laughing the moment they heard the intro.

"Holy crap, which genius came up with this show?"

"??????"

"I was still savoring that battle song from earlier, and now you're throwing in 'The Most Dazzling Ethnic Trend'?"

"My love, on this vast and boundless horizon, check it out!"

"..."

It really sounds like Phoenix Legend is singing "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style".

A few years ago, Phoenix Legend was criticized for being unsophisticated and vulgar, and netizens even created various parody videos about them. But as the saying goes, "the more you criticize, the more popular you become," and in the last two years, their reputation has begun to reverse, with more and more young people liking them.

Just look at the comments in the live stream; almost all of them are jokes, and very few people directly curse.

Foreign audiences were unaware of these things, and they found it quite amusing.

Dilraba, seated in the VIP audience, had somehow gone backstage to change into a costume reminiscent of the flying apsaras in Dunhuang murals. She rose from the center of the stage atop a large drum. The accompanying music was a rearranged version of "A Thousand Years of Prayer," incorporating numerous traditional Chinese instruments.

Needless to say, it tastes just like Hanikezi's.

However, Chen Guiliang didn't understand dance, so he stated his requirements and let the professionals choreograph it themselves.

Her dance was more unrestrained than Hanikezi's.

The moment Dilraba removed the beaded veil covering her face, the comments section on live streaming platforms around the world exploded.

Dilraba's face in 2013 was incredibly youthful and radiant.

Many foreigners are sending emojis with hearts in their eyes like crazy.

"I need to know the name of this Chinese dancer. Tell me quickly!"

"She is not Chinese; she must be from the Middle East."

"She is a Korean dancer named Kim Mina."

"Is this the game's grand finale? I thought I was watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics."

"..."

The domestic live stream was even more frenzied, with many netizens who don't watch TV dramas repeatedly sending bullet comments asking for names, completely ignoring the subtitles on the big screen.

Even Principal Wang, who was sitting at the scene, took out his phone to search for information about "Dilraba," which made his newly changed girlfriend look very unhappy.

After the performance, Dilraba, barefoot and without going backstage to change, went straight off the stage in her Dunhuang flying apsara costume and sat down next to Chen Guiliang.

The director was also quite interesting, directing the cameraman to point the camera at Chen Guiliang and Dilraba.

This caused viewers in the live stream to scream, with the barrage of comments like "Kill Chen Gou, steal Dilraba!"

The last three performances were Imagine Dragons' "It's Time", Girls' Generation's "GEE", and Jay Chou's "Lanting Xu".

The performance ended, and the host finally took the stage.

There were two men and two women. One of the female hosts was a foreigner and spoke English with one of the male hosts.

They began by introducing the development of Oracle Era and the 16 teams that participated in this year's finals.

The first match of the group stage was between OMG and SKT1.

From the owner to the coach to the players, everyone at OMG is full of confidence.

Because the Chinese team in this timeline doesn't take foreign teams seriously at all—this is a Chinese game, first launched in China, and its tactics are ahead of the world.

What's more, OMG was the champion of this year's Spring Split.

Mid laner Cool played extremely aggressively, completely disregarding Faker. He only studied domestic teams and European teams; what was there to fear about the Korean team that didn't even reach the semifinals last year?

But he quickly realized something was wrong: "Damn, this Korean mid laner is incredibly skilled. I'm down five CS, and I can't out-damage him either."

The jungler said, "Wait, how did you get pressured by Orianna?"

Many League of Legends champions were released in Oracle Era before the game. For example, Orianna.

The League of Legends in this timeline, with heroes released after 2010, is vastly different from the original timeline. This is because it was stolen by Oracle Era!

Wu-Zhuangtai said, "When I was level two, I made a mistake in my positioning and got hit by the enemy mid laner's combo."

The jungler said, "Trick me, I'll be right there."

Faker seems to have really fallen for it, as he was forced to use Flash by OMG's mid laner and jungler.

Commentators from various countries were shouting: "SKT1 is counter-ganking! The jungler's position is so weird, perfectly avoiding OMG's wards..."

One for two, OMG's jungler and mid laner are both dead.

Chen Guiliang couldn't help but laugh as he watched the replay of the scene.

The Great Demon King is coming; a shadow will loom over LPL... no, I mean OPL.

Damn it, does this mean domestic games also have to compete with Korean games?

Just 26 minutes later, OMG's base exploded.

OMG's rich second-generation boss looked extremely unhappy.

Although the Chinese team lost a game, Chinese esports players and viewers still didn't take the Korean team too seriously.

Just now, Wu-Zhuangtai played too aggressively and accidentally got hit by a combo at level 2. Then, the enemy jungler counter-ganked and gave him a free kill, ultimately leading to a snowball effect that he couldn't turn the tide of the game.

The second game was between the North American team and the Australian team.

The Australian team was utterly crushed.

Chen Guiliang watched four games and then left, taking Tao Chenggang, several rich second-generation kids (club owners), and their girlfriends to dinner. Lin Gengxin also went with Principal Wang.

The place to eat, of course, was my cousin's restaurant.

"This is my brother's restaurant, serving authentic Sichuan cuisine. All the local ingredients are air-freighted in. Take the Seven Star Chili for example, it's a variety of facing-heaven chili, and it's only authentic when grown in a few counties in southern Sichuan. Outside of those counties, the taste is completely different."

Chen Guiliang gave a brief introduction and then called out Chen Guirong to introduce him to the rich second-generation heirs.

Dilraba stayed close to Chen Guiliang. The rich kids occasionally glanced at her, but they had given up on any frivolous thoughts. They assumed Dilraba was already taken.

Although Chen Guiliang is young, his status in the business world is undeniable.

To be honest, his willingness to have dinner with a few rich kids is like condescending to take care of children.

Even Principal Wang, who is usually pretentious, took the initiative to toast Chen Guiliang repeatedly.

Tao Chenggang glared at Chen Guiliang several times. He hadn't even sorted out his own sister's relationships yet, and this son of a bitch was already chasing after female celebrities again.

Dilraba's behavior was quite interesting. She deliberately sat very close to Chen Guiliang, but didn't say much and just focused on eating. It made it hard to tell whether she was a scheming woman or a genuinely innocent and naive girl.

The opening ceremony of the S2 World Championship and the first day of the group stage generated several trending topics.

#Chen Guiliang and Dilraba Dilmurat suspected of being in a relationship#
#Principal Wang appears at the stadium with his new girlfriend#
#Chen Guiliang personally composed the song#
#Dilraba's Dunhuang Dance Amazes the World#
While attracting a lot of attention, it also brought unprecedented attention to the OE S2 tournament, making people who don't play games aware of its existence.

Criticism followed, mainly arguing that esports is a waste of time and that the richest man shouldn't be promoting gaming competitions so heavily.

Some have even called for a ban on all kinds of esports events.

Perhaps because it was so successful, 2013 was later regarded as the "first year of commercialization of e-sports in China".

(End of this chapter)