LOL: Reborn in Season 3, Taming Lee Sang-hyeok

The traffic volume of OGN is not on the same level as that of NLB.

NLB is a secondary league, and even if a champion is crowned in the end, no one cares about it, and it won't even get a single mention on the Korean server client's homepage.

But OGN is different. As a top-tier league, the schedule and press releases related to wins and losses occupy most of the homepage on the client!

As a game with millions of daily active users, and a vertical traffic source that naturally transitions from the game to the esports scene, its value is beyond doubt.

#2013 OGN Spring Season officially kicks off today!#

#First Match! OGN Champion vs. NLB Champion!#

#Both teams take the stage, RISE's team uniforms are incredibly eye-catching!#

Fueled by the flood of information, countless players were continuously directed to the OGN league live stream.

Logically speaking, having CJ participate in the opening match and giving them such a huge boost in viewership suggests a rather obvious purpose.

They simply want to promote the champion team CJ and make them a star team in the Korean region.

After all, there's more than just this one match today.

No league can function without creating stars. Numerous examples from major traditional sports events have proven that an outstanding star team and player can greatly benefit the entire league's ecosystem.

But as a result, countless viewers followed the link, flooding the live stream, and then collectively witnessed this brutal, one-sided defeat...

Anyone who has ever played a game knows how big the gap is between the two sides.

For the authorities, this was undoubtedly a major event that was beyond their control.

However, the official response was extremely swift; they quickly changed the entire layout after the match ended.

#Upset! RISE sweeps CJ, securing their first win of the Spring Split!#

#A textbook example of a 3v5 team fight – come and learn!#

#A crushing victory! R1E continues their undefeated streak!#

# Aiming straight for the championship! Neo's confident declaration of victory!#

The entire page was filled with press releases related to RISE, both horizontally and vertically.

The implications are self-evident.

Li Zhixing's judgment remains accurate: as long as one is strong enough, one will naturally receive preferential treatment from OGN's traffic.

RISE is stronger, has a more attractive playing style, and is even more visually appealing. They are undoubtedly a more suitable target to be promoted than CJ.

Without the slightest hesitation, OGN officials immediately changed their tune.

The massive traffic originally intended for CJ has now been redirected to RISE.

The promotional photos he had taken at great expense also played a crucial role at this moment.

Humans are visual creatures, and a good, positive image is always indispensable, regardless of the era.

Each press release includes a photo of RISE, some are group photos, some are individual photos of the players, attracting countless players to click in, and then quickly deepening their impression of RISE.

With the massive traffic conversion, the discussion volume on the INVEN forum is now growing even larger.

Is this all there is to ChinaJoy?

[Only five kills in two games combined, and this is the Winter Tournament champion?]

I saw photos of CJ posted on the app every day, and I thought they were really good, but it turns out they're so bad?

[Is CJ really the champion? They look so amateurish, while R1SE on the other side is clearly much more professional!]

[I thought RISE was playing so well before because there weren't any top players in the NLB league, but it turns out they were just as bad as the OGN champions?]

This team seems to have no weaknesses; all three lanes never seem to collapse.

[The jungler was just too overpowered. I still don't know how Jarvan IV managed to charge in despite Thresh's E!]

[Follow Neo's channel, he should be uploading videos tonight!]

[Already following! Looking forward to it!]

In addition, many people focused their discussion on the contestants.

Everyone says Ambition is amazing, but I feel like he's getting completely dominated by Faker.

[Those who said Faker couldn't beat Ambition, come out and say something!]

[A subpar mid-laner is causing a mess. Ambition clearly can't beat Ryu in the finals. Faker should try and beat Ryu to prove himself!]

[Why don't you just say you'll prove yourself by winning the World Championship? If you keep trying to prove yourself like this, Faker's already been wiped out by every mid laner!]

Li Zhixing watched the heated discussion unfold before him, a slight smile playing on his lips.

The era of RISE is just around the corner.

Before that, he must maintain his position as the victor.

The group quickly left the subway and returned to the base.

Li Zhi acted quickly, downloading the recordings of the two matches as soon as he returned.

Before he could use the video for editing, he had to do something serious first—go to court.

"I won't say anything about the first game, everyone played great."

Li Zhixing, before offering a big stick, first gave a sweet treat, then changed the subject, saying, "But the second time, the problem will be much bigger."

"First of all, why wasn't this 'back eye' eliminated?"

Li Zhixing pointed to the wards in the F4 camp: "This is not a tricky ward for flanking, so what went wrong?"

In this version of League of Legends, the shop sells a potion called "Prophet's Potion," which has an effect similar to scanning in later times, lasting for four minutes.

This is the core item for suppressing vision.

A four-minute scan is enough to clear out all the enemy's wards, making it very difficult for a typical flanking ward to survive.

When Li Zhixing saw the Crocodile teleport, he thought the opponent had left a tricky ward, but after watching the replay, he realized it was so simple.

Zhao Shiheng trembled with fear and whispered, "I didn't expect the enemy would dare to invade our jungle. We were careless..."

Li Zhixing looked Zhao Shiheng up and down, his eyes filled with speechlessness.

That scrutinizing look was more powerful than a thousand words to Zhao Shiheng...

"Besides, Jang Hyung-seok, why don't you call for reinforcements?"

Li Zhixing then changed the subject, pointing to his own top laner.

"Huh?" Zhang Hengshuo was slightly taken aback, then quickly said, "I saw they were surrounded and felt it was getting late, so I simply went to push down their second tower..."

Li Zhixing frowned and said, "With such a huge advantage, in a 3v3 situation, you actually think it's too late? Then tell me, if the enemy takes the Baron, how much will we lose in this fight?"

Zhang Hengshuo also fell silent at this moment.

I never expected him to be involved...

"Moreover, the actions of these two players were also problematic."

Li Zhixing shook his head again, "The crocodile clearly didn't have Flash. I'm not saying two of them could escape, but if the support could just sell out a little, the AD could definitely escape. I don't know what you two are panicking about."

Lee Sang-hyeok watched as his senior brother harshly criticized his teammates, and for a moment he just found it amusing.

Anyway, he executed this perfectly, so he definitely won't be brought to trial.

Just then, Li Zhixing turned his gaze over: "Sang-hyeok, you're still laughing? I didn't say you were, did I?"

Sang-hyeok's smile vanished instantly.

Li Zhixing rewound the time by one minute and pointed at his own fountain: "The dragon is clearly in a refreshed state. You should go to the top lane to push the safe lane. Wouldn't it be better to let Shen, who has his ultimate, push the bottom lane?"

"I don't know why you went straight to the bottom lane after recalling. If you had just stayed in the top lane and pushed safely, would I have needed to protect you? Wouldn't you have gotten ganked in the mid lane?"

Lee Sang-hyeok turned his head away, speechless...

Li Zhixing's post-mortem analysis is like this: even a seemingly flawless operation is full of flaws in his eyes.

Under RISE's system, such a huge overturning mistake is extremely rare. It can only be said that none of the four teammates are innocent!

Following that, Li Zhixing continued his barrage of criticism, pointing out several minor issues the team members had made during the game. After the team members reviewed and corrected these issues themselves, he went upstairs alone to edit the video.

That very evening, Li Zhixing edited out the commentary video of the match against CJ and uploaded it to his own channel.

With OGN's increased traffic, Li Zhixing's channel gained countless new followers, and this video's views far exceeded all his previous videos.

Upon waking up, the number of views had already approached two million, and several online stores had also made a fortune.

This time, not only the pork floss cakes, but also the team uniforms sold like hotcakes, it's like they've turned their online store into a clothing store.

But Li Zhixing was still not satisfied with this.

RISE emerged as the ultimate winner in this competition, gaining massive traffic.

This traffic ultimately translates into money in your wallet, but the returns aren't very substantial, at least not commensurate with this level of traffic.

Ultimately, converting traffic into video views on social media channels, and then into sales for online stores, involves two conversion processes, resulting in excessive losses.

The best way to monetize traffic is to directly generate revenue from the traffic itself.

For example—GG position.

The most direct benefit is securing sponsorships, and it doesn't conflict with the self-media online store itself.

They hadn't accepted sponsorships before because they thought the money was too little. After all, RISE's previous popularity was only average, which didn't bring in much money.

RISE is now in a period of explosive growth in popularity, and its popularity will soon soar on the back of OGN. It's time to put finding a sponsor on the agenda.

Li Zhixing is not worried that RISE will be ignored.

Capital has a far more acute sense of smell than ordinary people and has access to more information channels, so they naturally know who the key players in an alliance are.

The numerous press releases still circulating on the Korean server client are sufficient proof.

Sure enough, in the following days, countless sponsors called, hoping to get a GG slot on the RISE jersey.

This time, the sponsors are significantly more prestigious, including top-tier Korean peripheral brands like Xenics, whose peripherals are sold in Lee Ji-hyung's online store, and Korean live streaming platforms like AfreecaTV.

These big spenders are incredibly wealthy; their offer this time is more than double that of the companies that closed the NLB deal.

However, Li Zhixing did not accept it directly. Instead, he gave a higher figure, which was nearly double the figure given by the other party.

The other party did not refuse outright, but said they would apply to their superiors, and then there was no further news.

In addition, there is Jin Air, a truly wealthy airline, which offered a high price to acquire the naming rights for the RISE team, and its offer was twice as high as the previous two!

Finding a team to invest in and sponsor the game is a more direct approach than simply accepting a GG (Give-Give-Up) spot.

Of course, this is not uncommon in OGN. Clubs like SKT, KT, MVP, and CJ are all named after major groups or companies.

However, Li Zhixing directly rejected this offer, stating that he could get a GG spot at this price, but forget about naming rights.

He knew the real big fish was yet to come.

Through Li Qiming's words, Li Zhixing had long learned that Samsung Group, the largest conglomerate in South Korea, also had plans to enter the OGN market.

As the largest conglomerate, they naturally want to sponsor the strongest teams, so they have been observing and looking for suitable candidates.

If RISE continues to win, Samsung will soon come knocking on their door for naming rights.

Those are the real big spenders.

......

at the same time.

Inside the Strategic Investment Department of Samsung Group in Seoul, South Korea.

An internal meeting is underway.

The staff member in front is presenting a PowerPoint presentation, following the content of the presentation:

"The growth rate of League of Legends has exceeded our expectations. The viewership ratings for the opening match of the OGN Spring Season have been released, and they have surpassed those of the StarCraft II finals, making it the most popular esports league in China right now."

The PPT presentation listed detailed data.

As a league system that is being vigorously promoted by the most popular game at present, OGN has already achieved dominance in the e-sports field in just its second season.

Faced with such a massive influx of traffic, there's no reason for Samsung Group not to get involved.

The PowerPoint presentation continued to flip through pages, listing two main investment targets and related data.

MVP.

RISE.

The staff member leading the presentation pointed to the first row of the form and said:

"These are the two most suitable targets based on the company's overall assessment."

"MVP is a complete club. The first team is one of the top teams in OGN, and the second team will definitely be able to make it up in this year's NLB. Moreover, MVP's financial chain has recently run into problems, so they will find it hard to refuse the price we offer."

"As for RISE, they are a team that has just been promoted from the secondary league. They are not a professional esports club, but they are very strong. They just defeated the previous champion, so they are a good investment target."

A leader in the audience asked, "So, it seems like MVP would be a better choice?"

"You could say that."

The leader obviously doesn't understand the OGN league ecosystem, but since the data in the PPT is presented in such detail, he only needs to pick one that looks good and make a decision.

"Let's think about it more carefully, Minister Kim."

At that moment, a voice rang out in the conference room.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Li Qiming sitting in the head seat of the conference room.

The attendees at the meeting were somewhat puzzled by Li Qiming's arrival.

After all, Li Qiming is the Vice President in charge of trade and transportation for the Asia-Pacific region. Although he is qualified to attend the meeting according to his position, he is not their direct superior, so it is a bit inexplicable for him to get involved in this trip.

Li Qiming continued, "MVP's performance in the Winter Season was not good. The first team was eliminated by CJ, and the second team also lost to RISE in the NLB league. In yesterday's game, RISE defeated CJ again. Considering these games, I really can't see the point of signing MVP."

Li Qiming's words stunned everyone.

The employee in front of him paused for a moment, then asked, "Executive Director Li, you also follow League of Legends competitions?"

The match where RISE beat MVP's second team took place in the online segment of NLB, something most people wouldn't know!

Li Qiming said calmly, "I take a look occasionally."

Those around couldn't help but look at him strangely.

Do you only look at it occasionally? How come you seem to know more than the specialist in charge of the evaluation?

The Ministry of Trade probably doesn't have that much free time, does it? They're always flying around!

Regardless, as an executive officer, Li Qiming held a higher rank than everyone else present, so his words were certainly influential.

The minister in charge of making the decision thought for a moment, then said, "Since the executive director has said so... let's observe further. I feel that RISE is indeed a more suitable target."

Upon hearing this, Li Qiming did not say anything further.