The prize had accumulated to over 30,000 yuan.
Demacia Cafe had always been a Tencent-themed cybercafe, and with the snowballing value of this prize money, QQ users all around the Shanghai district got a notification on the bottom right corner off their screens, describing the over 30,000 yuan cash prize that was to be won at Demacia Cafe.
As soon as the announcement hit, news of the prize spread through Weibo and the larger LOL community like wildfire, and before long, a bunch of professional players that were looking for a quick cash grab were itching to take on the challenge.
The highest achievement that LOL players could get within the country was to win in the LPL, but with China as big as it was, it was impossible for there to only be 8 teams worthy of such glory. A lot of other professional teams had the same amount of popularity and fan following in their respective areas, having their names known throughout many streamings and video uploading platforms as well. If they were able to get some sponsors to back them up during their matches, their lives would go on significantly more smoothly, if not, well, just take a look at Team Skycrown.
Thus, of course eyes would light up all over the country at the thought of winning 30,000 yuan on the battle stage of Demacia Cafe!
Even for Team Skycrown, if they had heard news about a 30,000 yuan cash prize after a single win, it wouldn’t have mattered how far they’d need to travel, they would be over without a second thought. Dreams could only be fulfilled with money, so without money, don’t even think about it!
The first to make a move was Team Sunlight from the Xuhui District.
Team Sunlight had a massive social media presence, and a single stream by any of their members could easily break twenty thousand viewers!
They could be paid just for making an appearance.
Besides LPL superstars, many professional players, game analysts, and hosts, often made appearances on players’ screens as well, choosing to make their own living on various other websites. They would stream on QT, YY, or other similar platforms, and by doing so, they allowed players who wanted to learn the intricacies of LOL to be able to learn from a first person perspective and interact with their “mentor”.
Team Sunlight hadn’t started off as popular as they were now. They slowly grown their fan base through streaming. A lot of LOL players might not remember who had gotten last place in the LPL, but they surely knew every member of Team Sunlight.
***
“D*mn, how are they so popular!” Jian Feng clicked into Team Sunlight’s live stream, speechless as he looked at their viewer count.
Luocheng looked over Jian Feng’s shoulder, noting that the stream of them playing a 5-man ranked game had over a hundred thousand current viewers!
The official LPL qualifying matches usually were only able to amass a viewership of roughly a hundred thousand viewers, and that was already one of the biggest local LOL events! How was this random stream from Team Sunlight reaching this level of popularity!
To be able to gather a hundred thousand online viewers, this channel had reached a viral status, and the creator of the channel was going to rake in so much cash!
“From what I’ve heard, streaming channels like this can get an annual income of about several million!” Meiqi said.
Meiqi was also wondering how she could successfully manage Team Skycrown. Even though a public platform had yet to be created, she had prepared everything that was needed to be prepared, all she needed to do was wait for the arrival of the day that Team Skycrown would get into the LPL!
“Several…Million???” Da Luo thought he had heard her wrongly.
What the f*ck, these guys had pushed themselves to the limit and more to get into the LPL, but even then, the highest prize they could have won was only five hundred thousand!
This single streaming channel, all they had to do was get a couple of top-tier players to wreck some noobs and they could easily get several million dollars annually, wasn’t that a bit too much!?
“Those…those Team Sunlight people, are they making more money than the LPL stars?” Lin Dong asked.
“They’re apparently making more money than Team Daemons,” Meiqi clarified.
“…”
Professional players on average made a lower income, that was an indisputable fact. One look at Team Skycrown and that should be abundantly clear.
But why were these semi-professionals, people who hadn’t even gotten into the LPL, why did the incomes of these people overtake even the strongest Team Daemons!?
What the f*ck was this!
“Actually, this is sort of a marketing strategy, and they’re doing really well for themselves,” Meiqi started to explain, seeing how the tension in the room was growing thick.
“With live streams like this, they are mainly from the perspective of the streamer, with the video being streamed live from their computer. This allows the viewer to feel a sense of involvement with the game as they’re able to see the streamers real-time reactions, skills, and comments. Compare this to the LPL where matches between teams are done in a much more serious setting, involving a lot of advanced techniques that your average player wouldn’t understand, this is also one of the reasons why people will look down on players in the LPL.”
“With these sorts of streams, streamers are usually playing solo ranked games in Diamond or Challenger or whatever, and so for the players at home who are stuck in Silver, Gold, or Platinum, they’re able to feel a sense of closeness with the streamers. After a long-term exposure to these streamers, they’ll gain a warped view where they think these streamers could easily surpass players in the LPL. After all, these streamers do require a certain level of skill to attract viewers, and certain flashy plays will just wow their viewers even more…”
“And onto that the viewer-streamer interaction that has become a staple for these streams, this style of gaming has seen impressive advancements, garnering a lot of attention from people all around the industry.”
Da Luo was close to boiling, staring at Team Sunlight’s Nine Days’ stream.
“Meiqi, I’m not liking what I’m hearing. Every member of Team Sunlight has undeniable skill, they could obviously surpass that of the LPL stars!” Bing Bing stood up, voicing his thoughts on the situation.
“Yup, just like how Nine Days’ skills up in the top lane can be described in one word, amazing. Didn’t see Forgetful Laughter lane against America’s Funny during the All-Star competition, he was trolling so hard.”
They had watched the All-Star Competition and that game really hadn’t been one Forgetful Laughter’s best performances as he had played too defensively against the American.
Luocheng was listening in on the conversation from the side and he moved to sit in front of Bing Bing’s computer, watching Nine Days’ stream intently.
He saw words flash across the screen, all the comments from the viewers. 3 out of 10 were comparing Nine Days to Forgetful Laughter, but the creepy thing was, a large majority of commenters were saying that Nine Days could beat Forgetful Laughter easily.
“Let me tell you, isn’t there a voting involved in the All-Star Competition? If the official organizer had included Nine Days in the candidate’s list, Forgetful Laughter may not have been the one chosen since Nine Days has a huge fanbase in Duowan. Even if we don’t look at the All-Star Competition, just look at S Worlds, Team 71 didn’t perform well at all. Forgetful Laughter didn’t lead Team 71 to any sort of victory and a lot of his plays were stiff and forced, making the viewers feel something was off,” said a teenager who was also watching Nine Days’ stream.
“You’re all full of sh*t!” Da Luo couldn’t take it anymore and burst out in anger.
Da Luo knew very well how strong Forgetful Laughter was. He had watched this Nine Days for about ten minutes now and he could tell he that the latter wasn’t some pushover, but he still had a long way to go before he could even think about challenging Forgetful Laughter!
Comparing a top laner who couldn’t even get into the LPL with Forgetful Laughter, these guys must be delusional!
“What, you don’t think so?” Bing Bing said with a tinge of malice in his voice.
“I think you’re out of your d*mn mind, this noob can’t compare to Forgetful Laughter at all!” Da Luo exclaimed.
“Da Luo, trust us, Nine Days has already posted a video of him beating Forgetful Laughter. It’s been circulating around Duowan a lot so it has probably gotten a lot of views by now.”
“Look, a lot of LPL stars have gotten beaten badly by these so-called ‘semi-professionals’, and it’s because the organizers have made some invisible barriers to stop the truly strong players from entering. If they had let Team Sunlight compete, I’d put my money on them getting past the Group Stage of S Worlds, at least they would have done better than the two teams that we sent out this year.”
Da Luo had had enough, bursting into a full on argument with Bing Bing and the rest of them.
Luocheng just observed from the side, continuing to watch Nine Days’ Stream. However, listening to those comments insulting the LPL Stars, he suddenly didn’t know how to react.
Simply put, if Team Sunlight really were as strong as people said they were, why didn’t they try their hands at the LPL to compete against Team Daemons? Since Team Sunlight were so strong and mighty, why not?
Posting a video of him beating Forgetful Laughter in a ranked game and then causing a scene by promoting the idea of LPL professionals being not as good as people thought, it was the lowest of lows.
Basically, it was just like when Luocheng played on the Ionia server, from the get-go, he never really intended to play seriously to any extent. He had already lost count of how many people had won against his “Trolling No. 1” account, so you were telling me that if all of these people made videos of these matches, they could all claim to be better than yours truly?
It was safe to say that out of ten matches, Forgetful Laughter had beaten Nine Days in five, completely overpowered him in four, and accidentally let Nine Days snowball in one because their Jungler wouldn’t gank…
Forgetful Laughter didn’t view Nine Days as competition whatsoever and he couldn’t even be bothered to record their matches together. Nine Days on the other hand had recorded all 10 games, but then, he had only posted his winning game onto the internet, titling it “Beat Forgetful Laughter in Ranked LoL” to attract his already fiercely loyal fans.
Forgetful Laughter didn’t make public appearances often and he didn’t get a lot of chances to interact with fans due to his tight schedule of training and competitions. He couldn’t prove his fans wrong either, since the other party had video evidence while he didn’t even bother to record anything.
***
Luocheng really didn’t know what to say when faced with these misinformed people on the internet. It was exactly like what Shallow Dream had told him, there wasn’t a clear divider between professionals and non-professionals in the e-sports community, allowing these low-tier players to have the gall to compare themselves to real LPL stars.
You should know that there was no end to training for LPL players, they trained like soldiers train to maintain their formation and also build up their physical strength, running through basic techniques over and over again to strengthen their foundation. These weren’t things that your everyday player could handle.
Luocheng didn’t want to say much. Streamers like Nine Days who stuck themselves in a lower rank so that they could seem better than they were shouldn’t even have the right to compare themselves to real LPL stars.
You streaming was a good thing for the LOL community, teaching new players how to play different champions, how to build up a high level of awareness within the game, allowing LOL enthusiasts to gather and discuss and create a sense of belonging within the fanbase. But posting misleading videos to garner false praise from fans and disgracing professional players in the process, that was absolutely unacceptable!
Nine Days had better prepare himself for his personal doomsday!
