Chapter 130: Jiangnan Esports Club

"Brother-in-law, it seems you have discovered another talent!" Leng Zhimeng said with a beaming smile.

"Indeed, he is quite a fine talent!" Boss Huang nodded as well. Pei Le's talent had already been thoroughly validated in another world; after all, his WE club was the only organization among all LPL clubs that lacked any backing from massive conglomerates or corporations—it was a club built entirely from scratch by Pei Le alone.

At the same time, it was also one of the very few clubs capable of turning a profit, which was a unique badge of honor within the wildly cash-burning world of the LPL.

Pei Le had handled things remarkably well. That evenly-distributed idea allowed the Chinese team's matches to proceed smoothly while ensuring the OO logo received ample exposure in the match video footage.

To be completely honest, because the "Da Da" jacket was draped over the chair in the background, its visibility in the video footage even surpassed that of Samsung's logo. This promotional effect could truly be called the best of the entire event.

Meanwhile, MTY and Deep fought their way through to defeat both the South Korean and German teams, ultimately securing a commendable first-place finish in the team tournament. To be frank, however, the victory over the South Korean team was partly due to the tournament rules, which stipulated that a competitor could only participate in either the individual tournament or the team tournament, but not both.

The powerhouses among the South Korean squad had all registered for the individual competition to chase the highest honor, leaving the players remaining in the team event somewhat weaker in overall strength.

Consequently, during the Starcraft individual tournament the next day, only one Chinese player managed to secure a third-place finish, while the championship title once again fell into the hands of the South Koreans. Barring any accidents, the South Koreans were well on their way to forging a legendary streak of monopolizing the WCG Starcraft championship titles.

On that same second day, the Chinese players also claimed the honor of the FIFA team tournament championship.

On the final day of the competition, the Chinese players finally made a breakthrough in the individual events. The player iamkmkm clinched the individual championship, adding a gold medal in the individual category to China's tally.

In the end, China secured three gold medals at the inaugural WCG, while South Korea garnered four, placing second and first on the medal table respectively.

However, one of those medals was the gold from the Women's Invitational tournament. Since almost all participating contestants were South Korean, they swept the gold, silver, and bronze medals of the Women's Invitational. Just how much real value that gold medal held was therefore self-evident.

It is worth mentioning that apart from the Women's Invitational, China also matched South Korea in the three event categories where the South Korean team won gold.

In Starcraft and FIFA, the individual champions were South Korean, while the team champions were Chinese.

Conversely, in Age of Empires II, the individual champion was Chinese, while the team champion was South Korean. This seemed to lay an interesting groundwork for the decades of fierce esports rivalry between China and South Korea in the future.

With the conclusion of the tournament came the time for Huang He and the players to part ways, and these competitors felt a genuine reluctance to leave our Boss Huang.

It was not that they harbored any inappropriate thoughts regarding Leng Zhimeng's beauty. In fact, upon learning that Leng Zhimeng was Huang He's sister-in-law and the CEO of OO herself, not a single one of the championship-winning players dared to entertain any wild fantasies about her, collectively banishing any memory of Leng Zhimeng's prior promises.

They simply could not bear to leave behind the lifestyle of the past few days—staying in luxury hotels, enjoying dedicated bus transfers, and partaking in complimentary gourmet hotel meals.

Although some of them had pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in prize money, they either had to hand a portion over to their clubs or surrender it to their parents as proof that playing video games could actually be a normal, legitimate profession. Alternatively, they might just spend it all on personal consumption. In any case, they deeply missed the comprehensive player treatment provided by Boss Huang.

And this was precisely what Huang He wanted to see. Thus, before parting ways, Huang He gathered them in his room to hold yet another meeting.

"I want to organize an esports club!" Looking at these elites of contemporary Chinese esports, Huang He stated decisively, "I am extremely optimistic about the esports industry, and our company will make major moves in the gaming sector in the future. My goal is to become the finest gaming company in the world, so esports will become a crucial strategic pillar for our Jiangnan Group. Therefore, upon returning, I will establish the Jiangnan Esports Club."

Huang He paused here for a moment to observe the expressions on the players' faces.

Clearly, desire was written all over every single one of their faces. Having experienced the lifestyle of the past few days, they were desperately eager to join Boss Huang's club.

"After joining our Jiangnan Club, each person will receive a basic monthly salary of 3,000. At the same time, I will arrange a residence for you to serve as the club's training base. Your room and board will be covered by the club, and travel and other expenses required for competitions will also be taken care of by the club."

"Your sole duty after joining the club is to train regularly and participate in matches when they arise. In the future, should there be various commercial activities, you must also follow the club's arrangements and take action!"

"As for tournament prize money, the club will split it 50-50 with you. Beyond that, any income involving personal commercial endorsements, events, and the like will also be split 50-50 with the club!"

"My club currently intends to invest energy into three gaming titles: Counter-Strike, Starcraft, and Warcraft!" Huang He said with a smile. "These are my conditions. Anyone interested can choose to join my club right now!"

As soon as Huang He laid out his conditions, these individuals could hardly wait to join his club on the spot. Damn it, putting everything else aside, just the monthly salary of 3,000 was enough to make it impossible for these professional players to refuse.

One had to realize that the wages of most workers and white-collar employees at the time did not even reach 3,000. This meant not only would their livelihoods be secured, but they could also return home with pride and tell their parents that they could now support themselves. Gaming was no longer viewed merely as a decadent waste of time, but could genuinely become a respectable profession.

Not to mention that the club could also provide stable accommodation and a proper training environment—with all these conditions combined, absolutely no one could turn it down.

The only thing that could potentially hold them back were the three specific gaming titles Huang He mentioned. Those focusing on Counter-Strike and Starcraft were fine, as they could transition directly onto the roster. However, the professional players specializing in Unreal, Age of Empires, and FIFA could not help feeling a bit stranded.

"Mr. Huang, can we Unreal players join the club?" the Unreal Tournament players asked impatiently.

"You can be integrated into the Counter-Strike division, but I will only give you three months. If you transition to the Counter-Strike division within three months yet fail to achieve commendable training results, then I will have no choice but to ask you to leave the club," Huang He said sincerely. "The same goes for Age of Empires II. You can transition to Starcraft or Warcraft; the genres are quite similar, and you should be able to pick them up quickly!"

"Mr. Huang, why are you not optimistic about a game like Age of Empires II!" iamkmkm, the Age of Empires II champion, stood up and asked with deep reluctance, "Clearly, Age of Empires II has a massive player base internationally, and its market is huge—at the very least, much larger than Warcraft."

"Yet Warcraft hasn't even crossed the threshold of WCG; on what grounds is Age of Empires II being rejected by you instead?"

"Because Age of Empires II lacks spectator appeal!" Huang He stated bluntly. "The pacing of Age of Empires II is actually unsuited for audiences to watch because its early-game tempo is far too slow, and the character models are insufficiently clear. Furthermore, the match durations are dragged out extensively, a fact that was clearly evident during the matches these past few days!"

"When the Starcraft matches were broadcast on the big screen, there were likely several thousand people crowding around to watch. But the spectators for Age of Empires II were few and far between. This is an inherent design flaw of the game itself."

"True, for the players themselves, the actual gaming experience of Age of Empires II is fantastic because they are the ones operating the game. But for the audience, the viewing experience is rather poor, falling far short of other fast-paced real-time strategy games."

Huang He's words left the Age of Empires players with nothing to say. They realized that in terms of understanding the gaming industry, Huang He was far more profound than they were; he truly lived up to the title of someone looking to run an esports club.

"Warcraft II isn't much better either; that game has already fallen far behind this era," iamkmkm said, still feeling unwilling to concede.

"Indeed, but I never said the Warcraft division would be for Warcraft II!" Huang He smiled. "Warcraft III will launch globally next year. I have actually already experienced it once and felt it was exceptionally perfect. This will be the greatest real-time strategy game in history, which is why I am so optimistic about it."

"Of course, the Warcraft III division isn't recruiting people right now. You can all gather in the Starcraft division for the time being, and once the game officially launches, we will reallocate personnel!"

"Very well, considering that you are all warriors who have brought glory to the country, I am imposing no entry barriers for any of you. As long as you are willing to join the Jiangnan Esports Club, you can come to Wenzhou to find Zhimeng and sign your contracts upon returning to China. But I am only giving you three months. After three months, the club will conduct a round of selection for all players; only those who meet the standards will stay, while those who fall short will regrettably have to leave. Of course, throughout these three months, your compensation will follow the standards I mentioned!"

"By the way, if you are currently affiliated with any other clubs, you had better handle those club issues properly. I wish to avoid taking on any commercial risks!"

The meeting concluded. Some left with excitement, others departed in deep contemplation, while Pei Le felt as though he had witnessed a spectacle amounting to nothing concrete.

Just as he was preparing to head back, Huang He pulled him aside into his private room, and whatever they discussed remained unknown to anyone else.

The next day, the players boarded their flights back to China, while Boss Huang stayed behind in South Korea for an additional three days accompanying Allen Adham before they both boarded a flight back to China together.

Subsequently, at Huang He's invitation, Allen Adham and his entourage happily toured Beijing and Shanghai before arriving in Wenzhou to conduct an inspection of Huang He's OO.

Upon learning that OO already boasted over 8 million active users nationwide in China, and upon getting a glimpse of the internal test version of a brand-new software Huang He had brought out, Allen Adham was utterly astonished. After all, Blizzard had yet to see a single game of theirs achieve global sales of 8 million copies.

Consequently, Allen Adham agreed without the slightest hesitation and proceeded to sign a letter of intent for the agency rights of World of Warcraft. It seemed as though he could already envision the scene of World of Warcraft rapidly sweeping across the entire Chinese online gaming market with the aid of OO.

[PS: Two additional chapters will be released tonight.]