Chapter 802 - Inverting the Truth

In fact, it was understandable that the gamers were cursing.

Due to the time difference, most of the viewers who could persevere to watch the live-stream had woken up at 3 AM. In the end, they had worked so hard to stay away for many hours only to see this result. Anyone would find it hard to accept.

Today’s competition could be said to replay the situation on the first day of the group stage.

One team lost like they had diarrhea, and the other team lost like they were constipated.

The first team was still alright. At the very least, they were eliminated cleanly with a score of 1-3. Fortunately they won one match and retained their last bit of face. The other team was more awkward. They had to persevere until the deathmatch. If they won, they would be able to advance. Both sides had wins and losses in the competition. It looked like there was a huge chance, but they were still lacking in the end.

A slight misstep could lead to a huge fall.

Was it the lack of hope that made the audience angry? Or did it give the audience a lot of hope and then ruthlessly deprive them of it, making them angrier?

It was hard to say.

However, there was no doubt that the audience had to vent their anger.

These two clubs had posted on Weibo to apologize to gamers the moment they were eliminated. However, it was useless. Angry gamers had taken over Weibo’s hot comments. Someone had already planned a route for them to swim back.

Pei Qian could almost see the grand scene online after the FV Club were to become eliminated from the top eight competition with 3:0.

These two clubs might have lost, but they were not the first seeded team. They did not represent the highest standard of IOI in the country.

Therefore, even if they were scolded, it would only be for a week.

When FV Club start their top eight competitions next weekend, the audience’s anger would definitely be focused on FV Club after they get eliminated as the first seeded team with 3: 0. It would definitely be ten times more intense than now.

Pei Qian was looking forward to it.

At that moment, FV Club sent a Weibo message.

Wu Yue did not forget Boss Pei’s request. He was working hard all the time!

The content of the new Weibo post this time was: “My teammates and I”. Then, the picture of a person walking out of the door was attached to the post. He carried a huge black trash bag in his left and right hand as he walked towards the trash can in the distance.

This person had the FV Club’s logo on his head, and the two trash bags were the logo of the other two clubs.

Pei Qian could not help but give a thumbs up when he saw this post.

Well done!

This Wu Yue really did exactly as I said. This hatred was so intense!

The two domestic clubs had only been eliminated for less than ten minutes. The audience who had stayed up late to watch the competition had nowhere to vent their anger. FV Club’s Weibo post had simply found a perfect place for them to vent their anger!

As expected, the number of comments below the post increased visibly.

“Good job! Those two teams are trash! They spoke my mind!”

“Good job, I suggest you use more force!”

“You have to train hard, FV. I won’t criticize you if you play all five matches in the top eight.”

“Why are you still doing this? Have you trained the powerful heroes in the game version? Have you prepared the secret weapon? Have you paid attention to the mental state of the players? You’re the only one left. If you get 3: 0, you’ll be finished!”

“Can you work hard and win a small game?”

“You have a hand in kicking a man when he’s down, you’re so happy when your brotherly team is eliminated. Let’s put it this way, no matter which foreign team you draw, you’ll be killed by 3: 0! The higher you jump now, the more you’ll be scolded in the future. Just you wait!”

Two groups of people were fighting furiously under FV Club’s Weibo post.

Fans who were angry at the other two clubs felt that FV Club had done a good job mocking them and found an outlet to vent their emotions. The fans of the other two clubs were heartbroken. Their hatred for FV Club once again exploded.

Some people wanted FV to win, while others wanted FV to lose. Players from different sides were attracted over. This Weibo post once again attracted a lot of attention.

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this.

The higher the popularity, the worse the fall; the more traffic there was, the worse the backlash would be if they lost in the future!

Pei Qian sent Wu Yue a message at that thought: “The new work is done well. Increase the workload!”

…

At the same time, in Los Angeles, IOI International Finals.

Zhao Xuming was scrolling through his cell phone in anger.

“Is this FV Club crazy?”

“Don’t they want to think about how ugly it would be if they lose the competition with 3: 0?”

“Not giving yourself a way out at all?”

“They spoke so fast, yet he ended up embarrassing everyone. Are they crazy?!”

Zhao Xuming was furious.

At that moment, all the group stages had ended. The first place of each group would be selected. The first and fourth seedlings would draw lots again to determine the top eight.

The current situation was a double blow to Zhao Xuming.

His ideal script was for at least one domestic team to fight their way out of the group stages. If they were lucky enough to draw lots, they would be able to play with FV Club, and the domestic team would be guaranteed a top four. That way, they would have more face.

In the end, both teams in the group stages had been eliminated. Naturally, the pushover FV Club would be taken advantage of by the others!

Wasn’t it obvious why FV was a pushover?

Long Yu Corporation completely ignored the FV Club. They did not play high-end Rank, nor did they arrange any mock competitions with any European or American teams. Their playstyles were still in the previous version. Wasn’t that a waste?

So what if they had been training with SUG? SUG was still a rookie. The more they trained with them, the worse they would become.

Then, the FV would be taken care of cleanly with 3: 0. That would be too ugly.

What made Zhao Xuming and Finger Games suffer even more was that other than the small teams in the country, there was a situation that was extremely shocking!

The other two teams were also fighting intensely. What’s more, they were both in a life and death situation. The audience enjoyed watching them and there was a lot of discussion online. In short, everything was beautiful.

The only bad thing was they did not make it!

One of the veteran clubs that Finger Games had arranged to terminate the contract had been eliminated! The other team that no one thought highly of had entered the top eight without the mandatory termination.

One of the eight teams had GOG’s logo on it when Zhao Xuming counted carefully!

There was no GOG logo on the team uniform of FV Club, but the problem was that everyone knew that this was a club that Boss Pei had invested in. It did not matter if there was a logo or not.

That was depressing.

The difference between 0 and 1 was the difference between have or don’t have. This was not considered very serious, but it was very annoying.

Thus, Zhao Xuming became more and more furious as he watched the drawing of lots for the top eight.

At such a critical juncture, FV Club had done several performances in a row. They had mocked both domestic teams and all foreign teams in the top eight competitions, showing off their full potential.

Zhao Xuming was even angrier.

The key was that Zhao Xuming felt extremely embarrassed when they mocked the domestic teams!

A team might have failed but the official platform would definitely not kick them when they were down. That would affect the official platform, the entire competition zone, and even the image of this game in the hearts of players.

No matter how bad the game was, the official platform had to be sympathetic and encouraging. They had to save face.

Thus, when Long Yu Corporation released the news release, the main content must be: the two teams had gone through hard training and made many attempts and changes in the competition. However, they had not achieved good results due to the version understanding and weak foundation. They hoped to adjust their state and work harder. They also hoped that the audience would support and encourage them, and so on.

However, FV Club coming out to mock them, was going against the official platform. The situation would not look good.

What’s more, these two teams had been brought to Los Angeles by Zhao Xuming with Long Yu Corporation’s money for early training. They had spent money but had no results. It would be difficult for Zhao Xuming to report to the higher-ups of Long Yu Corporation.

It was a blood loss no matter how he thought about it!

Zhao Xuming could not help but frown as he seriously thought about what he should do to turn the situation around.

Suddenly, he looked up and saw the results of the lottery on the big screen. His eyes lit up.

He had an idea!

The rules of drawing lots were that the four first seedlings would be selected to be first in four teams. Whoever was selected would be considered first. There were no rules such as avoiding competitions.

FV Club, on the other hand, had picked the European club that made the killing on the domestic team!

On the other hand, the established and strong FRY Club had drawn the United States Club, which had won against another domestic team after a tough battle.

Based on their current strength, these two semifinals would be completely one-sided. It would be less entertaining.

However, to Zhao Xuming, this group gave him a precious opportunity to control public opinion.

Zhao Xuming’s assistant was sitting beside him, watching the feedback on the internet.

The difference was that Zhao Xuming was mainly focused on domestic affairs while his assistant was mainly focused on the comments of foreign players on Twitter.

“Boss Zhao, the picture from FV Club has gone viral on Twitter.”

“Many people are already spamming words like ‘cn IOI noob’. What’s more, some of them are even using that picture to create something else. The target of ridicule has already spread to all the domestic IOI teams…”

“What should we do?”

Zhao Xuming took the cell phone from his assistant.

The picture of “My Teammates and I” that FV Club posted on Weibo and Twitter at the same time was very popular.

However, the feedback of the local and foreign players were different. The local players were divided into two factions. One group scolded the two local clubs while the other group scolded FV. On the other hand, the foreign players’ attitudes were more uniform. They were all mocking.

Below this tweet, many foreign gamers were spamming ‘cn IOI noob’, meaning that the domestic IOI standards were too trashy and was at the rookie level.

The topmost picture was a second creation of the previous picture. The original picture was of a man carrying two bags of trash towards the trash can. This picture was a man plunging into the trash can while throwing the two bags of trash aside.

The meaning was clear: FV Club, stop mocking other clubs. You are trash yourself!

It was normal for such public opinion to appear. After all, the two teams in the country had been eliminated from the group competition and only the first seeded team was to directly compete in the top eight. On the other hand, the teams in the European and American teams had fought their way to the top eight and were now sandwiching the remaining FV.

Most foreigners were the type who would ride on your face and mock you if they won. Many people felt that victory was already in their hands now. It was not surprising for similar comments to appear.

Zhao Xuming remained silent for a moment and sighed helplessly. “Sigh, what can we do? E-Sports still depends on strength. If their team wins, we won’t be able to say anything even if they mock us.”

“We had bad cards from the beginning. We could not win no matter how we played. There was nothing we could do. However, we still had to work hard to play our cards well and lose as little as possible.”

The assistant nodded. “What should we do then?”

Zhao Xuming thought for a moment and said, “Popularity, traffic, right to speak!”

“The two domestic teams that we have high hopes for have been eliminated and FV Club cannot be counted on either. Thus, it is no longer possible to rely on results to hype things up.”

“If FV Club gets good results, it would not be good news for us. Of course, the probability of that happening is very low.”

The assistant nodded, immediately understanding Zhao Xuming’s words.

Everyone knew that FV Club was Boss Pei’s club. Now that two domestic teams had been eliminated in the group stages, if FV Club won the top eight, players would think that it was “Boss Pei’s success” and not “Long Yu Corporation’s success”.

On the other hand, if FV Club lost, Long Yu Corporation would still be the first to be scolded, but at the very least, it would not generate popularity for Boss Pei anymore.

Zhao Xuming’s idea was not to think about being scolded for the time being. Instead, he wanted to focus his attention on IOI’s local server and Long Yu Corporation!

Zhao Xuming explained, “GPL’s Spring Competition is going to start next week. This is a very sensitive time because next week is also when the quarterfinals start.”

“FV Club would probably be beaten up at 3: 0 on the same day.”

“The most disadvantageous thing for us now is that the failure of domestic teams in the IOI World Finals would greatly extinguish the passion of IOI’s local server players and diminish their sense of belonging and pride in this competition zone.”

“Many people would definitely turn to GPL and play GOG instead. This is unacceptable to us!”

“Therefore, we have to plan ahead and think of a way to protect these players.”

“We want to publicize that IOI is the most popular game in the world with many people playing it overseas. On the other hand, even though GOG is doing well, only domestic players are playing it. It is not well-known overseas.”

“What’s more, we can provide a lot of evidence.

“For example, IOI’s global finals were held in a huge stadium with 20,000 people in Los Angeles, while GOG was only held in a recording studio in Jingzhou. Another example, IOI’s domestic team in the global finals was defeated and eliminated, while GOG’s domestic team took the top three places. This shows that there are many players playing IOI overseas, and their standards are higher than GOG.”

“If you want to connect with the world and experience the most competitive games, you still have to watch IOI.”

“That way, many gamers would think that GOG’s gamers are very ignorant. GOG’s international invitational tournament has domestic teams in the top three because foreigners don’t play it. IOI is the game that receives the most attention in the world. You should feel superior playing it…”

“It might be a form of spiritual victory, but it should be able to have a certain effect. The netizens on both sides fighting is also a form of popularity. It’s better than no one caring about it.”

“If we want to fight for traffic with the opening battle of the GPL’s Spring Competition, we can only do this. There is no other way.”

The assistant could not help but raise his thumb. “Boss Zhao, you can think of such a method even in such a pessimistic situation. You’re really amazing!”

Zhao Xuming’s move was actually distorting the truth.

Numerous people had already explained on the internet that GOG’s overseas market share was not low. It was basically on par with IOI in the PC field. It was even more outstanding in the mobile games field.

However, many people still had the illusion that visiting monks chant scriptures better.

In many people’s hearts, foreign games were good, domestic games were counterfeit. Since IOI was an overseas game, it must be better than GOG.

Therefore, even though GOG was more localized, suiting the local aesthetics, and the gameplay was more suitable for most ordinary gamers, there would still be people who felt that it was inferior to IOI, the “foreign monk”.

This concept had always existed. What Zhao Xuming wanted to do was to deliberately create a sense of “IOI players are more noble than GOG players” by spreading news online and strengthening this stereotype.

That way, IOI’s team would be defeated overseas and GOG would be defeated domestically. The entire situation would change.

The former was because IOI was an international competition. Their domestic standards were indeed not good. It was a form of challenge and normal for them to lose. The latter was because GOG was a domestic club that was entertaining itself. It could not explain the problem even if they tortured foreign teams.

In an instant, he had reversed the situation and turned the tables!

Of course, there was a distortion of facts in this argument.

However, such tactics were very common in business competitions. It was understandable that everyone would say something that was beneficial to them.

The assistant immediately followed Zhao Xuming’s instructions.

…

…

January 2nd, Monday…

Pei Qian was revising in the study room.

While he had many places to revise, such as Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, his own home, his company’s office, and so on, he found that revising in the self-study room was still the most efficient after trying all of them.

He had to admit that sometimes, if he wanted to focus on something, the environment was very important. His self-control alone was not enough.

This week was the official start of the exam week. Pei Qian felt immense pressure, especially during the closed examinations. He had no choice but to cram.

Halfway through, Pei Qian habitually took his cell phone and browsed the forum.

He had only done it subconsciously, but he did not expect to gain something unexpected!

There were still endless criticisms about the IOI World Competition’s crushing defeat on the various forums. There was still no sign of stopping after an entire day. It was enough to show how angry players were.

However, to Pei Qian’s surprise, there seemed to be a subtle change in public opinion!

It was obvious from the title of some popular posts in the forum.

In a post titled “Domestic eSports began late, has a weak foundation, and has to continue working hard”, the original post explained in detail the objective reasons for IOI’s loss in the international competition.

For example, the IOI branches of the various clubs had basically been attacked by GOG, and their personnel had been replaced. At the same time, many players found it difficult to maintain their state because of a lack of mock competitions, and so on.

Similar problems existed objectively there were always tons of them.

However, that was not the main point.

Someone in the post refuted the viewpoint of the post. “Why does IOI represent domestic eSports? GOG’s international invitational tournament had only been held a few months ago but hasn’t it just beaten foreign teams? Why doesn’t GOG have this problem?”

In the end, this reply was exactly what the poster wanted.

“What’s the point of discussing results in a game that only our countrymen are playing and has a low reputation in the world? At the moment, IOI is being played overseas, and the foreign clubs are mainly playing IOI. What does GOG’s dominance mean?”

Someone immediately refuted, saying that the veteran foreign clubs also had GOG branches. They had all participated in GOG’s international invitational tournament, but they could not win. Otherwise, why did they not come and take the prize money?

However, the original poster still had something to say.

“These veteran clubs established the GOG branch only because Tengda gave them money. It’s said that they gave them a high sponsorship fee, and they played with you on account of money. To put it bluntly, GOG’s invitational tournament is to pay foreign teams to play as punching bags to satisfy the vanity of the countrymen. You don’t really think that this is the true level of competition for domestic and foreign teams, do you?”

Both sides argued and argued.

Obviously, the original poster’s argument was deceiving many people who did not know the truth. In addition, the fake reviewers added fuel to the fire. The debate between the two sides was very intense.

There were also many gamers who painstakingly explained that GOG had a high market share overseas. It was not much different from IOI, but the results were minimal.

That was because IOI’s loyal gamers and fake reviewers were not there for rational discussion. No matter what GOG’s gamers rebuked, they only kept on spamming comments such as’ entertaining themselves’ and ‘spending money to do their bidding’.

Repeating numerous times would increase the impression of stereotypes and tear each other apart online. The truth was not important. Most people only needed to emphasize a fixed label repeatedly. Even if the label was low-class and brainless, someone would remember it as long as it was repeated enough times.

Most of the time, the so-called “discussions” online were the same as a shrew cursing on the streets. They did not compete on logic but on who was louder.

Obviously, this group of people were well-versed in the principles of fighting online. Using a small number of people to achieve excellent results.

Many GOG players were furious, but Pei Qian was happy.

Alright, it looked like Long Yu Corporation was not a slacker. It was finally working!

Long Yu Corporation’s performance during the qualifiers in IOI was really bad. Pei Qian only went to watch the competition live and did not do anything. Long Yu Corporation collapsed without a fight. Pei Qian was really disappointed.

However, Long Yu Corporation was finally struggling now!

Pei Qian was very pleased and hoped to increase the intensity!

The fake reviewers would definitely be able to affect the popularity of the GPL spring competition as long as you continue to criticize FV Team when they were tortured in the top eight competition this weekend!