Chapter 1067: Sponsorships
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Tao Xuan used to run an Internet cafe as well?
This answer was shocking for Chen Guo. She had never felt a lick of anything but distaste for Tao Xuan, yet now she found out that this guy used to be in the same line of business as she was and immediately felt shame for him.
"I really couldn't tell." Chen Guo said in disgruntlement.
Ye Xiu smiled, but didn't say anything.
"And after that?" Chen Guo then pursued because she suddenly realized that Excellent Era's rise to power back then was something she could probably learn a lot from.
"After? After that was going around competing in competitions. By then, the Alliance might've already been created, but it was just starting out and didn't have the same influence and renown as it does today. There were plenty of Glory competitions just like it and we would enter them all. Online matches, offline matches, so long as there was no scheduling conflict, we wouldn't miss a single one," Ye Xiu said.
"To train the team?" Chen Guo guessed.
"No… to win the prize money and make sure the team lived on and make sure the players lived on." Ye Xiu said.
Chen Guo was stunned. Though she was older than Ye Xiu, she hadn't been a part of Glory for as long as he had. She had started out playing casually to pass the time to becoming a fan to follow the pro scene. By then, the Alliance had already been already well established, and the teams and players had become shining stars. At the very least, Club Excellent Era had already settled opposite to Happy Internet cafe and the resplendent team logo was already hung up. It was no longer what Ye Xiu described, needing to play in all sorts of matches to win enough prize money to live on.
"I no longer remember how many matches we played that year, how much prize money we won, how much prize money we won but never received. However, the Glory Pro Alliance was the most stable competition, which also gave the heftiest cash rewards. A year later, it had already gained much attention from the populace. More sponsorships, promoting it far and wide meant that the competing teams would get larger bonuses and more prize money. With this cycle, the teams and the Alliance began to grow rapidly, side by side.
Chen Guo nodded. She understood now. Even some of the things Ye Xiu didn't explain explicitly, she could guess. Excellent Era had successively won the first three championships of the Alliance. Without a doubt, disregarding the Alliance itself, they were the organization that took the greatest share of profit from the Alliance's first years. It was with this that Excellent Era managed to go from an Internet cafe team, a team that sounded downright poverty-stricken, to a top powerhouse.
As for the current Happy?
Chen Guo suddenly realized that the most difficult section of Happy's journey had somehow gone by without notice. Recalling their journey, from nothing to something, and then to the Challenger League, facing a massive powerhouse like Excellent Era, this was an impossible journey. But they did it. Would there be anything as difficult as this?
Taking the championship title?
Of course it would be difficult, but winning or losing the championships didn't affect the continued survival of a team. Team Happy had even managed to get through a life and death situation. Wouldn't the future be smoother?
In that moment, Chen Guo's confidence returned to her in full. She immediately left the house and returned to the Internet cafe. From now on, she was going to focus completely on doing the best she could for her team.
Before, she had turned part of the second floor of their Internet cafe into a training center, but she was still a little anxious inside. After all, the Internet cafe was her most stable source of income. But now, Chen Guo wasn't afraid anymore. Happy had come this far; there was no reason they'd fall now.
On the way over, Chen Guo had already picked up her phone to make a call and booked for renovators to come and take a look at the Internet cafe. After getting back to Happy and welcoming said renovators, they all went to the second floor together. She relayed her requirements to the renovators as they looked over the place of discussion. After discussing for almost a full day, the other went back to begin on blueprints. As for Chen Guo, she took her second big step after this first one.
"Is this Little Chang? It's Sis' Chen!" Chen Guo dialed the City H Esports Home reporter's number.
Of the two Esports Home reporters assigned to City H, one was in heaven and the other was in hell.
Glory was currently the hottest esports in the country. Although Esports Home was a comprehensive esports media group, they still focused primarily on Glory. The reason for the construction of City H's reporter base was entirely because of the local Team Excellent Era.
Logically speaking, there was no longer a reason for City H's reporter base to exist anymore with Excellent Era's relegation. However, no one had ever doubted Excellent Era's ability to immediately slaughter its way back into the Alliance from the Challenger League, not even Esports Home. Thus, the City H reporter base remained. Even though this year was a desolate one for the renown reporter Cao Guangcheng, he didn't despair, patiently waiting for the day Excellent Era would return to the Alliance.
But no one had ever thought that Excellent Era would fail just like that. What was even more awkward for Cao Guangcheng was that the one to defeat Excellent Era was Team Happy, Chang Xian's treasure, but a team that Cao Guangcheng didn't approve of.
Team Happy had Ye Xiu, so this shouldn't have been a team that Cao Guangcheng would look down on. However, Cao Guancheng did, because he had thought he knew more than anyone that it didn't matter if Ye Xiu was there or not since he couldn't be interviewed anyways. If he couldn't interview Ye Xiu, then what value did Team Happy have to him? What, you think they would actually win the Challenger League?
But they did.
Happy became the champions of the Challenger League and Chang Xian had a monopoly over Happy's interview resources. His publications continuously appeared on Esports Home. He had even gotten an exclusive interview from Ye Xiu. Everyone knew that Ye Xiu no longer shied away from this sort of thing, but, why didn't that asshole show this attitude earlier? If Cao Guangcheng had known that Ye Xiu would be willing to accept interviews, would he have so easily given Happy's lane to Chang Xian to run? Of course not!
Unfortunately, there were no 'if's.
The Excellent Era that Cao Guangcheng had his bets on and followed was now facing the problem of disbandment. And Happy, having defeated Excellent Era, was now a news hotspot. Chang Xian's attitude towards him hadn't changed any, still treating him respectfully as a senior, but Cao Guangcheng understood clearly that their roles had changed. In the future, City H's reporter base would be Chang Xian's turf because if the reporter base in City H were to remain, then it would be there for Happy. Chang Xian was on good terms with Happy and this was no secret in their circle. Through his connections, Cao Guangcheng had also gotten wind that the higher ups had no intentions of switching out Chang Xian and instead couldn't stop praising him.
During this period of time, Happy was a news hotspot and Esports Home had the best reports of all things Happy. This was entirely thanks to Chang Xian. The people in their circle were all too satisfied with Chang Xian's work and didn't have any intentions to try for his place.
Cao Guangcheng despaired. None of the higher-ups even tried to take this chance to pick peaches. It was probably impossible for him to replace Chang Xian. Follow around and wait on his past disciple? Cao Guangcheng couldn't bring himself to do that. He had already applied to his higher-ups, using Excellent Era's absence as a reason, to be switched to a different place.
Cao Guangcheng's application hadn't been accepted by Esports Home yet, but he was set on not staying in City H. He had already begun preparing Chang Xian to take over.
"Ah ah, Sister Chen, hi!!"
The sound of Chang Xian taking a call met Cao Guangcheng's ears. He knew who Chang Xian was talking to: Team Happy's boss, Chen Guo.
A call from the boss of a team. Little Chang really had it good. Even though he knew Happy's current situation and the boss personally calling wasn't anything big, Cao Guancheng couldn't help but be a little jealous.
"Oh oh, I think we should have some of that! I'll look into it for you and call you later?"
"Okay, I'll do that then. Bye, Sister Chen."
The call was hung up. It sounded like Chen Guo had asked for Chang Xian to look into something.
"What did Happy want?" Cao Guangcheng asked casually. Usually, a question like this meant that he had eavesdropped on Chang Xian's phone call. Even though Chang Xian had no intentions to hide it from him, this still wasn't very good, especially between reporters. It was a sort of taboo. However, Cao Guangcheng was down-in-the-dumps and didn't care to consider this.
"Oh, Brother Cao, I was going to ask. It'd probably be more convenient for me to just ask you," Chang Xian said.
"What?" Cao Guangcheng asked.
"Happy wanted to ask, what sponsors does Excellent Era have, big or small. The more details we have the better," Chang Xian replied.
"That? Do they really need us to help them look into that?" Cao Guangcheng couldn't help but laugh at the answer he had gotten. What was a sponsor? They were the ones who gave you money and in return, you had to promote them. Thus, sponsors wouldn't be any sort of secret. Excellent Era had to find every way to show the world what sponsors they had. If you took a look at that, wouldn't Excellent Era's sponsors become clear?
"Uh, she wants to know all the sponsors they've ever had, including ones that backed out, so I think I should still take a look for her," Chang Xian said.
"Oh, I'm not too certain about that either. How about you look into it!" Cao Guangcheng said. As for the reason Happy wanted to look into this information, never mind him, even Chang Xian could easily guess that. It couldn't be anything but that Happy was starting to look for sponsorships, and they wanted to take the sponsors from Excellent Era, who were facing disbandment. This was an appropriate move to make.
However… wasn't Happy simplifying everything too much? If a sponsor sponsored Excellent Era, then that showed where they stood. Now, Happy had defeated Excellent Era and blocked them out of the pro alliance, pushing them to the dire situation they were in. Happy was Excellent Era's enemy. Those who were only just sponsoring Excellent Era a moment ago would turn around and sponsor Happy instead? Businesses cared about how they looked. Doing this would be no different from calling whoever had milk mother. Who would want that sort of image?
Taking Excellent Era's sponsors was a good idea.
However, Happy's boss Chen, it seems like you really don't understand. Glory is a competitive scene. If anyone were to invest in this area, it was a little different. Especially for local sponsors, it would be more than difficult for them to turn to Happy the moment Excellent Era fell.
"Oh yeah…" Cao Guangcheng suddenly remembered something, calling out to Chang Xian. "If Happy wants sponsors, there's one I recommend."
"Ah? Who?" Chang Xian asked.
"Dry Tea Green," Cao Guangcheng said, a barely perceptible smile flashing over his face. He didn't want to compete for anything anymore, but, maybe watching Happy humiliated would help get rid of the frustration in his heart.