Chapter 1366: IOI’s Worst Situation

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

December 16th, Sunday…

Pei Qian woke up and saw all sorts of hot searches. He was completely stunned.

“# Support FV Team to Transit to GOG #???”

“How did this thing get on the hot searches?”

“This is ridiculous!”

Pei Qian fell asleep after watching FV Team’s competition yesterday and did not pay much attention to the discussions on the forums.

The only thing that comforted him yesterday was that FV Team did not thank Boss Pei after winning the championship.

As for whether FV Team won or lost, it was acceptable to Pei Qian. It was not a big problem.

However, when he woke up and saw the hot topic on his cell phone, Pei Qian could not remain calm anymore.

What was going on?

Why would they support FV Team to transit to GOG?

At first, Pei Qian thought that the gamers of GOG had started this topic. They were fanning the flames and poaching IOI.

However, he realized that he had guessed wrongly after reading everyone’s discussion.

After the competition yesterday, GOG’s gamers were enthusiastically discussing the exciting internal battle between the two domestic teams in the international invitational tournament. They did not pay attention to FV Team at all.

In other words, those who had notified Boss Pei of the news had come to GOG’s forum to congratulate Boss Pei for obtaining the double championship of GOG and IOI once again. They wanted to celebrate.

The first thing that changed was the forum on IOI.

If FV Team lost, it would seem a little sour to go through Finger Games’ version change and secretly send Balancer to other teams. However, now that FV Team had won, they had to talk about the new and old hatred!

That was because in E-Sports, only those who won would have the right to speak. Those who criticized others would feel confident.

FV Team had already proven that they could still win the championship under the influence of Finger Games’ version. However, this also meant that they would be targeted more next year.

Thus, IOI’s players were unhappy and felt that FV Team was not worth it. Thus, they started a topic, hoping that they would invest in GOG. As players, of course, they would follow suit.

This topic had only been hotly discussed in IOI’s circle. However, many GOG players saw that it was a good thing! They welcomed it with both hands!

You IOI players had obviously made a wrong decision. The mistake was that you had decided too late!

You should have turned to GOG last year!

Thus, GOG’s players were naturally happy to add fuel to the fire of this topic. In just one night, the topic of #Supporting FV Team to Change to GOG# had become a hot topic. It had even surpassed the topic of GOG and IOI winning the world competition.

Even the first few hot comments under the Weibo post where FV Team won the championship were all feeling that it was not worth it for them and hoped that they would transfer to GOG early.

Pei Qian was stunned when he saw the contents.

This was completely unexpected!

What if FV Team really transferred to GOG?

One had to know that FV Team was the two champions of IOI’s international competition. They had two sets of champion skins.

Wouldn’t it be equivalent to pressing Finger Games’ face to the ground before the champion’s skin was made?

What now? Should he do something?

Pei Qian was the boss of FV Team after all. No matter what he said, no matter whether he asked FV Team to transfer to GOG or stay in IOI, FV Team would probably listen.

However, after some consideration, Pei Qian decided not to bother about this matter.

If FV Team wanted to transfer to GOG, they would transfer. If they did not want to transfer, they would not transfer.

It was up to them to decide.

Pei Qian could not bear to force FV Team to stay in IOI if they felt that it was a little unfair.

Even if FV Team really transferred to GOG and brought a group of players, they would probably bring some players from IOI’s local server. There were not many players left in IOI’s local server.

Thus, Pei Qian did not dwell on this matter.

Since GOG and IOI’s international competition had ended, this matter could be over. He could continue to worry about other things…

…

It was 2 PM in Europe and 8 PM in China.

In the hotel where the staff of Finger Games were staying, the upper echelons of Chrétien, Jin Yong, and a few other Finger Games were holding an emergency meeting.

Logically speaking, Jin Yong should not participate in a meeting of this level. However, the problem was that the main problem this time was the domestic server.

After FV Team won the championship yesterday, the public opinion on the domestic internet exploded. However, the activity of domestic players decreased!

The operations staff of IOI’s local server had sent a message today. They said that the player activity on the second day of the championship was similar to the same period. It had plummeted!

That was even under the circumstances that IOI’s local server had already opened various benefits such as half price of the champion’s skin, additional experience when playing games, and so on.

What’s more, it was Sunday. There should be more players.

For other regions, it was one thing for the championship to be snatched away by FV Team and for it to be difficult to ignite the passion of the players. Why did the players in the local server also plummet? Why did they fall even more severely than other places?

That was unacceptable!

One had to know that IOI’s local server did not have many players left. If this continued, it was hard to say if there would be enough people in the local server to open the game.

If it was a standalone game, it did not matter how many active players there were online. In any case, everyone played their own games and would not affect each other. However, the gaming experience of players in MOBA games depended completely on the number of players in the total number of players. If there were too few people, they would not be able to match opponents with similar strength. Low-level players would be easily beaten and crushed. This would further aggravate the collapse of the entire pyramid from the bottom up!

If this continued, the domestic server would probably stop operating in a few months.

There was no point in gritting their teeth and holding on. They would only be able to get one round in ten minutes. It would be no different from closing the server.

This emergency meeting was to solve these two main problems.

First, if he could prevent IOI’s local server from losing players?

Second, how should the negative comments on the domestic internet that encouraged FV Team to fight GOG be resolved?

As the person-in-charge of IOI’s local server, Chrétien and Jin Yong naturally could not escape. They were pulled over for a meeting immediately.

Jin Yong sat in a corner of the conference table, listening to the upper echelons of Finger Games and Chrétien chatter. He felt like he had nothing to live for.

His language skills were not bad, but he still felt uncomfortable at such an event.

He had thought that he would be able to take a plane back tomorrow since the IOI World Competition was over. There should not be any major missions in the near future.

He did not expect that the blame would fly to him before he could fly away!

They were not even in China, but he still had to take the blame if something happened to IOI’s local server. That was ridiculous.

Jin Yong felt that he was really unlucky.

Previously, he had felt very lucky to be selected as IOI’s cooperation department. After all, this was a key project decided by the upper echelons of Long Yu Corporation. However, he now deeply realized that this was a pit!

He had not stopped since he joined this department!

There would always be strange and serious problems in unexpected places.

He had to deal with it. He could not deal with it!

Take this matter for example. Jin Yong could not think of a solution even if he racked his brains.

The only way he could think of was for Finger Games to honestly admit defeat. Then, they would adjust the content that they had cut off FV Team in the next version. They would make a show of ‘we are indeed seriously doing data balance and not target FV Team’.

However, was that possible?

If Finger Games wanted to do this, it was indeed possible to salvage a portion of IOI’s local server players and retain FV Team. However, it might also cause another series of losses.

Would foreign players and teams think that you were submitting to the might of domestic players? Would they think that this was “a crying child has milk to eat”? What if foreign players threatened to leave the game?

If he strengthened the heroes that FV Team was good at and really gave FV Team three consecutive championships next year, would the teams in the other competition zones still play?

One had to know that Finger Games’ current strategy was to let IOI’s local server slack and wait for death. They would focus on the European market. At the very least, they had raised a CEM this time. They were only one step away from winning the championship. Wouldn’t all their previous efforts be wasted if they changed them back?

The current situation was that IOI domestic server players felt that they had received unfair treatment and did not want to play with you. However, the players in Europe and America could not win the championship every year. They could not see hope every year. They were very unhappy.

It would have been fine if IOI was the only game in the world. He could only blame himself for being too lousy.

However, GOG’s current expansion in the European and American markets was also very strong. The league had also been established. The European and American teams had been beaten last year to enter the top four this year. Their improvement was obvious.

If they could not win the championship, wouldn’t it be the same for European players?

GOG was ahead of IOI in many aspects. What’s more, its momentum in the past few months was obviously much more fierce than IOI. No matter how one looked at it, it was more worth investing and looking forward to than IOI.

Thus, a very strange situation happened in IOI. Everyone felt that they should be taken care of.

If they continued to target FV Team, the local players would quit; if they changed back, the European and American players would quit.

There was no way to solve this root problem at all. This ending had already been decided when Finger Games targeted FV Team’s heroes to make European and American teams win the championship.

If CEM Team could win the championship, they might be able to protect Europe. Now, they could not get any advantage from either side.

Everyone discussed and discussed about some very superficial methods. For example, they wanted to make the champion’s skin look good, organize more activities in the country to promote FV Team, change the heroes that FV Team was good at to the international competition before considering whether to cut them off.

However, everyone knew very well that these measures could not solve the problem fundamentally. Even if they could be effective, the effect would probably be limited.

After a period of silence, Chrétien said, “Perhaps we have to prepare for the worst in advance.”

“If the local server’s players are lost and it’s difficult to operate normally, and the value of the ICL league is on the verge of collapse, what should we do?”