After two rounds of internal testing, LOL finally began its official open beta.
Relying on Renren.com's powerful marketing and operational capabilities, LOL was incredibly popular from the start of its internal testing, attracting a large number of eyeballs.
Most crucially, LOL successfully penetrated the female demographic and was well-received among female players.
"'League of Legends' will hold its first World Championship this summer, with a prize pool reaching 2 million US dollars."
On the day of the open beta, a shocking piece of news spread, dropping a huge bomb on the esports community.
"Holy crap, what's the concept of two million US dollars? Converted, it's 15 million RMB. Current WCG and IEM champions only get 30-50k RMB. That's a 300-fold difference?"
"Oh my god, Riot and Chen Pingjiang are too rich. Just counting the zeros behind the number makes my eyes blurry."
"It's the total prize pool. The champion probably gets about 1 million US dollars. After the club takes a cut and coaches are factored in, each person might get around 100,000 US dollars?"
"Even 100,000 US dollars is a lot, isn't it? In some places, you could buy a house with that."
"Awesome, with this news, LOL's player count will definitely skyrocket."
"How do we get selected for this? I want to team up with my roommate."
"Count me in, I'm a wicked good Garen."
Historically, the S1 World Championship was held in Sweden, with a prize pool of only 100,000 US dollars, 50,000 for the champion, and 25,000 for the runner-up.
It wasn't until the S2 World Championship that the prize pool reached 2 million.
Unexpectedly, Chen Pingjiang went big this time.
The explosive impact of a prize pool of this magnitude in this era is imaginable.
All commercial activities originate from profit.
In China, although esports started late, it became increasingly popular after SKY won the WCG championship.
Upon seeing this news, countless people immediately began forming LOL teams.
WE E-sports Club is a Chinese esports club, established on April 21, 2005.
The initial projects it operated were Warcraft and StarCraft.
After seeing this news, founder Zhou Hao could no longer hold back and quickly called Pei Le and Li Xiaofeng together.
"We must immediately establish an LOL division and operate it as a priority. I have a hunch that this game will become incredibly popular in the future."
"But we don't have money. Gigabyte's sponsorship is only a small amount, and finding people to train and changing venues will cost a lot."
At this point, Li Xiaofeng, also known as SKY, said:
"I still have some savings I can contribute."
"Count me in too."
......
Wang Cong is a second-generation rich, who just graduated from London and returned to China.
During his time back in China, he didn't go to work, just hung out in Shanghai, and usually liked to go to Netfish Internet Cafe with friends for 5-player LOL team games when he had nothing to do.
Recently, he'd been obsessed, playing all night every night and going back to sleep the next day.
The news that LOL was holding its first World Championship made Wang Cong keenly aware of the business opportunities within it.
As a second-generation rich, he had just received 500 million from his father and established a PE fund, and was currently looking for projects.
"This is quite interesting. Not only is there a World Championship, but I also heard Renren.com plans to imitate the NBA and establish a professional league in China. In that case, S1 would be like the World Cup of LOL."
"Cong Ge, why not start a team for fun? Anyway, the investment isn't that big. I've inquired, and CS team players only earn two to three thousand yuan a month. And I happen to know a team."
"What's its name?"
"CCM. It's a DOTA team that also has an LOL division. ZHOU and 430 are both in it. Its current operational status isn't great; we just need to spend some money to acquire it."
Wang Cong immediately felt it was a good opportunity upon hearing this.
Having just returned to China, he was eager to prove his business talent to his father.
He loved playing LOL, and it was also very engaging to watch.
Most importantly, the richest man had already entered the game, so what was he hesitating for?
"Tomorrow, have a CCM representative come to my office, and I'll talk to him."
The negotiations went smoothly, and CCM was brought back to life directly.
Two days later, when the representative told the team members the news, the five of them excitedly hugged each other.
Lu Benwei, speaking with a Hong Kong accent, shouted:
"Awesome!"
At the same time, Wang Cong also announced on Weibo that the CCM team was renamed IG.
The first batch of IG members were: Wh1t3zZ (Lu Benwei), mid-laner xiaoxiao (Sun Yalong), LuFFY (Zong Yuan), Tabe (Wang Baiqin), and Chris (Xiao Qiang).
At this time, Xiaoxiao hadn't worn glasses yet, and his youthful appearance had nothing to do with a stroke.
Lu Benwei's side bangs almost covered half his face; he hadn't dyed his hair blonde yet, nor was he called "55 kai," and his girlfriend wasn't UU.
Liu Mou had not yet debuted and was still playing online in a sketchy internet cafe in his hometown in Sichuan.
......
"We plan to establish an LPL league in China, with LCK in Korea, LCS in North America, LEC in Europe, and LMS in Taiwan. We have already set up local branches, but team incubation still needs time. Without enough teams, the league cannot be established.
However, before that, we plan to hold some small-scale city challenge tournaments in various places to accumulate experience in hosting events."
After listening to Tian Hongrui's introduction, Chen Pingjiang nodded:
"For the first World Championship, make sure the network is good. It would be ridiculous if players disconnected halfway through a game."
The establishment of the LOL professional league itself is irreplicable.
Besides it, there are almost no other commercial leagues; at most, grand tournaments are held like for PUBG and DOTA.
As the organizer, Chen Pingjiang definitely had to ensure fairness and impartiality, but it was acceptable to give some consideration to domestic teams within a reasonable scope.
At least, Chen Pingjiang didn't want to see a team get swept 0-4 again.
"For the teams established in the early stage, you need to put more effort into nurturing them and helping them connect with sponsors."
The successful implementation of the commercialization plan will certainly attract large enterprises to become title sponsors or acquire teams, as LOL players are mostly young people, who are precisely the target demographic for some manufacturers.
Furthermore, the LPL itself is profitable.
It was revealed back then that its annual revenue was 1.8 billion US dollars, exceeding one-fifth of the NBA league's revenue.
If other regional leagues are added, it's really not much weaker than the NBA.
Do LPL teams make money?
The answer is yes.
Firstly, they have league revenue sharing, which is a fixed dividend.
Secondly, there are advertising sponsorships, which also constitute a large portion.
In addition, there are streaming contracts, prize money from competitions, skin revenue sharing, player trades, team merchandise, and licensing.
After the esports track layout is completed, it can be fully linked to live streaming platforms and video website tracks.
For no other reason than Renren.com holds the copyright.
Tian Hongrui chuckled:
"This will leave a significant mark in the history of both domestic and international esports. These players were born in the best era."
"This meal isn't easy to eat. Without talent, there's no way to become a professional player."
Chen Pingjiang had particular authority to speak on this matter.
He was once deeply obsessed with playing CS, with five people practicing shooting every day.
After practicing like this for a month, they participated in a regional competition and were beaten 16-0.
They went in laughing and came out crying.
(End of chapter)