Chapter 646 - : International Invitational Tournament (1/2)

September 10th, Saturday…

The Management Trainees had their regular meeting, but there was no news worth taking note of.

Ever since He An posted that long post on Weibo about Struggle’s deeper meaning, the game’s sales and reputation had been ballooning.

Once Struggle was termed a Product of the Gods, many UP Masters on Aili Island began to give live commentaries on it. Due to the time difference, most UP Masters only uploaded one or two episodes. However, a couple of more popular UP Masters saw terrifying effects from their large fanbase. Almost immediately, their fans clicked on their pages and gave them millions of views.

Although many people were watching the playthroughs online, a significant number of people were also buying the game after watching those videos.

They each had different mindsets.

Some thought that, despite having watched others play it, the game had a variety of options. Thus, they could only experience it best if they played it themselves.

Others thought that it did not matter whether they played it or not, but they had to make sure they owned a classic game like that. That would make them happier about their game collection.

Still, others thought that everyone made choices based on the world that they liked more. If they liked a game, a film, or a book; they had to spend money to support it. The more supporters there were, the more such works would be created.

If they thought that something was not bad but didn’t support it, there would be less of it in the future, and they wouldn’t be able to complain.

Similarly, if they thought that something was not bad and showed their support, there would be more and more of such good products. The credit would belong to all supporters. Even if they simply praised the brand or product, they could still say that they did something.

On top of that, the official platform had done a lot to publicize Struggle.

Hu Xianbin and the others were rushing to create an English version and send it overseas.

That was because the game had an international background to begin with, and they spoke in English. All the characters inside had Western features, and so the game would be that much more acceptable to a foreign audience.

Of course, before it was released, no one knew whether a foreign audience would enjoy the game or not. No one knew if the foreigners would be able to decipher the meaning behind the game without a proper interpretation of it.

Still, there was no harm in trying. They could sell as many copies as they could.

If Tomorrow is Beautiful could succeed overseas, there was a chance that Struggle would be able to as well.

Pei Qian was helpless in all of this.

He could not bear to watch anymore!

The gamers insisted on buying the game, and the official platform insisted on recommending it. What could Pei Qian do?

If the game’s domestic sales had collapsed and its reputation had fallen apart, perhaps Pei Qian could have persuaded Hu Xianbin not to create a foreign version and to admit that it had failed. However, the game had done exceedingly well in the local market. Why should Pei Qian disagree with Hu Xianbin about creating a foreign version to test the market…?

This was disastrous.

Pei Qian felt that he had fallen into a reverse Tacitus Trap.

The Tacitus Trap referred to something that Tacitus had said while critiquing a Roman Emperor: once the Emperor became someone that everybody hated, everyone detested whatever he did—good or bad.

Pei Qian was faced with the reverse situation: once Tengda became a popular corporation that everyone liked, everyone loved whatever it did—good or bad.

Of course, Tengda couldn’t really do anything bad because its hands were tied by the system. It could not scrimp and save on material or produce shoddy work. It had to maintain a certain quality and ensure that its price was kept within an acceptable range that would be determined based on that quality.

So, Pei Qian could only think of different ways to dissuade everyone from buying Tengda’s products. However, under the effect of the reverse Tacitus Trap, everyone was taking his ways as more meaningful than they were…

Pei Qian was exhausted.

…

After the meeting, Pei Qian immediately rushed towards Great World Shopping Mall in the center of the city. Today was the first official day of GOG’s first global invitational tournament!

Before this, Pei Qian had been kept so busy by Struggle that he had not had the time to see the set-up even after it was done.

However, it did not matter whether he had managed to or not. In any case, the main purpose of the competition was to burn money. Pei Qian only cared that they achieved that as much as possible.

Before arriving at the competition grounds, Pei Qian checked the competition schedule that Wang Xiaobin had sent to him on his cell phone.

There were a total of sixteen teams taking part in the competitions this time. Eight were from China, and the rest were from overseas.

That ratio really did not make sense, but the organizing team had rushed to plan the competition, and so they had no other choice.

They had chosen the oldest teams from overseas to compete with. All of them were wealthy and managed well, and each individual member was strong.

The lousier ones had not been invited at all, for fear that the competition would become boring.

Foreign teams had only been invited to ensure that the competition gained a certain amount of attention from all over the world. After all, most players would support their own countries or states before anyone else.

The other half was local teams so that the competition would be worth watching.

Simply put, the local teams would be in charge of putting on a show while the foreign teams would be in charge of bringing in the viewers.

Compared to the previous competition, there was double the number of teams. Thus, the competition was to take longer this time.

The first round of games would be held from September 10th to September 13th.

The second round of games would be held from September 15th to September 18th.

The top eight teams would be determined from September 20th to September 21st.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals would be held from September 23rd to September 25th.