BXBX NOVEL Chapter 411 - What They Wanted, Was The Championship!
Chapter 411: What They Wanted, Was The Championship!
Team Skycrown had used their strength to convince the people in the Internet cafe, and now the whole place felt a certain sense of honor and pride. Even those casuals who don’t usually spend a lot of money, spent a lot on flowers today, just for the sake of getting into the atmosphere.
The first club in China has definitely baptized their name and established their reputation after today’s match.
Mr. Lei was all smiles as he walked out. Even though he didn’t really understand LOL, he knew enough to know that Yu Luocheng and his team had put on an outstanding performance. Otherwise, the whole of Demacia Cafe would not have maintained their silence for so long.
“Master, you’re definitely the master that I acknowledge!” shouted Xu Ben as he ran up to Yu Luocheng, already seeming to be a devoted follower of his.
Many players used Kassadin, so most people knew his strengths and weaknesses.
Initially, they thought that Team Skycrown was going to lose this round, and the awesome prize money was going to be taken away by other people. Then Yu Luocheng changed his third item and came out with a Deathfire instead!
The first time, Lucian’s mysterious death was obviously pulled off by Yu Luocheng’s items. It was such a pity that the camera was not focused on him at that time, so no one saw it happening.
After that, everyone saw Yu Luocheng’s Kassadin significantly bringing down Zed’s health, but they didn’t see anything else as only a slight corner of the camera was on him.
And the final time, when all eyes watching the match were on him, Yu Luocheng displayed his godlike skills, instantly sending the audience of over three hundred thousand people into an uproar.
Now everyone finally knew what a world-class player was like. No one else in the county could pull off that Kassadin play!
***
“A total profit of a hundred thousand yuan was made from the flowers. The cafe will take half and the other half is ours. With this fifty thousand yuan, we’ve already caught up with the subsidies of the LPL teams. This is so freaking satisfying!” said Da Luo with a sh*t-eating grin on his face.
You really can’t underestimate the capabilities of two major clubs. There was at least a hundred thousand yuan invested in this competition. This sort of horrifying numbers was unprecedented, and even the media had not been expecting such amazing support for this public match!
If you think about it, there were at least a thousand members in both the clubs. If all the members who watched were to throw out a thousand or two thousand yuan each, that was still nothing.
Normally, even ordinary people can throw out up to a few hundred yuan. Adding these together, you would get a few tens of thousands. More importantly, there were a lot of big spenders in these high-class clubs. Once they got involved, you could get at least five to ten thousand per person!
Team Skycrown was in a bad financial situation. More than half of the ten thousand yuan they obtained from Demacis Cafe was used to pay off their rental. The rest was not really enough to even feed themselves, not to mention they also had their daily travel expenses…
They needed money for daily necessities. Even things like the phone and Internet bills required money. When they wanted a cold drink because of the hot weather, when they wanted to eat some fruits, when they wanted to have a drink on a happy occasion, they wished that they could spend freely, but they had to be very calculative with their money for the whole year.
More importantly, as they used this ten thousand to support the entire team’s daily lives, none of the seven members of Team Skycrown were able to receive a salary.
Neither Jiang Feng nor Li Meiqi had received a single penny, and it was the same for the rest of Team Skycrown. You could tell how hard their life has been from the fact that they had not been able to get themselves a single new shirt or a pair of shoes.
And now they had instantly earned fifty thousand yuan with just one game, this money was incredibly important to them!
After the game, Mr. Lei didn’t say much. He headed to a restaurant and booked a table, inviting Team Skycrown to have a good meal. They had already been planning to celebrate on their own, but it was rare that someone would do this for them, and after all, it wouldn’t be polite to decline.
Eating in Shanghai was expensive, and Team Skycrown usually couldn’t afford to go to these kinds of fancy places. With such a wealthy guy like Mr. Lei buying them a meal, their minds were at ease as they ate their fill!
“Haha, thank you very much for your hard work guys. With this match, our club is really the top in the country now. If it all goes well, I’m planning to add restaurants and resting areas in the cafe, to make it more of a leisure club,” said Mr. Lei as he drank until his face was red, clearly showing how happy he was.
Could he be anything but happy at this point?
His club that was representing Shanghai had defeated an opponent representing Beijing. The match was broadcasted and hundreds of thousands of people had watched it. Later on, there would surely be more people who would watch the replay. With millions of people watching, there would surely be more people flocking to his club!
When running a business, the only thing that scares you is people not knowing your brand. As long as people know of you, then you don’t have to fear not succeeding.
“Mr. Lei, I’m telling you, this is nothing. Just wait until we get into the LPL. Then, everyone who plays LOL in the country will know Demacia Cafe!” boasted Da Luo, clearly high on the drinks as well.
Wu Sen laughed loudly as he repeatedly slapped Da Luo’s back. “What whole county? We’ll get into the S International League, then the whole world will know!”
“Then I’ll be relying on you guys, I knew that teaming up with a professional team will be great!” said Mr Lei happily.
The golden age of Internet cafes was long gone. Following the advancement of technology, they had fallen into a dark age as broadband entered homes, mobile phones became more powerful, and mobile games soared in popularity.
Having been in the Internet cafe business for ten years, Mr. Lei was well aware that the industry had been in a constant downfall. How was he going to attract more people to come to his cafe?
Nowadays, people liked spending their time leisurely, kicking back and relaxing in a club while drinking afternoon tea or coffee and listening to music. The cost to run this kind of a place was also higher. But if you were to combine leisure with the e-sports industry, a completely different type of business would be born.
Mr. Lei believed that only e-sports could save the declining market of Internet cafes!
“On that note, Mr. Lei, our contract will need to be changed slightly when we get into the LPL…” said Li Meiqi with a smile.
In fact, with Team Skycrown’s current reputation, they were worth more than the amount Mr. Lei had given them. Many people would come to Demacia Cafe because of them, so there was no reason for the team to get such a low salary.
The average amount of money a customer would spend at Demacia Cafe was about a hundred yuan. And in the afternoon, when people opted to have coffee, tea, or snacks, they would spend around four to five thousand yuan.
At night, people would spend even more. The big shots would order whatever they wanted, and it would come up to a few thousand yuan. They would also drink wine that cost about seventy or eighty thousand yuan per bottle, then finish it all in just a few mouthfuls…
It was hard to estimate the amount of money Mr. Lei earned every day, and Team Skycrown should definitely be getting more!
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. If all goes well, I’ll agree to everything you wanted previously, hahaha!” said Mr. Lei. He was in a good mood and incredibly pleased with Team Skycrown.
Upon hearing that, Li Meiqi’s eyes brightened. Her initial suggestion was for Team Skycrown to get a share of Demacia Cafe’s earnings!
The reason you would never earn more while being employed was simple. It’s because when you work for a company, you don’t get a share of their profits, and are instead stuck constantly working for a fixed salary. No boss would easily share their profits with anyone, as their revenue would always continue to grow.
It was the same with Demacia Cafe. Just a few months ago, it was just a relatively high-class Internet cafe with a continuously declining revenue. But ever since Team Skycrown joined, Mr. Lei managed to earn back the money he spent on advertisements and other things, plus the cafe’s earnings were definitely rising.
At this time, most bosses would seize the chance to continue earning more, without having to increase their costs by paying out a higher salary.
But with Mr. Lei agreeing to give Team Skycrown a share of the club’s earnings, their income would only continue to increase as per the club’s rising performance.
According to Li Meiqi’s rough estimate, a month’s worth of expenses for a regular team, be it through a salary or something else, was at least a hundred thousand yuan a month!
How could a team without any club support earn a hundred thousand yuan per month? The prize money from the LPL was only five hundred thousand yuan, and that was before taxes were deducted…
Competition prize money was only an extra benefit, and the competition rankings could only be used to increase their standings. For income, teams still had to rely on the clubs that sponsored them.
Li Meiqi would definitely need to have a proper discussion with Mr. Lei on exactly how much Team Skycrown’s share would be. She needed to strive to make sure the team got the best deal possible. How much capital Team Skycrown would be able to increase their worth for wholly depended on their own influence!
***
The prize money in the pool was replenished once again, and Demacia Club had already set up the drive to win. It’s estimated that the prize money in the pool had exceeded the first and second prize money of some other professional competitions.
After Team Skycrown defeated Team Beijing, the number of teams who came to challenge them decreased. Many people realized that they would just be wasting their money, so they would not go looking for death without being absolutely certain of their own victory.
As for Noxus Club, the loss didn’t seem to cause much damage to their business. Instead, with the exposure of this confrontation, those who previously didn’t know of Noxus Club now started to go there.
This match was actually a friendly match, and in fact could even have been planned by the bosses of both clubs. It created two professional teams that were recognized by the majority of people—Demacia’s Team Skycrown and Noxus’ Team Beijing.
It was easy to see the players from these two teams. As long as you went to their respective clubs, you would probably see the stars of the teams training there.
You could bring along a mousepad if you wanted an autograph. Or you could just bask in their godly aura that could possibly even help you get ten consecutive wins in your ranked games. Admittedly, something like that was probably just a placebo effect, but people who liked the game or the players wouldn’t mind going to the clubs just for that…
***
February quickly came to an end, and Team Skycrown would once again be spending New Year’s in the club. As the LPL loomed closer, they needed to put more effort into their training.
Unsurprisingly, Team Skycrown managed to qualify for the Spring season of the LPL. The eight strongest teams in the country would be competing in Shanghai to qualify for the S International League as well as the prize money of five hundred thousand yuan!
There were some notable changes in this year’s LPL lineup, though the top four major clubs—Daemons, 71, Sky, and Revelation—still retained their seats.
Noxus’ Team Beijing had successfully stood out during the qualifiers, and it wasn’t surprising that they had become one of the top eight teams in the country. Demacia’s Team Skycrown didn’t disappoint either, once again managing to get into the same professional league they left last year.
At this time last year, they were full of joy, excitement, and tears. This year, they made a comeback, and their goal was not as simple as defeating their old enemy, Team Sky…
What they wanted, was the championship!