Super Spender

Chapter 288: 282: Not Comfortable without Spending Money

Everyone else made weird faces too. It was as if there were words that said, “Fool with too much money, come faster,” carved on Finn Lewis’s face.

Mr. M couldn’t manage to speak for a long time. He was quite at a loss for words. He’d been trying to help save Lewis some money, yet here Lewis was, opting to double the prize pool because the event frequency was now halved.

However, Finn Lewis seemed not to notice Mr. M’s confusion, and he spoke with evident enthusiasm: “So we are doing it like the Champions League, with every team that makes it into the top 32 receiving a prize. The prizes will increase for the top 16, and yet again for the top 8, top 4, and finally for the championship. ”

“600 million Federal coins is way too much. Even though it’s a great thing for eSports, it’s still too much. Sometimes, offering too much prize money is not necessarily a good thing,” Mr. M said with a resigned chuckle.

The crowd looked strange, watching the two of them. When have we ever heard of a buyer wanting to push up the price and the seller insisting on not taking advantage of the buyer’s motiveless generosity? But that was what Finn Lewis and Mr. M were doing now. Finn was an investor, and he just said he had acquired 51% of the shares in the esports league development company. But he certainly couldn’t saddle the company with the prize fee — the folks at T Corporation wouldn’t be happy about that.

So Finn had to undertake this himself, just as Samsung did with the WCG initially. But the thing was, here was Finn as an investor, trying to throw in money, and Mr. M, the pattern investment at risk clamoring to control cost. Observing this negotiation, the crowd was stupefied. Was this guy a complete prodigal? Who conducts business this way?

“Is that so?” Finn Lewis asked with a skeptical look on his face directed at Mr. M.

The old man’s facial expressions were giving him a headache. He was trying to help Lewis save money and he was treated with an expression of distrust? He wondered if he had made a mistake by saving Lewis’s money. He also rather resentfully enquired about Lewis’s incredulous look on his face.

Old horse was about to leap up with a question for Mr. Lewis. He wanted to know if he had made a mistake by trying to save his money. Even after a long while, Lewis remained quiet, his lower lip twitching. He eventually muttered in a resigned tone, “Take a moment to think about this. Right now, how much is the total prize pool for the professional league in each country? We increased the prize pool by such a monumentally high sum. But our rewards for the regional professional league, just to speak of domestic ones, are already relatively high, with the total prize pool being only 2.3 million Flame Nation coins. For two seasons a year, the total comes to only 4.6 million. Yet, you raised it to over 30 billion Flame Nation coins, this gap is too wide! It’s not going to work.”

“Such a huge gap can easily introduce many uncontrollable factors into the professional league. Things like large clubs collaborating to cheat the prize money. We need a healthy system, from the lower- to higher-levels. Only then can we develop reasonably,” Mr. M quickly responded.

“Hmm, hehe, you’re right, Mr. M,” Finn pondered before decisively agreeing. Seeing Mr. M’s twitching mouth corner at his casual utterance of ‘Mr. M’ made

Finn reveal a sideways grin, although this was just a trivial detail. As long as Finn wasn’t going to splash the cash around so recklessly, Mr. M could breathe a sigh of relief. After all, T Corporation still owns 49% of the shares. They couldn’t afford to slip behind.

“So it’s a once-in-two-years event with a prize pool of 300 million Federal coins? I think that’s an appropriate amount. Not willing to go any lower than that,” Finn pondered before he uttered.

Mr. M originally intended to suggest that a total prize pool of 100 million Federal coins was already quite high, and that further increase was unnecessary. But after hearing what Finn proposed, he decided to hold his tongue. He chose to agree with 300 million instead. If Finn was willing to raise it to 300 million Federal coins, it would inevitably draw the world’s attention to the league. Then, the profits from the naming rights for various national leagues would multiply.

“However, I am unsure how to spend the remaining 300 million federal coins,”

Finn said as he rubbed his chin, “since I’ve already put in the money, I can’t

taKe DaCK.

At that, Mr. M choked on his own saliva without even drinking any tea. Upon hearing Finn’s comment, the surrounding people couldn’t resist rolling their eyes. You know what?! It seems like you just can’t bear not spending money, right?!

“Well, since the prize money for each country’s league is too low, why don’t I buy the naming rights for these leagues? Then distribute the remaining 1.5 billion federal coins among these leagues. With this move, the prize money for the leagues will increase. Since what you said, Mr. M, about a healthy system will naturally form. As the prize money for the leagues increases, naturally, the salary and treatment of professional players will also rise. As professional players receive a higher salary and better treatment, they will gain the support of their families. Once they have the support of their families, their families will naturally become interested in the competition,” Finn quickly articulated his thoughts.

Okay, Mr. M had to admit that this was an excellent idea from Finn. The problem was, this was clearly just throwing money, and there was not going to be any return on the investment.

“Alright, I admit that this is a wonderful idea. If you don’t have any issues with your finances, I won’t have any problems either, ” Mr. M didn’t know what else to say. With the conversation at this point, and Lewis still insisting on spending money, what could he do?

“Fine, let’s settle it this way. I will send someone to discuss the rest with you,

Mr. M,” Finn said after pondering for a while. “As for the contract and funds, you will have them by tonight.”

Finn spoke quite straightforwardly. Everyone at the table was speechless. When people conduct business, they usually sign contracts and handle funds afterwards. If they could delay the transaction for a day they would because the interest from keeping such a large sum of money in the bank can amount to a significant figure. No one quite understood why Finn was so eager to part with his money.

“There’s no rush with the funding, we can take it slow,” Mr. M said somewhat helplessly.

“That’s settled then. Actually, I may have another matter that requires assistance from you, Mr. M.” Finn thought for a moment before speaking.

“Go ahead,” Mr. M said, sounding a little defeated.

“I’m wondering if you could introduce me to Mr. Kodiak Kennedy, ” Finn asked with a smile.

“Kodiak Kennedy? The president of Activision Blizzard?” Mr. M paused before asking back in a puzzled tone.

“Yes,” Finn affirmed with a nod of his head.

“Sure, no problem. But I wonder, Mr Lewis, do you have any specific intentions?” Mr. M asked tentatively.

“Nothing special really. I grew up playing the Diablo series. I had always thought that some of their settings weren’t done right. I didn’t have the opportunity to change that back then. Now that I have the means, I want to buy Blizzard and see if I can recreate the Diablo series according to my vision,”

Finn said with a laugh..