November 26th, Saturday …
Zhao Xuming brought his assistant to the headquarters of the SUG Club in Shanghai.
The GOG branch of the SUG Club was in Jingzhou, but the headquarters had other projects, so it was still in Shanghai.
As for why he chose the SUG Club as his first target, it was obviously the result of careful investigation and careful consideration.
Zhao Xuming found out that the SUG Club had a personal feud with Tengda's Boss Pei!
The SUG Club was one of the first veteran clubs to set up a GOG branch and cooperate with Tengda. What's more, they offered the most generous price.
What's more, the SUG had successfully won third place in the international invitational tournament some time ago. They had worked hard even if they did not make any contributions.
In the end, such a club had been mercilessly kicked out of the GPL league by Boss Pei. They could only play in the secondary league!
The GPL was now in full swing. Zhao Xuming would not believe that the boss of the SUG Club, Ding Gan, did not have any complaints.
What's more, the SUG Club also had an IOI branch. They had received some subsidies from Eric previously and had a contract with the live-stream platform. Thus, they could still support them.
This time, Zhao Xuming wanted to start with the SUG Club, which was the easiest. He wanted the SUG to help lead the way and lead the various clubs to organize the mock competition.
It was not a joke to play against other foreign teams in the world finals.
If they did not play mock competitions and went straight to fight with foreign teams, they would definitely be tortured until they could not find their bearings. They would also not be able to achieve the goal of driving the popularity of IOI's local server. Time was tight but it was always good to sharpen his spear at the last minute.
Ding Gan was already waiting at the entrance of the SUG Club.
Ding Gan immediately went up to Zhao Xuming when he saw him get out of the car. "Boss Zhao, welcome!"
Zhao Xuming was initially delighted to see Ding Gan so enthusiastic towards him. He felt that he would most likely succeed today. However, upon closer inspection, he felt that Ding Gan's gaze was evasive.
What was going on?
Zhao Xuming was too embarrassed to ask. He could only treat it as an illusion.
"Boss Ding! Hello, hello. This is … "Zhao Xuming looked at a lady in formal attire who looked to be in her thirties standing beside Ding Gan.
Ding Gan said, "Oh, this is our club's manager, Manager Yang."
Manager Yang smiled and said, "Hello, President Zhao. Please take care of me."
Zhao Xuming was a little confused. "Hey, isn't the manager of your club surnamed Li? Did I remember wrongly? "
Ding Gan smiled awkwardly. "Oh, you must have found the information online, right? We just made some personnel changes recently … "
Zhao Xuming suddenly understood. "Oh, sorry! My information might be a little behind schedule. "
Ding Gan smiled and said, "It's alright. Let's not stand here. Let's go in and talk. This way please! "
Zhao Xuming and Ding Gan chatted and laughed as they walked into the club. Manager Yang led Zhao Xuming's assistant and chauffeur behind them and received them attentively.
After arriving at the conference room, both sides took their seats.
Zhao Xuming took a sip of tea. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he felt that he could get straight to the point.
There was no need to keep them guessing for such a sure thing, and the SUG Club had no reason to refuse.
Zhao Xuming's time was limited and he had to focus on convincing the other clubs.
At that thought, Zhao Xuming said, "Boss Ding, to be honest, I'm here this time because I have good news!"
"At the moment, Finger Games is preparing for IOI's world finals. What's more, they are placing a lot of emphasis on the domestic market. That's why they will give domestic teams some slots this time. SUG has an IOI branch to begin with. This time, I persuaded the upper echelons of Finger Games to give the SUG Club a slot. "
At this point, Zhao Xuming lowered his voice. "Internal news. Don't spread it."
Ding Gan quickly nodded. "That's for sure."
Zhao Xuming continued, "That's what I think. SUG Club's IOI branch is still relatively complete at the moment, and the team members are quite experienced. We're considering letting SUG Club take the lead and organize a mock competition to train. "
"We'll talk to the other clubs one by one. However, the teams of these clubs might need to be strengthened and adjusted. Therefore, we might need Boss Ding and Manager Yang to worry about organizing the mock competition."
"What do you think?"
Zhao Xuming had thought that Ding Gan would pat his chest and agree, but he did not expect Ding Gan to look at Manager Yang awkwardly.
Zhao Xuming's heart sank. He had a bad feeling.
However, he was also confused. Could there be any accidents?
Ding Gan would not reject a good thing like the SUG taking the lead in organizing a mock competition and obtaining a chance to go to the IOI World Finals, right?
Ding Gan looked a little awkward. "Boss Zhao, of course we're very grateful that you've helped us fight for such a precious opportunity. However, organizing a mock competition … I'm afraid it'll be a little difficult. That's because our IOI branch … only has three members left for now. "
"If only you had come two days earlier."
Zhao Xuming's mouth opened slightly. For a moment, he was dumbfounded. "Huh?"
How could there only be two members left in the IOI branch?
Most of these people had thought of changing careers to play GOG before, but the reason why they did not change was because GOG's professional players were basically saturated. If they went to compete, they would not be able to obtain good results or bonuses.
On the other hand, IOI still had some meager subsidies to ensure the basic lives of these players.
Then where did all the contestants go? Not playing professionally anymore?
That didn't make sense. The branch was still there. What would happen to the liquidated damages if they left?
Ding Gan quickly explained, "Boss Zhao, here's the situation."
"Originally, the members of our IOI branch would play live-streams and occasionally arrange for mock competitions. Recently, it has become harder and harder to arrange for mock competitions because there are very few other clubs that retain IOI branches. They have all turned to play GOG. "
"Then, a few days ago, several GOG clubs suddenly came over and said that they wanted to buy the players of our IOI branch. What's more, they were willing to pay a transfer fee and a much higher salary than before."
"The players were all very tempted. We respected the players' wishes and … let them go."
Zhao Xuming was stunned for two seconds before he suddenly realized something.
Oh no!
GOG had just formed a GPL some time ago. All the teams were crazily fighting for members. The demand for players had increased exponentially because the number of teams had expanded to more than ten.
These IOI players might be better at IOI, but there were always some players who had talent in GOG. In the past, there were few positions and no teams wanted them. However, now that the quota had been expanded, there were teams that wanted players with professional experience and certain talent.
Zhao Xuming had neglected this point. On one hand, he had been busy discussing cooperation with Finger Games and had not had time to care about these clubs. On the other hand, it was also because the GPL club had not shown any intention of poaching IOI players when it had just been formed.
He had not expected that the IOI team would be dismantled after a few days of delay!
Zhao Xuming had originally thought very well. If the SUG still had a complete IOI team, there would be no need to spend time forming a team. They could take the lead in organizing mock competitions. They should be able to obtain a relatively good ranking when they reached the international competition.
However, there was no hope now that two people had been poached!
IOI was a five-person game after all. Lacking people meant that they had to recruit new people and work together again. The impact was too great.
When Zhao Xuming first arrived, he was full of enthusiasm and confidence. In the end, he was splashed with cold water.
Ding Gan felt a little awkward as well. He quickly said, "It's alright, Boss Zhao. We'll prepare to recruit people immediately. If we really can't do it, we can directly pay other clubs to buy people. We'll definitely form the team again as soon as possible!"
Ding Gan did not think too much about it at first. He just felt that there was no point in maintaining an IOI branch. There were no competitions to play anyway. He could still earn a transfer fee by selling people to GOG's club. It did not matter if he sold them.
In the end, the IOI World Finals spot was delivered to him right after he sold them. How could he explain this?
Zhao Xuming remained silent for a moment before nodding. "Alright."
What else could he say? He could not possibly pay the penalty fee to buy them back, right? That would be a huge loss.
The main thing was that these players were worth a lot more now, so their transfer fees were much more expensive. Wasn't this a huge loss?
Ding Gan would rather buy the IOI team members of other clubs than buy his own team members back.
However, Zhao Xuming was worried that since GOG's club had started to buy IOI team members on a large scale, they could not only buy SUG.
What if the other clubs' IOI teams were also torn apart?
Should they play puzzles and use the existing teams to put together two or three teams that could compete in the international competition, or should they dig up new people and rely purely on luck?
Zhao Xuming suddenly had an ominous feeling. He felt that his mission this time looked simple, but it was actually not that easy to achieve.
Tengda's underhanded hand had extended further than he had imagined!
"Could this be part of Boss Pei's plan?"
Zhao Xuming suddenly shuddered.
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