Chapter 77 Secondary League Finals
After receiving the complete chart of advertising sponsorship fees, Fang Zhuo glanced at the contents briefly.
Even in the sixth division, which is ranked lower, the number of online viewers for the finals has never fallen below ten million.
This year's grand finals have extraordinary significance for all citizens of the sixth region. One side of the competition is the MUG team, which has just undergone an epic upgrade, and the other side is JR, which has a huge online presence. The quality of the finals is unprecedented, and the number of online viewers is unlikely to be less than 15 million.
For such top-tier events with massive exposure, advertising prices naturally skyrocket.
The highest tier of advertising includes online player status bars and match replay pop-ups, as well as some full-screen carousel ads during match breaks, with prices ranging from 12 million to 3 million respectively.
If the actual number of viewers for the event exceeds 20 million, the company will have to pay the organizer several hundred thousand yuan in compensation based on the excess viewership, according to the agreement.
Fang Zhu circled all the advertising types provided by the organizer and sent them to the business contact person: [Please calculate the total price for me]
The reply came quickly: [Mr. Fang, are you sure you want all the services? For example, this pause-time ad might overlap a bit with the sponsorship effect in the upper right corner of the highlight reel, so it might only achieve a 1+1=1.5 effect...]
[These add up to a total of 26 million. You can get a 10% discount if you book advertising space a year in advance.]
If everything is correct, I will prepare the sponsorship contract for next year's event for you.
Fang Zhuo: [It's not next year, it's this year. If you've already reached advertising contracts with other companies, send me the penalty amount as well.]
There was a long silence on the other end, then the chat box showed "typing" again. After repeating this several times, Fang Zhuo was pulled into a private group.
The other party realized that they had received an unexpectedly large order, and this time, the person in charge of coordinating with them was not just one employee, but an entire team.
The head of the business team personally called Fang Zhuo: "Mr. Fang, these advertising slots involve far too many clients. The penalties for canceling the original orders alone amount to over three million yuan. It will take us a considerable amount of time to process them. We are truly sorry..."
Fang Zhuo didn't want to hear this polite refusal, so he didn't wait for the other party to finish speaking before directly bidding: "Forty million."
The supervisor took a deep breath in shock.
The call was played out in the office, and all the staff in the business team screamed silently when they heard the amount; a few of the girls even let out a soft gasp of surprise.
The penalty for breach of contract and the price of the advertisement itself totaled less than 30 million. The extra amount was enough to pay their entire team bonuses for at least ten years.
Is this how advertising prices are negotiated? Shouldn't clients be constantly trying to negotiate and bargain? How come some people are not only so agreeable but also willing to pay huge extra fees for skipping the line?
The client doesn't care about the cost-effectiveness of advertising; they're focused on maximizing the brand's appeal.
The manager, being a seasoned professional, calmly smiled at the person on the other end of the phone:
"We apologize, but we will expedite the process and guarantee to provide you with high-value services that exceed your expectations. We will ensure that all viewers who open the live stream will immediately learn about our conscientious company!"
After hanging up the phone, the entire office erupted in deafening cheers.
The deputy team leader was happily revising the contract template, while several others nearby were smiling and negotiating contract terminations with other clients. With such high commission rates, they were willing to work overtime.
They worked with smiles on their faces, whispering to each other:
"Boss, have you finished the contract? Don't let us lose the client."
"Don't worry, you'll get your share of the bonus. They've already signed the contract, a three-year deal in one go."
"I really want to spend money like this without any worries. Could I wake up tomorrow and bind my bank card to one of those balance exchange systems so that I can swap the balance between my bank card and Mr. Fang's?"
"I wish so too. I'm more devout than you, and I hope this good thing will happen to me first, hehehe."
"Wait a minute, how can President Fang be so confident that he signed a three-year contract? Can he guarantee that his team will make it to the finals for three consecutive years? If they don't make it to the finals and still have to buy advertising, that would be too embarrassing."
"What's so embarrassing about that? Which final match won't feature new energy mechs? Why are you worrying about them?"
"On another note, I really hope JR can win. Although MUG just added two players, on paper, this roster can only get them to the top eight at best in the main league; JR's main players give me the feeling that they haven't shown their full potential yet."
"Then I would say that this year is the year that MUG has the best chance of reaching the semi-finals. I don't ask for much, just reaching the semi-finals would be enough."
"Stop talking for now. Juke just released an announcement saying that Ling Han will be playing in the finals."
"Are you crazy? Don't kid me. Ling Han hasn't played in an offline competition in five years. My heart isn't very good. Be careful I don't just collapse in the office."
On the screen, the short post from the official Juke account, which was less than a hundred words long, had already accumulated tens of thousands of comments.
Seeing the various doubts in the comments section, Meijia typed a line on the terminal, hesitated for a long time, then deleted it, and finally changed it into a reply advising President Fang to reconsider Ling Han's playing time.
Having just received over 100,000 yuan in video incentive bonuses from Juke, Peng Yi sincerely hopes that Ling Han's career will continue to flourish.
A five-year span is not a short time for any professional player.
Even though Peng Yi had studied Ling Han's old competitions and knew that top athletes recover their form much faster than ordinary people, physical adaptation does not mean that they can overcome psychological difficulties in the same way.
Having been implicated in a confusing match-fixing scandal and banned for five years, it's already quite remarkable that he hasn't developed a psychological aversion to mechs, especially since his first appearance in a crucial match is now a nightmare.
The two days of waiting for the final to begin were particularly difficult. Peng Yi only slept for six hours the day before, and when she opened the official live stream at 3 pm the next day, she thought she had entered the wrong live stream room.
Uh, who are these people wearing Giant Tech T-shirts?
Don't tell her these people are the official commentators for the sixth division's secondary league...
Having watched so many events, this was the first time she had ever seen an event organizer manage to make such a refreshingly unconventional attempt to curry favor with advertisers.
That's incredibly imaginative; she was absolutely blown away.
How much money must Mr. Fang have given to make the organizers fawn over him like this?
When the camera panned to the preparation area, Peng Yi almost burst out laughing.
Both teams' preparation areas were covered with billboards displaying the four characters "Giant Technology," and every corner within the camera's view was plastered with large promotional posters for Giant Technology.
The sheer volume of advertising is downright mental pollution. Even the mineral water bottles the contestants were drinking from had the Juke logo on them. It's as if the organizers wanted to arrange every passing ant in the same shape.
This whole operation looked like two internal teams sponsored by Juke were fighting each other, and the faces of the MUG players were as black as the bottom of a pot.
Not only were the event organizers very supportive, but the manufacturers of the new energy mechs were also not to be outdone.
This batch of new-generation racing mechs not only had the manufacturer's logo engraved on their outer panels, but also the Giant Technology logo. MUG was forced to endorse Giant Technology in front of the camera.
Before the match even started, MUG was already at a disadvantage in terms of momentum and mentality.
On the other hand, the JR team players were as relaxed as if they were on their home turf.
Ma Xusen was naturally good at interacting with the audience. He hooked the camera lens and came to Ling Han's side. The moment his handsome face appeared, it caused a cheer from the audience.
By the time the game actually started, Peng Yi's worries had been largely dispelled by the hilarious pre-match advertisements.
"Hello everyone, welcome to the sixth division secondary league finals, exclusively sponsored by Giant Interactive. We can see that the MUG team's tactics are very clear. They chose to attack Ling Han, who has just returned from injury, from the very beginning."
"As we all know, the outer plates of the energy cannon mech have relatively low overall durability and poor mobility, making this position the easiest place to get caught and killed."
As the four people surrounded Ling Han, Peng Yi's heart jumped into her throat.
Oh no, it's four against one. I wonder if I can even trade one of their players with the best possible maneuvers.
The next second, Ling Han's legs were completely bound by hooks.
Logically, an ordinary gunner would only be waiting to die at this point, but Ling Han raised the energy cannon at an unusual angle—
With two loud "booms," the energy cannon's crosshair was aimed directly at the head of the MUG hard-tank mech, blasting the opponent, whose entire mech was bent, directly into a tree.
With just two simple shots, you can instantly take down the enemy with the most health.
Firing an energy cannon consumes a great deal of physical strength, and generally only one firing module is carried, but Ling Han carried one in each hand. Before the remaining members of MUG could react, his left-hand cannon accurately struck the enemy gunner.
Two high-precision energy cannons collided in mid-air, generating immense heat and flames through friction. Every inch of the electric current transmitted was torture for the pilot.
For Ling Han, he had long been accustomed to this subtle electric current; for the past five years, he had experienced similar pain almost every day.
But this was clearly not the case for the MUG team members who debuted as starters. After persisting in the collision for half a second, the opposing mech could no longer hold on and lowered its cannon, allowing the crystal blue flames to cover its outer plate.
This exchange of blows lasted only four or five seconds before JR's reinforcements arrived swiftly, quickly eliminating the remaining three members of MUG's team.
Contrary to most people's expectations, the match did not end in the anticipated stalemate or a one-sided defeat for Team JR, but instead resulted in an overwhelming victory.
Peng Yi, watching from the screen, was so excited that she couldn't even eat her snacks.
The betting industry related to mecha competitions has developed extremely rapidly. Before the competition, she even went to betting websites to check, and the odds for JR to win had reached an astonishing 5.4 to 1.
In other words, if a gambler bets 100 yuan on JR to win the championship before the match, they can get 540 yuan if they guess correctly. This is a fairly high rate, which shows that most people are not optimistic about this team.
Awesome, that's how you take it so easily.
The final match was a best-of-three series. JR won the first game in just fourteen minutes, much faster than when only Cheng Che, Wu Yucun, and Ma Xusen were on the field.
In MOBA esports events, differences in hero lineups might change the outcome of a battle, but mech competitions are different; it's a pure and brutal difference in skill.
Generally speaking, if a match becomes this one-sided, the opponent's struggles are basically futile, and the victory is essentially secured in the first game.
After a round ended, Peng Yimei opened a bottle of iced cola and made a toasting gesture with the screen.
She has already figured out how to write the post-match press release.
The advertising break between matches was as crazy as ever, with a full fifteen minutes dedicated to promotional ads from various manufacturers of new energy mechs, including ten minutes dedicated to the advertising campaign for Yuanchuang alone.
Once the players returned from their break, the official commentators were even more enthusiastic, going on and on about the advantages and performance of the new mechs during the pre-game announcements. They even took the time to thank Giant Tech for its contribution to employment in the sixth division.
Peng Yi was almost laughing hysterically, but when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the interaction between the MUG players before they climbed the ladder, his heart skipped a beat.
Because of her profession, she had seen too many players who were addicted to gambling and had accumulated huge debts. The obsession on their faces was extremely similar to the expressions of these people.
What happened?
"Brother, shall we make our move later?"
They're about to enter the arena; this is their last chance to communicate freely without being recorded.
"Don't ask me, I won't do it. According to official regulations, such a serious incident should result in at least a three-month suspension. The other side's performance was so bad that even if all five of us went together, we might not be able to hold down one of them."
"Five people catching one person and beating him up is too obvious. It will definitely be taken as a major case by the authorities and severely punished. If you want to do it, do it yourselves. I'm not going to follow you."
The long-blade and short-blade player in the MUG team sneered: "Bro, don't pretend to be high and mighty. I know that boss has talked to you too."
"The turnover rate of players in the secondary league is so fast. Even if you cherish your reputation so much, you can only play for another five years. That guy paid you back three years' worth of salary in one go, and you're still not satisfied?"
The support player on the team remained silent for a moment, which was taken as tacit agreement.
The MUG team isn't a monolithic unit; two players were recently recruited from other main league teams, and they had no idea what the other three were whispering about.
The two of them greeted each other, "What are you doing? Why didn't you take us with you when you were discussing tactics?"
The support player smiled and replied, "It's nothing. We'll focus on catching Ling Han later. Just follow my instructions."
When the game resumed, all five players rushed towards Ling Han, even more fiercely than in the first round.
This strategy of targeting only one player essentially surrenders lane control and the jungle to the opponent, making it one of the most irrational tactics. JR and his teammates advanced triumphantly, quickly pushing the lane to two-thirds of its length.
The first two waves were manageable, but one can't fight four. Ling Han was caught and killed once in the third wave. Just as the durability of the mech's outer plate was about to reach zero, the mech was about to automatically start the program to return and replace the outer plate, but he was tied up by the grappling hooks of the other side.
Peng Yi, watching from the screen, was furious.
When a MUG player can't win, resorting to underhanded tactics is the most despicable thing to do.
During the match, once a player's mech armor's outer plates are completely worn out, all plates will intelligently turn white, and a return-to-base procedure will be automatically triggered. This means the player has lost their life and needs to return to the tower to replace the outer plates.
If they forcibly stop people from returning at this point, without the buffer and protection of the outer plate, continuing to fight like this could result in deaths.
Even if it wasn't intentional, preventing the return trip would result in a three-month suspension and a fine of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan from the official organizers. But these people from MUG clearly did it on purpose.
This is insane! How could this match have escalated to this point?
It would take at least five or six seconds for the rest of the JR team to arrive and rescue him, while MUG's long blade was about to strike Ling Han's mech. Peng Yi's heart was pounding, and he could barely look at the screen.
However, in that fatal moment, she suddenly saw a strange, semi-transparent hull spring out from the core area of Ling Han's mecha's chest—
There was a big middle finger drawn on the hull, as if mocking MUG and his group.
Wait, what is this?
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