The organizing committee absolutely could not give up the operational rights, as that would be akin to suicide. Especially after seeing more reform rules, they immediately slammed their fists on the table in anger, exclaiming, "This isn't reform, this is you trying to steal our Korean players' medals!"
"..." Hearing this, Leng Zhimeng rolled her eyes. She suddenly lost all interest in chatting. Leng Zhimeng knew that the Korean organizing committee, who believed such rule reforms were about snatching gold medals from Koreans and treated medals obtained through cheating as rightfully deserved prizes, would never agree to her reforms.
Even if they outwardly agreed to reforms now for the sake of their sponsorship money, who knew if they would completely renege on their promises after receiving the money? After all, this was commonplace for Koreans, nothing strange about it.
"Then forget it, goodbye!" Leng Zhimeng gave them no chance to continue the discussion and stood up to leave. Thus, this collaboration was declared a failure, and 00 also refused the naming rights for WCg.
Originally, this matter would have ended here, and there would have been no further developments between WCg and 00. However, a week after the negotiations concluded, the WCg organizing committee announced a new policy: apart from freelance players, each club could send a maximum of nine players to participate in WCg competitions. The participation slots of players exceeding this number would be automatically canceled and transferred to players from other clubs in greater need.
In response, the WCg organizing committee provided an explanation for this decision. They stated that, drawing experience from other major international sports events, the development of the entire event could only be strengthened by the emergence of more and more clubs.
However, currently, some large clubs monopolized many event awards. This was extremely detrimental to the development of the projects, causing many entrepreneurs who were initially considering investing in e-sports to abandon these projects due to their inability to achieve results, ultimately leading to a lack of capital injection into the entire e-sports industry.
Therefore, the organizing committee devised this restriction to limit the number of participants from a single club, thereby freeing up many event trophies and allowing other mid-to-low-tier clubs to see the possibility of winning championships, ultimately fostering the vigorous development of the entire industry. Thus, they introduced this regulation to limit the number of participants per club, preventing situations where championships are predetermined.
Upon the announcement of this news, many players applauded. This explanation was reasonable and logical. Limiting club awards would indeed allow more clubs to be established and engage in competition, a reform that would greatly drive the future development of WCg.
However, in the eyes of Chinese people, this decision was a damnable one. This was because almost all top players in China were affiliated with the well-funded 00 e-sports club. The 00 e-sports club was involved in over ten major competitive events, and even if the club sent its strongest player for each event, the restriction of five players per event suddenly left 00 e-sports club in a situation where they had no players to send for more than half of the events.
It must be known that the 00 e-sports club had qualified a staggering 95 players.
Even more devastating was the impact on the players of the 00 e-sports club. They were all excitedly preparing to participate in this number one competition in the world, only to be directly informed that out of 95 people, 86 might not be able to participate, depending on who the club ultimately allocated the participation slots to.
Many Chinese players immediately expressed their outrage online, claiming this rule was specifically designed to target China's 00 e-sports club. After all, at last year's WCg, the 00 e-sports club had single-handedly won 12 gold medals.
This figure not only surpassed all other e-sports clubs but also ranked first among all participating countries in terms of gold medals. This directly led to China's medal count of 15, topping the WCg gold medal standings for two consecutive years, firmly suppressing the Koreans.
As a result, this time the Koreans were resorting to trickery, imposing restrictions on the number of participants per club. Even if the club sent 9 players who all won gold medals, that would only amount to 9 gold medals, making it impossible to replicate last year's feat of winning 12 gold medals.
In fact, it wasn't just Chinese netizens who felt extremely dissatisfied; other e-sports clubs from Europe and the United States were also affected, with three clubs there exceeding the nine-player limit.
Conversely, due to the developed e-sports industry and intense competition in Korea, there were many e-sports clubs. Therefore, despite over 120 Korean players participating, not a single Korean e-sports club was affected by this rule, and all Korean players were able to compete.
What's more, after players statistically analyzed the number of participants from each club, they were astonished to discover that two Korean clubs had exactly nine participants.
This led to the suspicion that the WCg organizing committee's intention in setting this rule was to ensure that all their own players could participate while simultaneously maximizing the restriction on the number of opponents participating.
After all, if one were to set a limit, people would generally choose round numbers like 5, 10, or 15. Directly setting it at 9, just one number away from 10, seemed very peculiar.
Unfortunately, regardless of the raging online public opinion, the WCg organizing committee maintained that the rules were very reasonable, that all players supported them, and that there was no possibility of any changes.
This was also understandable. After all, in a country that could even call questionable fouls during a World Cup broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, it was obviously impossible for them to abandon rules simply due to some online public opinion.
Meanwhile, the 00 e-sports club obviously could not accept such rules. They immediately went to negotiate with the organizing committee, expressing their hope for a revision of the rules or that the rules would be implemented in the next competition rather than the current one.
However, the organizing committee refused to even meet with representatives from the 00 e-sports club, stating simply that they would act according to the regulations and that everyone had to abide by the same rules. Why should others be allowed to do something that you couldn't?
What further infuriated the 00 e-sports club to the point of trembling was that the WCg organizing committee had even begun to reallocate the canceled participation slots, with most of them going to Korea, to those players who were unable to participate. This effectively sealed the deal, forcing the 00 e-sports club to swallow this bitter pill.
Soon, this news reached Leng Zhimeng. Enraged, Leng Zhimeng once again led her people directly to the organizing committee's office.
It was now the end of February 2006, with less than a week left until the WCg commencement. To oversee WCg on-site, the entire organizing committee had basically relocated to China and set up an office on the second floor of the competition venue. Thus, our Zong Meng traveled directly to China by plane.
Of course, when attempting to enter the organizing committee's office, Zong Meng was stopped by the security guards at the entrance.
"Go tell that scoundrel Li Xianghe that I am Leng Zhimeng, and I want to have a serious talk with him!" Zong Meng's voice boomed like an explosion. The security guards dared not delay and immediately made a phone call to inquire. They then shook their heads and replied, "Chairman Li said that everything will be handled according to the rules, and he has no need to meet with you!"
"Heh heh!" Leng Zhimeng gave a dry laugh and then looked at the security guard in front of her and asked, "Young man, which company are you from?"
"Ah, I'm from the management office of this Greenland International Trade Center!" the security guard replied honestly, somewhat taken aback.
"Greenland International Trade Center, is it!" Leng Zhimeng nodded, took out her phone, and dialed a number. After a moment, she said, "Liu Xiangjiang, is that the chairman of Greenland who had drinks with my brother-in-law last time?"
"Tell him to call me directly. I have a problem. If I want to enter our own Chinese international trade center, does he have to stop me?" Leng Zhimeng spoke with clenched teeth, her tone brooks no refusal.
Not long after, Leng Zhimeng's phone rang. She quickly dropped her aggressive demeanor and, with a dejected expression, began to cajole and complain. The head of the security department then rushed over, ordering all nearby security personnel to withdraw. The entire international trade center was instantly undefended, and Leng Zhimeng, leading her entourage, directly proceeded to the second floor.
On the second floor, there were still a few Korean staff members of the organizing committee. They intended to intervene, but upon seeing Leng Zhimeng accompanied by over a hundred people, they immediately chickened out and vanished without a trace, allowing Leng Zhimeng to unceremoniously kick open the door to the organizing committee's office, startling everyone in the meeting.
"Zong Meng, your actions are excessive. This is illegal. I solemnly warn you now to immediately leave with your people, or I will cancel your club's qualification to participate on the grounds of contempt for the organizing committee!" Chairman Li Xianghe remained relatively composed.
Although startled at first, he immediately stood up and reprimanded her sternly, seemingly unfazed by the hundred people behind Leng Zhimeng.
"Dog-Korean!" Leng Zhimeng directly pointed at Li Xianghe's nose and cursed, "You don't need to cancel our qualification. I am now officially informing you that we, the 00 e-sports club, are withdrawing from all WCg competitions, and this withdrawal is permanent!"
Upon hearing this, Li Xianghe felt a pang of bitterness. After all, the 00 e-sports club was no ordinary club; it had the backing of too many Chinese e-sports stars, many of whom were world-class e-sports celebrities.
For instance, Sky, the Human Emperor, had tens of millions of fans worldwide. If these fans were to withdraw from WCg, WCg would likely instantly lose more than half of its Chinese audience. As for how many global fans and viewers would be lost, only heaven knew.
In fact, Li Xianghe's earlier statement was just a casual threat. He hadn't expected Leng Zhimeng to agree so readily, which left him feeling numb, but he still had to maintain the dignity of the noble Republic of Korea and said, "As you wish!"
Of course, Li Xianghe had already begun to secretly ponder whom to invite as lobbyists to help persuade the volatile Miss Leng Zhimeng and make appropriate concessions, returning some dozen or twenty participation slots to the 00 e-sports club to resolve this dispute.
Indeed, Li Xianghe had never intended to actually limit the 00 e-sports club to just nine slots, nor did he want to antagonize the strongest consortium in e-sports too severely. He was merely using this method to punish Leng Zhimeng and then make a strategic retreat.
This way, he could not only punish Leng Zhimeng but also showcase the magnanimity of the Republic of Korea and, finally, reduce the number of competitors for Korean players, truly achieving multiple objectives with a single action.