It was a pity that before Li Xianghe could even decide who to ask to be a lobbyist, Leng Zhimeng turned and left directly. As she left, she uttered the parting words, "I promise, you will regret this!"
"Aishiba, that woman who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth! How can men of the Republic of Korea be threatened by such brainless women!" Once he was sure Leng Zhimeng and her group had left, Li Xianghe said indignantly.
"Chairman, this woman and the Jiangnan Group behind her have quite some influence in China. What if she plays dirty with us, like getting the venue's officials to ban us from using it and kicking us out? Will our competition still go on?" one of the organizing committee members asked with some worry.
"That shouldn't be the case!" Li Xianghe was startled. "This woman wouldn't do something like that, would she? Doesn't she care about laws or credit?"
"Chairman, there's no need to talk about laws or credit. They can just find any excuse, for example, if our fire safety arrangements are not up to standard, they can ban us from holding the event for safety reasons. Then all our preparations would be in vain!"
"They can do that? Is that even possible?" He had transferred from an office and lacked specific experience before.
"This is a very common tactic domestically. Chinese people should understand that!" the person said.
"Hmph, don't worry. Such clever tactics can only be conceived by the wise men of the Republic of Korea. Those foolish Chinese people can't come up with such methods!" the Chairman reassured his subordinate.
Upon hearing this, the subordinates didn't know what to say. Was he praising the Republic of Korea or mocking it?
They were too bewildered to tell.
Perhaps the Chairman knew the reason was foolish, so he said, "Don't worry, we can directly contact our embassy. Chinese people value face the most. As long as our embassy protests, the Chinese will yield!"
"In addition, we can also leverage the strength of those participating contestants. If China doesn't provide us with a venue, then the angry contestants from all over the world will stand up for justice on our behalf!" The Chairman's reasoning was somewhat plausible, and everyone nodded, believing that the Chinese would not dare to do anything that would tarnish their international image.
"However, Chairman, we still have about 40% of our audience from China, and 30% of our sponsorship comes from the Chinese market. If the oo e-sports club withdraws, many Chinese viewers will stop watching, and we will likely lose a lot of sponsorship! After all, this is the first time we are adopting an online live broadcast to stream the WCg competition across the entire network, which has helped us attract a lot of sponsorship. If the Chinese withdraw, this sponsorship will also leave!" a subordinate said cautiously.
"I know this without you reminding me!" Li Xianghe glared at the subordinate and then said loudly, "Don't worry, I've considered this issue. We don't actually need to antagonize the Chinese too much. I'll invite a few clubs that have good relations with China to talk to Leng Zhimeng and restore about 20 or so competition slots for them. That way, they'll be satisfied and won't cause any more trouble!"
"However, starting from the next session, each team club can only have nine competition slots. This rule must be strictly enforced. This is a rule that will greatly benefit the development of the Republic of Korea's e-sports industry. Do you understand?"
"Yes!" the many Koreans said confidently, as if the rise of the Republic of Korea's e-sports industry was imminent.
Just as everyone was loudly agreeing, someone burst in, holding a document, and said, "The oo e-sports club has just submitted a formal written notice to us, stating that all their players will officially withdraw from this year's and all future WCg competitions!"
"Just a piece of scrap paper to threaten and intimidate us. They are just putting on a show. We just need to soften our stance a little and give them some face!" the Chairman said dismissively.
However, not long after, another staff member nervously said, "Chairman, the oo e-sports club has just issued an announcement on their official website and official social media accounts, stating that they absolutely do not recognize your new policy, claiming it is a rule to suppress Chinese players by your country. Therefore, the entire oo e-sports club will collectively withdraw from WCg and will not participate in any WCg competitions."
"Chairman, since the oo e-sports club has said so on so many public channels, they are unlikely to come back!" a staff member said anxiously.
"Aishiba, I know, you don't need to tell me redundant things!" the Chairman grumbled. He indeed understood very well that the idea of finding someone to negotiate with the oo e-sports club and making some concessions to get them back had completely failed.
"Hmph, if they don't appreciate our kindness, that's fine too," the Chairman immediately said. "This is actually good. The players from the oo e-sports club have an absolute advantage in at least a dozen events. With them gone, the gold medals in these events will belong to the Republic of Korea. This will become the Republic of Korea's most successful event in terms of medals. This is a great thing!"
"However, we cannot let them occupy the moral high ground. The claim that our policy suppresses Chinese players is just an excuse for their own inadequacy! You immediately have someone draft an announcement stating that the oo e-sports club gave up because they couldn't win gold medals with a human wave tactic! They also severely threatened our organizing committee, attempting to use the venue's usage rights to intimidate us!" the Chairman immediately instructed, assigning staff to launch a counter-offensive in public opinion.
"But Chairman... we haven't mentioned the threat regarding the exhibition hall yet!" the staff member whispered.
"Didn't we just discuss it? It's indeed possible that they might use such tactics, so we can write it down!" Li Xianghe argued righteously. "Besides, this is a good thing. Think about it, if we announce this in our announcement first, will the oo e-sports club dare to use such tactics to threaten us? If they announce that our fire safety is not up to standard or something, wouldn't that be admitting it themselves?"
"So as long as we say this, the Chinese will not dare to use such methods anymore!" Li Xianghe concluded.
"Chairman's brilliant insight!" The staff members were suddenly energized, marveling at their Chairman's wisdom. Yes, although this tactic was unpleasant, it would indeed make the Chinese hesitate.
These staff members worked quickly, and within an hour, the relevant announcement was drafted and then directly published through the official WCg website and social media accounts.
The release of these two official messages immediately caused a stir in the entire e-sports circle. The public dispute between the oo e-sports club and WCg sparked massive discussions, with almost everyone related to e-sports talking about this incident.
"It's over, Sky is my favorite. I originally wanted to see him win the triple crown this year, but now it's completely impossible. oo was too irrational. Why did they have to fall out like this?" a US netizen said unwillingly on the official Warcraft 3 forum.
Well, since US players were largely excluded from Warcraft 3 championships, there were many fans of Sky in the US, and they were die-hard fans at that, as Sky's tactics and operations were simply too formidable and appealing.
"Damn it, the top five players on the entire Warcraft 3 ladder are all from the oo e-sports club. If these five players are unable to participate, the championship will surely fall into the hands of those damned Koreans!" a Japanese netizen said angrily. On the internet, perhaps only the Japanese hated Koreans as much as the Chinese did.
Of course, if you swapped any of these three countries, the above statement would still hold true.
"Who wins the championship is not important. What's important is who do you think is right or wrong this time?" a rational netizen asked.
"It's definitely the WCg organizing committee that has problems. Their club has over 100 players participating, and then you only give them 9 slots in the end. Is that fair? Is there any justice?"
"I don't think so. It's already very exaggerated and absurd for a club to have over 100 participants. So I think restricting the club's players is the right decision!"
"Right my foot! The club's over 100 participant slots weren't bought with money. They were earned by the players under them, who advanced by playing in various competitions. Every slot was obtained legitimately. Why should the organizing committee take away the slots just by saying so?"
"But it is necessary to limit clubs. The oo e-sports club has already become a dominant force in the entire industry, and other clubs cannot compete with them. If this continues, the industry cannot develop healthily."
"I also think limiting clubs is not a problem, but this method is simply too dirty. Even if you wanted to add restrictive rules, you should have done so at the next WCg. Why add and implement them so abruptly now? Their qualifications earned from a year of playing were all canceled with a single sentence. Who the hell can tolerate that!"
"Alas, no matter who is right, the oo e-sports club is definitely finished this time. They were too impulsive to shout 'never participate again,' which is equivalent to disqualifying all their players from participating in WCg. Everyone came here to win the world championship. With this, who would be willing to stay in the club? I'm afraid that after this year's competition ends, the players of the oo e-sports club will all leave, and a giant will vanish!"
"Yes, it's too regrettable!" Many people lamented, as if the oo e-sports club no longer existed.