League of Legends: Reborn in Season 3, Tuning the Entire League

Chapter 230 Investors?
"Yes, ROXtiger!"

"I would like to invite two people to join the team I founded in the OGN region and fight together for Season 4."

During the World Championship Finals, in a quiet corner where no one was watching, an "enhanced Tigers" team, centered around Looper/Marin, Peanut, Wonseok (Fat), Ben/Greira, and others, quietly took shape.

Even though it was just a temporary setup with an AD carry from an average Diamond rank player, they still managed to secure a spot in the S4 season, which will soon be renamed LCK.

In Jiang Ming's vision, nothing was more suitable as the final piece of the puzzle for this team than having imp as AD and Redmi as head coach.

With Looper and Ma, two top-tier top laners, teaming up with Peanut, and Fat General anchoring the mid lane, this synergy configuration represents a comprehensive enhancement in the top, mid, and jungle matchups compared to the original lineup.

If we also consider the addition of Pupu, Jiang Ming really can't think of how the LCK region should deal with such a lineup.

Most importantly, this team has absolutely no issues with resource allocation conflicts.

Both Looper and Marin in the top lane are versatile players who can tank and carry;

They can charge forward with Jayce or Renekton, or defend with Poppy or Maokai. The two can switch tactically without any hindrance.

Peanut's style was quite extreme in the first two years after his debut, basically sticking to an aggressive jungle style. However, this wasn't a big problem, as Pawn in the mid lane could solve 90% of the issues for him.

As for the remaining 10% of pressure that needs to be taken care of, with the ability of the Giant Soldier to attract aggro, even if he is in the bottom lane, he can share the burden with the mid and jungle.

"Why us?" Redmi was still a little confused. "Not to mention the top eight teams, there were many players who performed even better in the group stage alone."

"I trust my judgment. SSO's failure in the quarterfinals was mainly due to the weakness in the mid and jungle. Although the team's loss is the responsibility of the whole team, it does not diminish the individual value that you two showed on the field."

"Let's not talk about imp for now... Homme, you have an excellent overall view and a clear tactical mind. I think you are very suitable to continue to shine in the training group."

"Oh my god, JM, you should have said you wanted to invite Cheng Rong to join the training team earlier. He was so conflicted all the way here."

Just a moment ago, "Giant Warrior" was feeling down about why the topic hadn't fallen on him first, but after hearing Jiang Ming's arrangements for Redmi, he immediately grinned.

Redmi awkwardly scratched the back of its head.

It turns out I was just overthinking things the whole way, wasting my time and emotions.

Last night, when he learned that JM intended to invite him to join NXG, he even doubted whether he still had untapped potential and thought that maybe he could give it one last dance on the field.

Oh, it's the training team!
Hongmi felt relieved; everything was alright now.

……

At the same time that Jiang Ming had already reached the point of poaching players from the world championships, a group of people in China were also closely watching him and his NXG esports club.

Haiding District, Beijing.

Inside Xiaomi's headquarters building.

In the conference room, several senior executives sat around the conference table, with a PowerPoint presentation on the screen showing the latest research information and evaluation conclusions from the marketing department. The lights illuminated everyone's eyes.

Just over twenty days ago, Xiaomi held its 2013 annual product launch conference at the National Convention Center, officially releasing its Xiaomi 3!

However, the anticipated surge in discussion failed to materialize, as if the numerous advertisements had failed to capture the attention of young people.

Just as the executives were racking their brains, Mr. Lei Jun shared a market research information sheet and a business plan called "Xiaomi Mobile Phone Esports Expansion".

Today's meeting marks the final discussion of this proposal.

After about ten minutes, once everyone had briefly reviewed the latest version of the proposal, Lei Jun asked for opinions, "Everyone, please share your thoughts. I think you should all have some understanding of esports after these few days."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became heavy.

If your boss asks if you know anything about something, and you really only know "something," then you're really doomed.

In the past few days, everyone has been cramming on knowledge about esports in China.

The head of the marketing department, who bears primary responsibility for the lack of market discussion surrounding the new product launch, spoke first: "Let me first share the results of the marketing department's research. Normally, September is the time when university students across the country are starting their new semesters. Holding a launch event at this time should not have resulted in such a sluggish market response."

"Unfortunately, we've run into a monster this year!"

"monster?"

The expressions on everyone's faces varied. Everyone present was intelligent, and they quickly connected it with the topic of today's discussion.

However, even though they had a good idea of ​​what was going on, everyone was still curious as to why they used the word "monster" to describe it.

“That’s right, it’s a ‘monster,’ and a cross-industry ‘monster’ that we hadn’t noticed at all before.”

Seeing the looks in his colleagues' eyes, the head of the marketing department smiled wryly.

Not to mention others, even he himself was more shocked when he learned that the marketing attention of his own product had been stolen by a previously unrelated e-sports "competitor".

The person in charge pulled up a data spreadsheet on the computer, along with several screenshots recording trending online terms:
#2013 Shanghai All-Star Game#
#Undefeated in the Spring Split, the King of Professional League of Legends!#
#A battle of black and white, a city league championship even more exciting than the LPL finals.#
#S3 World Championship, putting NXG aside, who do you think will go further, Royal Club or IG?#
"In 2013, or more precisely, starting from the end of last year, a MOBA game called League of Legends (LOL) swept the gaming world. After quickly dominating the top spot on the charts, the number of registered players, daily active users, number of viewers for tournaments, and discussions about tournaments all skyrocketed."

"Just last month, Tencent announced that the number of registered users for the Chinese server had exceeded 90 million, and the peak real-time viewership of the LPL—the League of Legends Pro League—for the S3 qualifying tournament exceeded four million." Then, the crucial point came: the timing was also very clever, coinciding perfectly with the launch day of their new device.

What does four million mean?
Any mobile phone company that can garner four million genuine views on the day of its new product launch would be laughing all the way to the bank, let alone four million real-time viewers.

In particular, these four million viewers are all between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine, an age group that highly overlaps with Xiaomi phone users.

……

A brief silence fell over the conference table.

This includes Lei Jun himself. Although he already knew the reasons for the lukewarm market response to the Xiaomi 3 launch event before the meeting, he quickly connected it with the investment invitation sent by his friend's son some time ago, which led to today's meeting.

But when faced with detailed data, one can't help but feel a bit disoriented for a while.

Four million!

Four million young people.

If they had noticed this market earlier, they wouldn't have suffered a Waterloo and collided with the other side like Mars colliding with Earth. They might have even been able to take advantage of this opportunity and install an aircraft engine on the Mi-3 to break last year's record.

Thankfully, I realized what was happening.

A good meal is not afraid of being late.

After discussing the negative aspects, it's time to present the positive information.

Today's meeting is for market expansion discussions, not for assigning blame and assigning responsibility.

The marketing department continued, "It was precisely because of this chance encounter that Mr. Lei instructed our marketing department to conduct in-depth research on the esports market..."

"Research shows that 78% of LOL players get their information through live esports broadcasts, and 62% of users are willing to pay a premium for esports-related brands."

"Esports users are generally highly sensitive to technology products and are easily influenced by opinion leaders, providing a natural channel for brand penetration."

"Among these, the most common technological product is the computer mouse!"

……

The meeting lasted from evening until late at night.

In fact, the time spent listening to the detailed implementation report of the project plan far exceeded the time spent discussing it.

Most of the topics raised at the meeting were things that the decision-makers had already predetermined.

The main purpose of bringing this up for discussion now is to gather ideas and hear everyone's opinions on the company's foray into the e-sports field.

dong dong!

Seeing that no department had any objection to the company venturing into a completely new field to replace some of its previous publicity methods, Lei Jun finally made the decision.

"Then let's decide on this. At most, it's just a matter of taking out 100 million to test the waters."

"Esports is a battlefield for young people, and Xiaomi aims to become their first choice with its products offering the best value for money and its passionate brand image."

"I immediately approved the marketing department's suggestion to prioritize partnering with the NXG team."

"I knew about this team before. They have a very solid fan base, their club performance is outstanding, and their founder has a huge following in the esports circle with a very positive personal image..."

"Our future goal is to integrate e-sports elements into the MIUI system, allowing users to feel the warmth of Xiaomi in games."

Regarding the budget, we can appropriately reduce investment in traditional advertising and concentrate resources to win this battle.

Seeing that the general direction was set, Hong Feng, who hadn't said much until now, chimed in: "The team Lao Lei mentioned, as far as I know, is currently competing in the League of Legends World Championship. If we're going to cooperate, we need to consider two things. If we discuss cooperation in advance, can the results be guaranteed? But if we wait until their competition is over, and NXG, as a favorite to win, takes the top honor, the costs will definitely..."

The vice president is a true action-taker. Once he decides to get involved, he has to consider all aspects carefully before setting off.

The first problem they face now is when to come knocking on their door.

Before the World Championship?

If NXG fails to win the championship, given the Chinese people's obsessive pursuit of being number one, it will inevitably have a negative impact on market feedback.

The advantage of taking action after the World Championship is also obvious: you can see the immediate results.

The only downside is the ever-increasing cost.

However, there was one thing that the Xiaomi team subconsciously overlooked.

It's true that they want to invest.

However, the final decision on whether to accept Xiaomi's investment rests with NXG, or rather, with Jiang Ming.

(End of this chapter)