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

Chapter 298 Ionia Promotional Video!
Jiang Ming's first appearance in Season 4 after YY's restructuring into Huya Live concluded amidst much anticipation.

This phenomenal live stream ignited the League of Legends esports community right from the start!
Amazingly, within just half an hour of the broadcast starting, the volcanic eruption of popularity and buzz instantly achieved the core metrics for the multi-million dollar contract with Huya!

This report card is undoubtedly a brilliant "starting success".

Faced with such impressive results, Huya's top management was naturally all smiles.

In just one night, live stream room number 120021 became like a giant magnet, instantly attracting tens of thousands of new viewers to the platform.

That evening, content creators who sensed the potential for increased traffic flocked to the platform, filling various platforms with clips of their live streams.

The headlines are getting more and more exaggerated.

What?! #From daycare to legendary swordsman, JM redefines the new hero#
#The wind sweeps through, leaving nothing but desolation! Jiang Ming's Yasuo has used Wu Wukai as a last resort!#
#55kai: What happened to the promised 50/50 matchup? This Sword Master is using a one-shot cheat!#
#Smurfing in a 1000-Mile King of Glory game? Jiang Ming's Yasuo: No, I was just testing the skill ceiling of different heroes!#
Even more encouraging is that a staggering 90% of the original YY users followed Jiang Ming's lead and smoothly migrated to Huya. Xu Tao, who spearheaded the entire process and successfully signed Jiang Ming, undoubtedly became the biggest contributor to this "strategic shift," earning widespread acclaim for his keen eye for talent and swift decision-making.

Amidst the celebratory atmosphere, whispers and discussions arose within the company:

"Tsk, all I can say is that JM has a complete grasp of what LOL players are thinking. He knows exactly how to manipulate traffic and generate buzz!"

"Who can argue with that! Who would have thought he'd dare to do a new hero tutorial livestream in a high-elo game? Just looking at the content is enough to send chills down your spine!"

"But they have the raw skill to back them up! In a 1000-point Challenger game, not only do they have to maintain a high win rate, but they also have to deliver a live-stream tutorial-like performance. Try putting someone else in there? They'd be kicked to death like a nobody on the street in no time!"

"So, his worth is justified! Some people were whispering behind his back, saying that a multi-million dollar contract was too expensive? Now look, they were just short-sighted!"

"In the end, it's all thanks to Lao Xu's sharp eye! Back in 12, when JM had just reached 2300 points in the Chinese server, Lao Xu dared to immediately spend a high price to sign him. You have to admire his boldness!"

Faced with compliments from within the company, Xu Tao, who was practically floating on air, never stopped smiling, but he never forgot to maintain the appropriate humility in his tone:

"Haha, you flatter me. It's mainly because JM has real talent. Gold shines wherever it is placed. Whoever signed him would have been in this position sooner or later."

"Yeah! The most amazing thing is that he actually premiered the news of hosting the 'League of Legends Ionia Cup' on his own livestream! That was such a brilliant move. Not only did it boost the livestream's popularity to the max, but it also gave the tournament its first wave of free publicity. He really got the best of both worlds and made a killing!"

"Wait a minute, bro, isn't your focus off-topic? The real shock should be—JM, a streamer, has the power to organize a professional League of Legends tournament in just two years?!"

"What's so shocking about that? Not at all!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"First of all, he's the owner of NXG eSports Club, right?"

"Hmm? I know that."

"NXG easily made over six or seven million in sponsorship fees last year, right? This year it's tripled! The championship roster that won S3, just five players, their transfer fees alone will guarantee them a profit of one or two million each! And then there's their youth training camp, how many LPL teams have bought players from them? Not to mention their wildly successful merchandise stores, their new season live streaming contract on our platform alone is worth tens of millions, with this kind of business empire, it's strange that they're organizing a tournament?"

"Okay, I understand! Never mind what I said!"

In fact, even Jiang Ming himself did not expect that the live broadcast would be so successful.

While the almost instinctive appeal of Yasuo to LOL players is undeniable, what's even more ingenious is that the opposing mid laner happened to be Wu Wukai, the innate streamer, who inexplicably locked in Zed to face him!

His entertaining maneuvers and reactions became the perfect negative example for his own livestream featuring the new hero.

Add to that the classic吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or witty remarks) segment that followed, and this livestream coincidence was mutually beneficial, maximizing the entertainment value of the show.

As for the "Ionia Cup" announcement that was made at the end, it was at most an added bonus given the already peak level of popularity.

Of course, as the outside world spread the word about Jiang Ming's amazing performance with Yasuo in a 1000-point King of Glory match, the League of Legends professional tournament called "Ionia Cup" became known to players, and the initial publicity for it can be said to have begun.

……

Among the content creators on Bilibili, "Narcissistic Little Fire Dragon" is a unique presence.

As a self-proclaimed "clumsy player," he knew he couldn't produce high-quality game content like those talented creators.

However, his "accidental" choice to major in computer science during college made him unwilling to return to his hometown and make a living by running a print shop or photo studio.

An idea sparked by a chance encounter while watching an LPL offline match led him down a different path: editing the most amazing and memorable moments from League of Legends.

Unexpectedly, the results were surprisingly good. For viewers with fragmented time and high expectations, lengthy original videos often fail to capture their attention. However, his tightly choreographed mashups, which are "high-energy throughout and take only a few minutes to finish," precisely filled this market gap, like offering a concentrated "visual feast" to a taste bud craving excitement.

The real turning point came last year. When he started focusing on editing highlight reels of star player JM's matches against the NXG team, the number of video views and followers skyrocketed.

This made him realize that clinging tightly to JM was the shortcut to the pinnacle of his life.

Sure enough, just over ten hours after JM's first live stream of the new season on Huya, the narcissistic Little Fire Dragon quickly edited and uploaded a high-energy highlight reel of "JM Yasuo dominating in Challenger games".

In less than a day, it garnered nearly a million views!
It was so terrifying.

Thus, he became an unofficial fan of NXG, but one who never missed a single message.

However, after yesterday's live stream ended, he, like many viewers, was very interested in the "Ionia Cup" that JM mentioned.

I was amazed that JM, a college student streamer, had transformed into the boss of a company that could organize professional leagues in just two years. At the same time, I was also very excited – I had new material to edit.

It's important to understand that as his video views increased, so did the number of businesses wanting to advertise with him online. However, the self-confident Little Dragon understands the principle of "remembering where one's blessings come from" and always adheres to the principle of aligning himself with his "patrons," JM (his fans), carefully selecting advertisements rather than accepting them indiscriminately. This insistence on content quality and the trust of his fans is the key to his excellent reputation and unique position among many video editing content creators.

My phone vibrated with a "ding," and the notification sound from my Weibo follower was particularly crisp.

"Huh, NXG suddenly updated? There haven't been any matches lately!"

The narcissistic little dragon swiped open the screen, his face full of confusion—at this moment, the official account of NXG eSports Club had popped up without warning. He tapped his finger, and the update unfolded in a flash, the content of which was utterly astonishing;

NXG reposted a video that "Jingjie Culture" had just released!
"What the hell?" he couldn't help but mutter.

JM's spirited appearance on the poster is still fresh in everyone's mind. Fans are eagerly awaiting news about this new tournament or team updates, but instead, the club has quietly gone off to do a video collaboration? This move is like Louis XVI smoothing his bangs—completely baffling!
Filled with doubt, the narcissistic little dragon clicked on the video that NXG had forwarded. If he remembered correctly, the promotional video for the LOL All-Star event in Shanghai was produced by a studio under this company, which also seemed to be a company owned by JM...

As the black curtain fell, the words "Jingjie Culture" and its logo appeared before our eyes.

However, what first caught the narcissistic little dragon's attention was the barrage of comments floating across the screen.

[Front row!]

As is widely known, Jingjie Culture is an animation company.

[A petition with thousands of signatures calls for JM to produce a League of Legends movie!]

The video was quickly replaced by a strange color, and the camera slid down from high above, soon arriving in a world that looked like an island.

The island features towering mountains that are shrouded in mist year-round; vast forests with lush, verdant trees that block out the sun; and endless plains crisscrossed by rivers, where various exotic flowers and plants grow, each with its own unique shape and vibrant colors, predominantly in shades of blue and purple.

The first thing I noticed when I saw the narcissistic little dragon was that it was the main color scheme of the blue and purple sides of Summoner's Rift.

A voiceover simultaneously announced: "Ionia, the birthplace of Runeterra!"

"People have long revered the principle of balance!"

A line of small text appears on the right side of the video: Navori Province, Ionia!
The tranquil atmosphere was broken by the sound of chopping wood, and suddenly two figures walked into the frame.

【! ! ! 】

【Oh my god, it's Shen and Akali! Ah, are both of these champions from Ionia?】

[I'm not sure. The official backstory is fragmented, and this is probably a promotional video made by JM's studio, so it shouldn't be considered official history.]

The first scene is not difficult to understand.

It seems the ninja duo living in Ionia were attracted by the sound of chopping.

But what's so strange about cutting down trees?

Just as viewers watching the screen were filled with doubt, the narration began again: "In Ionia, we live in harmony with nature and have a deep sense of awe for these trees, because they are not only part of nature, but also contain a mysterious power that protects this land."

(End of this chapter)