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

Chapter 90: Let's learn about this PPT presentation that's all about empty promises!
“Let’s go to the second floor now.” Lin Jingyi walked ahead and turned back to apologize as she went up the stairs. “I’m sorry, our NXG has limited resources right now, and the base doesn’t have an elevator. Please bear with us.”

Alright, let's play the "feigning poverty" tactic!

The three people in charge smiled helplessly to themselves.

Are all young people these days so shrewd? All this talk about limited resources and the lack of elevators just means they want as much sponsorship as possible when it comes to negotiating.

However, so far, the three have a very good impression of the NXG esports club. They don't deliberately boast about themselves, nor do they have the humble attitude that some game team leaders have when they come to them for sponsorship.

It's as if you're seeing your most authentic self right in front of you, so you can see it for yourself.

Of course, NXG truly has the confidence to back it up.

From the base vehicle outside the door and the management philosophy of esports players, to the layout of the living area on the first floor and the standardized management of the training room, the widely circulated daily schedule is displayed on the wall, along with the team's rules that clearly define responsibilities.

Small but complete!

Similar to the reaction of the teachers from Jinling University during their visit, this was also the thought that arose in the minds of the representatives of the three sponsors after they first stepped into NXG.

The three of them moved very slowly down the stairwell from the first floor to the second floor.

Even the person in charge of Three Squirrels took out his phone and asked, "Manager Lin, may we take pictures of the things on the wall?"

Lin Jingyi turned around and saw the sponsor pointing to the team's club culture wall. "It's alright, please go ahead."

"A true master must always have the heart of a student!"

Sometimes you need to open the door that belongs to you yourself.

"It's better to make a mistake than to do nothing."

"People will reach the summit and fall into the valley, but hopefully both will benefit you greatly."

"Only by defeating yourself can you defeat everything; only by uniting can you achieve final victory."

On the wall were posters of League of Legends, but what attracted the person in charge of Three Squirrels was the various inspirational slogans next to the posters. He recognized the first one.

It was a line from a champion named Master Yi in the game League of Legends that taught people to be humble.

I don't remember much else, but it's clear that these are all cultures that club management wants to cultivate for their teams.

Be humble! Persevere!
Courage! Unity!
"Indeed, knowledge will always shine as long as there is a stage to showcase it," the person in charge of Panpan remarked.

Remembering his research mission, he also took two photos.

Seeing this, they had a better understanding of why NXG had been able to gain online attention in such a short time since its founding.

The second floor is the contestants' accommodation area, and the three of them, led by Lin Jingyi, went into the contestants' rooms.

Last night, Lin Jingyi had informed the team members in advance that a sponsor would be visiting today, so it wouldn't be considered an invasion of the team members' privacy.

The room was very clean and tidy. Although the bedding on the bed wasn't folded into perfect squares like in the military, it was clear that it had been carefully arranged.

The smooth bed sheet had no wrinkles and emitted a faint, fresh scent of laundry detergent.

There was no unpleasant smell in the room as I had imagined. From the details, it was clear that there was no sign of a last-minute cleaning, which suggests that this is how NXG dormitories are usually managed.

……

On the third floor, while Lin Jingyi was busy showing the club to three sponsors, Jiang Ming was also discussing the sponsorship of the NXG esports team with esports peripherals.

Logitech!

Thanks to Tencent's matchmaking efforts, NXG has now attracted its biggest major investor to date.

He and his NXG team successfully captured the first wave of traffic generated by the domestic LPL professional league.

Even WE, who have won the world championship, have to rank behind them!

Some players might wonder why NXG, a newly established team, would attract sponsors, given that esports should prioritize honor.

Yes, in esports, results are king, that's absolutely true, but that will only be one part of what influences a team's commercial value.

The club's traffic, exposure, and even its reputation are all factors that businesses consider when deciding to sponsor it.

NXG's lack of a championship title doesn't affect their belief that NXG can win one, not to mention the incredibly high level of discussion surrounding NXG since Tencent started promoting the LPL professional league.

Adding these two elements together, and then Jiang Ming's trump card in club image management.

Imagine, how could a business refuse a sponsorship partner with incredible exposure, a perfect fit for its product positioning, excellent team members with great image and reputation, and a certain level of skill?

77 million!
This is Logitech's offer for a one-year sponsorship fee.

Additional conditions include the team's core advertising space on their jerseys, the prohibition of accepting sponsorships from esports peripheral brands other than Logitech, and the contract expiring after one year with Logitech having the right of first refusal for renewal.

Too low?

Are the additional conditions too stringent?

Do not!
Frankly speaking, in 13, this price was incredibly high for a gaming team's sponsorship. It was a top-tier sponsorship that countless esports teams would kill for, not to mention that the sponsor also included a batch of competitive peripherals for NXG's training and matches.

Logitech truly deserves its reputation as the top esports peripheral brand, consistently ranking first. Its foresight regarding the development and future prospects of the gaming industry, as well as its market control, are among the most advanced.

NXG's brand and team influence may not be high at present, but the other party can see their potential at a glance and make a decisive move after completing the sponsorship evaluation from the perspective of market analogy and industry development prospects.

When a large company like Tencent keeps making moves, their eyes are likely already on the rapidly expanding market of League of Legends.

It's worth noting that another company offered them NXG gaming peripherals for only a few hundred thousand yuan, a difference of four or five times.

Jiang Ming signed the contract without hesitation.

There's no need to hesitate. Given the current esports environment in China, it's practically impossible to find another peripheral brand that offers a higher price. For example, TFLOPS has already sponsored Royal Never Give Up, so even if they're interested in NXG, they won't be making any moves for the time being.

As for the skyrocketing sponsorship fees for esports clubs 14 years from now, that's a matter for the future.

For NXG now, as long as the sponsorship isn't too outrageous, they'll accept it first and deal with the rest later. They won't sign long-term contracts; in fact, they can use them as a reference standard for sponsors next year.

After all, there's a significant difference in commercial value between a team that has received sponsorship and a champion team that has nothing to show for it.

"Speaking of which, I have to thank Young Master Wang. Without his hype for NXG on Weibo, Logitech wouldn't have come knocking on our door so quickly," Jiang Ming thought to himself.

It looks like I'll have to find an opportunity to repay this favor.

Since Young Master Wang likes esports, let's give IG a boost. Their owner has money and resources anyway, and starting with them to revitalize the LPL teams would be a good idea. For example, later they could offer a "family/friendship price," selling them two players or club management personnel or something.

"Then I wish us a happy cooperation!"

"Pleasant to work with."

I got up to see the Logitech representative downstairs, and we bumped into the "Snack Trio" who had just finished visiting the NXG base.

Logitech?

"It came really fast."

The three people drinking tea in the reception room frowned slightly in unison, thinking to themselves, "We thought we had overestimated this young CEO Jiang enough, but it seems we were still far from it."

Whether it's Daliyuan, Panpan, or even the food groups behind them, their market value is hardly comparable to Logitech, which has already achieved a top-three position in the global digital peripheral industry.

Not to mention Three Squirrels, which was founded not long ago!
If one sponsor takes the lead, then when the three sponsors negotiate their sponsorship later, if the price is too low, it won't be so easy for them to get a good advertising spot.

"I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting. Shall we go to the office now to talk?"

Jiang Ming quickly turned back from outside the base and came to the person in charge of the "Snack Trio".

——The dividing line for discussing sponsorship——

110,000!
130,000!
150,000!
Snack sponsorships can't compare to peripheral manufacturers like Logitech, which are a perfect fit for esports clubs, so the sponsorship fees are much lower than Logitech's.

However, this is quite normal. Snack brands have their own limitations. These three companies followed Youchen to sponsor NXG mainly because they saw the exaggerated monthly sales of their online stores.

In addition, young people and snacks are a classic pairing, which led to today's door-to-door cooperation.

In just one day, NXG has already received millions in sponsorship fees, which is an astronomical figure that LPL clubs would never have dared to dream of before this year, or even now.

What? Investing in esports clubs not only doesn't lose money, but can also earn you millions in sponsorship fees a year?
Of course, this is definitely an isolated case that cannot be replicated.

The fact that Jiang Ming was able to achieve such a brilliant result in just two weeks since the start of the LPL season is the result of his continuous efforts since his rebirth until yesterday.

From becoming a high-ranking player in the Chinese server during Season 2, to streaming on the YY platform, creating tutorial videos to build popularity, and then starting an online store through university entrepreneurship support to accumulate his first pot of gold.

During the period when Tencent was heavily promoting the game League of Legends and establishing the domestic LPL league, they capitalized on Tencent's popularity to gain traffic and eventually launched their own team.

After the team was established, it was bombarded with a series of exposures, and finally it came up with an e-sports management model that was ahead of its time. It also had a bit of luck to be criticized by Wang Gongzi on Weibo quite by chance. All of these factors combined led to where it is today.

With money, the establishment of a youth training system can be put on the agenda, and the training of club-related management personnel and esports training personnel can be gradually implemented.

"And one more thing!"

Jiang Ming smiled broadly and looked at the three big spenders in front of him.

"We've basically finished discussing the sponsorship. Now, I wonder if the three of you would be interested in hearing about another plan of mine."

"Another plan?"

"Is it still related to the NXG club?"

"Well, we've actually exceeded our sponsorship quota for this quarter."

The three reacted differently: the person in charge of Daliyuan was curious, while the older brother of Three Squirrels and Panpan was somewhat conflicted.

"No, no, no, what I meant was to talk about monetizing esports traffic and inviting the food groups behind the three people here to do a collaboration."

Jiang Ming got up from the sofa, went to his desk, turned the computer around, and showed off the PPT he had prepared in advance.

That's right, our Boss Jiang is going to be a PPT master and a god of deception for once.

Ahem, of course, the content is absolutely authentic. He's not the kind of person who tries to build a car with a PowerPoint presentation, but after five years he can't even get anything out of it, and all he does is embezzle small sums of money from his sugar daddies.

"JM Food Time!"

"Are you planning to start a snack chain brand?"

The three of them, being from a snack brand background, quickly identified the keywords they wanted from the PPT.

"Online and offline stores!"

"Affordable or even cheap snacks."

"Factory direct sales!"

In short, Jiang Ming plans to establish a retail store that mainly sells various snacks. He hopes to invite three snack groups to set up shop and establish a supply relationship. The store will provide long-term brand marketing and handle product sales for the snack manufacturers.

This is the first step in his long-planned monetization of esports traffic!
Snack chain brands actually already have pioneers in China, such as Bestore in 03, Liangpin Shop in 06, and Three Squirrels in front of us. It can also be considered a snack chain brand, but the difference is that Three Squirrels only sells its own nuts.

Whether the young population is large or small, it is difficult for them to truly break away from the word "snacks".

We now, or will in the future, have access to a massive amount of traffic from young people. It would be a waste not to make use of it.

Furthermore, since 2013, China's economy has continued to develop and residents' income levels have continued to rise. Consumers, especially young people, have an increasing demand for snacks. The post-90s generation has gone from buying cheap, unregulated snacks for a few cents when they were young to now having higher requirements for the quality, variety, and convenience of purchasing snacks. This has also provided a broad market space for snack chain brands.

As we have seen, in later generations, offline outlets of snack chain brands such as "Snack Busy" and "Zhao Yiming" have sprung up all over the country like mushrooms after rain.

Other high-tech industries are not within his reach, and he doesn't currently have the financial strength to invest huge sums of money in some high-gold-egg industries. After much consideration, offline snack stores have become the best first step in expanding his business empire.

It's not a matter of renting a small storefront and hiring a few part-time cashiers; don't forget, he now has a status that other entrepreneurs envy immensely.

A sophomore at Jinling University!

Just imagine, wouldn't college students, especially female college students, be the main consumers of snacks?
Girls love to eat, so they buy it themselves. Boys have to consider buying it for their girlfriends and dorm mates. If this were to be rolled out across the entire university town of Nanjing, it would be an incredibly large-scale operation.

I have my own network, and I also have the ability to address the biggest concern for offline stores: customer traffic. Right now, all I need to do is solve the most critical supply chain issue for snack chain stores, and then this move can truly proceed.

The core profit of snack chain stores lies in the relatively expensive bulk snacks, but their core competitiveness lies in the affordable and even inexpensive big-brand beverages and snacks. Therefore, establishing direct supply relationships with snack manufacturers and obtaining goods at the lowest ex-factory price is crucial.

"There's no problem with the supply of goods. I was originally planning to ask Mr. Jiang if he was interested in listing our company's products on your online store during this cooperation discussion," the Daliyuan representative said with a smile.

Panpan and Three Squirrels also nodded in agreement. Not only do snack chain stores not have any conflict of interest with them, but they can also be said to be the best distributors, a partner with guaranteed sales. I believe no snack manufacturer would turn down such a deal.

"Thank you so much!"

Jiang Ming was somewhat surprised by how smoothly things were going, but he still continued to push forward, saying, "Initially, I will focus on the university town as the main location for the stores. As for the number, I plan to open at least five stores this year, with both online and offline channels. If any of you gentlemen have other snack brands that are interested in cooperating with me, please introduce me to them."

(End of this chapter)