Restart life

Chapter 465 0455 [200 Million Yuan Champion Prize Money]

With the increasing popularity of home computers and broadband, and the explosive growth in the number of internet cafes nationwide (especially illegal internet cafes), the internet cafe industry in 2010 was already fiercely competitive.

In order to attract customers, internet cafes are actively upgrading their hardware and improving their environment, and have even spawned the concept of "new internet cafes".

In addition, internet cafes keep abreast of game news and download and install the latest popular games as soon as possible.

Even during the closed beta test of "Oracle Era," a large number of internet cafes proactively installed the game. Now that the game is open to players, almost every internet cafe in the country has installed it.

Games like Dragon Nest and League of Legends have received the same treatment.

Some internet cafes with excellent service will even regularly remind customers of new games that have been released.

Shanghai, Wangyu Internet Cafe.

This is China's first internet cafe. Last year, it shouted the slogan "Internet Cafe 2.0", offering freshly ground coffee, milk tea, and Western pastries. It was also renovated to be more high-end and classy.

The customers of this internet cafe are mainly college students and young white-collar workers, and the proportion of female users is quite high.

At this moment, approximately 70% of the customers are playing games.

Of these internet cafe customers playing games, about 30% are playing World of Warcraft. With the expansion Wrath of the Lich King only recently released, World of Warcraft seems to have been rejuvenated.

Some veteran gamers even stop playing on their home computers and instead gather their friends to go to internet cafes to relive their past glory days.

Some female gamers were also playing QQ Speed ​​and QQ Dance, typing away on their keyboards. Tencent's game operation is indeed impressive; while KartRider and Audition Online have declined, Tencent's two knock-off games have surprisingly survived.

"Old Ding, Little Yang, you've finally arrived. Let's play Dota!"

"How about trying out Oracle Era today? I've heard it's a really fun game."

"Fun my ass. 'Oracle Era' and 'League of Legends' are both rip-offs of 'Dota.' You, a hardcore 'Dota' player, are playing a knock-off?"

"I heard it's a little different."

"I know, it's a foolproof game, perfect for beginners."

"It doesn't easily disconnect, and even if it does, it can reconnect."

"Uh, okay..."

Neither Youke nor Tencent considered Dota as a competitor.

Because they are not the same type of game at all.

While the game mechanics are largely similar, Dota can only be played on third-party platforms; there's no independent central server. Furthermore, the versions on different platforms are inconsistent, cheating is rampant, and disconnections are commonplace.

Once disconnected, there is no way to reconnect!

This group registered and logged into "Oracle Era," and relying on their status as veteran Dota players, skipped the entire tutorial. They were too lazy to team up or play against bots, and went straight into matchmaking to stomp on weaker opponents.

"Damn, you can't pull neutral creeps in this game?"

"Damn it, the deny mechanic has been removed. It really is a game for newbies, only suitable for newbies."

"No finishing axe?"

"Aside from the beautiful visuals, it's utterly useless."

"I'm not playing anymore, I'm not playing anymore, Dota is so much more fun!"

"..."

These veteran Dota players are all finding Oracle Age too easy and haven't yet experienced the skill ceiling of Oracle Age.

After a match, they all quit the game and went back to playing Dota.

In the entire internet cafe, there were only two newbies who had never played Dota before, and they were having a great time playing against AI in Oracle Era.

Meanwhile, at another internet cafe in the suburbs of Shanghai, a large group of factory workers who had just finished their shifts poured in.

They hadn't even gone to eat; they only yelled, "Manager, instant noodles!" after turning on their computers at the internet cafe.

Then I put on my headphones.

Many people don't play games; instead, they log on to 51.com to video chat with members of the opposite sex or exchange messages on QQ Spaces.

They don't care about "Wrath of the Lich King" here; they have no special feelings for "World of Warcraft".

The percentage of players for "Future Era" and "CrossFire" is extremely high!

There are also quite a few people who play Dragon Nest.

After someone finished using up their fatigue points for the day, they noticed someone playing "Oracle Era" next to them and immediately asked what game it was. Then they logged into the game with their Youke account, dutifully completed the tutorial tasks, and seriously went to play against AI opponents.

"This game is trash, it's not as fun as 'Dream of the Three Kingdoms'!" a factory worker who was passing by on his way to the toilet said disdainfully.

Unfortunately, the person playing Oracle Era was wearing headphones and couldn't hear his taunts.

Suddenly, the internet cafe owner drove up and said to the manager, "Xiao Wang, put this up."

"What is it?" the network administrator asked.

The internet cafe owner said, "There's a poster for 'Oracle Era' and a call to arms for the City Championship."

The network administrator opened the pile of files, ignoring the posters, and instead read the call to action:
“今年11月1日，《神谕纪元》将举办全国城市争霸赛选拔赛。全国分为八大赛区，每个赛区线上角逐出三支代表队。赛区冠军队伍奖励10万元、亚军队伍奖励5万元、季军队伍奖励2万元……”

"Next spring, the champions, runners-up, and third-place winners from each region will compete in the national elimination rounds..."

"Next summer, the winning teams will compete in the offline grand finals. The grand finals champion team will receive 200 million... 200 million yuan? Holy crap! That's a lot of prize money. The runner-up team will receive 100 million yuan, and the third-place team will receive 50 yuan!"

“Each participating team can partner with a local internet cafe. The internet cafe partnered with the winning team at each stage can organize (up to 3 people) a visit to the headquarters of Youke Company, and the internet cafe’s information will be displayed on the Youke official website for three to six months. Mr. Chen Guiliang, Chairman of Youke, will personally receive the internet cafe visitors.”

"The owners of the internet cafes that represent the top three teams in the competition area will automatically qualify as members of the organizing committee for that region next year!" "For detailed procedures, please visit the Youke official website."

The internet cafe owner, a cigarette dangling from his lips, said, "I'm going to start a team using the internet cafe's name. You go and announce that anyone selected for the team will have free internet access forever. And if they win a prize, I won't take a single penny of the prize money!"

The network administrator immediately put up posters and call-to-action notices, and loudly announced the cash prize for the competition.

"A 200 million yuan prize for the championship? Really?"

"Boss, I want to sign up! I'm a gaming expert!"

"Is the prize money really ours?"

"Two million is enough for me to work for several lifetimes."

"..."

In an instant, the internet cafe was in chaos as everyone rushed toward the competition call to arms.

The owner announced, "Our internet cafe's esports team is only recruiting six people for now: five starters and one substitute. You guys practice first, and let your skills speak for themselves in two weeks!"

This boss was clearly unfamiliar with the game; he didn't even know what jungling or support was. All he knew was that a team of five needed to be formed.

The factory workers in the internet cafe went crazy. No matter what games they used to play, they all wanted to test their skills.

What if we win the championship?

That's a 200 million yuan reward!

"Let's team up! No newbies allowed, only those who have played at least three rounds against bots!"

"Damn it, why didn't you bring the crystal core (rune)?"

What is a crystal nucleus?

"Dude, I don't have that teleport skill. Do I have to change jobs to learn it?"

"Why can't I play ranked matches? This game has a bug!"

"..."

The rookies shouted in unison, their words filled with a desire for the 200 million yuan prize, even though they knew nothing about it.

From "Three Kingdoms Kill" to "Future Era," Youke has gradually established offline channels. These channels serve two purposes: promoting the games and promoting Youpay's nationwide rollout in internet cafes.

Internet cafes in various cities have their own industry associations, and these associations have been cooperating with Youke for a long time.

The news of the city championship in "Oracle Era" was rolled out in legal internet cafes in major cities across the country within a week.

Internet cafe owners were very enthusiastic about this. Their focus wasn't on the bonus, nor was it necessarily about meeting Chen Guiliang. Instead, they used it as a gimmick to attract more potential customers—after all, the internet cafe industry is becoming increasingly competitive.

Chen Guiliang provided this gimmick, and the internet cafe owners naturally took advantage of it.

The grand finals champion will receive a prize of 200 million yuan, which is higher than the prize money of any other esports event in China. That's already a huge gimmick!

Even the few veteran Dota players at Wangyu Internet Cafe, who disdained Oracle Era, were attracted by the extremely high prize money for the tournament.

They felt that "Oracle Era" was very simple and that they could easily crush noobs in the game.

Even if we don't make it to the national finals, getting a top-three finish in a region is a piece of cake.

So they started playing the game, familiarizing themselves with the hero skills and equipment, and then went to play ranked matches after reaching the maximum level.

At that time, most of China's major e-sports teams were composed of college students, and there were relatively few graduates who continued to pursue e-sports.

The news of the 200 million yuan prize for the overall champion quickly shocked the Chinese e-sports circle, and all the teams quickly arranged for players to enter the game.

Even ordinary college students who have just started school are forming teams.

The 200 million yuan in 2010 was simply too tempting!
RN forum, Dota section.

"What the hell? This is supposed to be the Dota community, so why are there so many posts talking about Oracle Era? What are the admins doing? These kinds of posts should be deleted and the users banned!"

"Exactly, it's a trash game for newbies. They even removed the deny mechanic, what skill is there to play in that game?"

"Their jungler design is quite impressive; Dota could actually take a look."

"LS is definitely a paid shill hired by Youke. I suggest banning their account!"

"Fuck you? I'm sticking to the facts, I'm banning your account!"

"It's already been banned. From now on, anyone advertising for 'Oracle Era' will have their account banned."

"..."

The hierarchy of disdain in the Dota community is already very serious. New players not only find it difficult to adapt to the game quickly, but they are also often bullied and mocked by veteran players.

Many newcomers who want to play Dota are driven away by the insults from veteran players in this way.

Oracle Era places great emphasis on the new player experience, especially with its comprehensive tutorial that guides you step-by-step through the various rules, making sure you understand something.

By the end of September, the peak concurrent users of "Oracle Era" exceeded 600,000.

Even with the traffic from QQ, League of Legends' peak concurrent users only barely exceeded 30. The game's rough graphics and unattractive hero characters deterred many QQ users.

After comparing the two games, internet cafe users almost always choose Oracle Era.

Then, the number of online players for "Dream of the Three Kingdoms" began to decline...

(End of this chapter)