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Chapter 527 0515 [The Korean Game Market: A New King Ascends the Throne!]

The $500 million sponsorship fee was well spent. Shortly after Chen Guiliang flew back from South Korea, he learned that there were problems with the OGN championship of League of Legends.

First, during the match, both players disconnected repeatedly, interrupting the game several times.

According to sources, this is due to a problem with Riot Games' match servers.

However, Riot Games firmly denies this and provides many possible reasons for disconnections, such as computer problems, peripheral malfunctions, cable connections, network fluctuations, etc.

This incident was deliberately blown out of proportion, even extending to claims that the League of Legends servers had problems in the first place.

Subsequently, under KeSPA's "coordination," the broadcast time of League of Legends on the OGN channel was changed—from a better time slot to a less desirable time slot where there were hardly any viewers.

And what about the competition in "Oracle Era"?
It will be broadcast directly during prime time!

Riot Games was furious, accusing OGN and KeSPA of breaching their contracts. They claimed that Riot Games had given up significant profits that should have been theirs in exchange for OGN and KeSPA's promotional support.

The protest was ineffective.

That's nothing. Yuke also gave up a lot of profits from the events and even sponsored us with $500 million.

Riot Games then forcibly revoked the League of Legends license, citing breach of contract by the two organizations, and instead partnered with GomTV.

Blizzard has done this kind of thing before.

Two years ago, because all the profits from StarCraft tournaments were split between OGN and KeSPA, Blizzard forcibly terminated StarCraft 2 licensing negotiations and chose to partner with GomTV instead.

What was the result?

The boycott of StarCraft II by several esports clubs under KeSPA has made it extremely difficult to promote StarCraft II in South Korea.

After nearly two years of wrangling, Blizzard is now ready to back down.

Just two months after Chen Guiliang returned to China, Blizzard took the initiative to negotiate with KeSPA—you guys are the bosses, we can't afford to mess with you.

Even Blizzard couldn't afford to mess with KeSPA, so Chen Guiliang never intended to provoke them in the first place.

Therefore, he voluntarily gave up the profits from the event in South Korea and also paid a huge sponsorship fee of 500 million US dollars.

Riot Games, on the other hand, acted very irresponsibly, not giving all the tournament profits to KeSPA, but instead saying they would donate the profits from the first six months of tournaments to charity.

Do you think this is America?
What's the point of donating to charity? You should donate to the gentlemen at KeSPA!
With the profits from the tournaments and the sponsorship fees, "Oracle Era" has now become KeSPA's prized possession.

Since it's our own son, of course we should promote it with all our might.

Compared to Youke's interpersonal skills and social graces, other companies are far too disobedient.

For example, Blizzard's concession wasn't thorough enough. When StarCraft 2 switched to GomTV, a contract was signed, and Blizzard couldn't simply break it. Even if it returns to KeSPA, the tournament profits will still need to be shared with more organizations.

Therefore, the negotiations between Blizzard and KeSPA were bound to fail.

In two or three months, KeSPA will announce that members of the Korea eSports Federation will not participate in the StarCraft 2 GSL4 qualifiers due to scheduling difficulties.

To put it simply: Blizzard dares not give all the tournament profits to KeSPA, so we should just ban esports players from participating in StarCraft 2 competitions!
"Boss, due to the shift of the Oracle Era tournament to OGN's prime time slot, the number of Korean players has increased rapidly during this period. Moreover, with the full support of KeSPA, major Korean esports clubs have already formed Oracle Era esports teams."

"What about League of Legends?"

"It's terrible. Several Korean League of Legends teams have disbanded on the spot and directly transformed into Oracle Era teams, and they are filling in for the Oracle Era OGN Championship. The peak number of online players for League of Legends in Korea has even declined."

"understood."

Chen Guiliang finally felt relieved. The South Korean game market was tough to penetrate, but once those bastards were satisfied, it would be easier to promote the game than in any other country.

Of course, this is all predicated on the game itself being good.

If Oracle Age fails to take off, KeSPA will definitely turn its attention back to supporting League of Legends. They've already fallen out with Blizzard and need to find a new source of profit.

……

Mapo High School, Seoul.

Lee Sang-hyeok, a high school freshman, fell asleep during class because he stayed up all night playing games.

The teacher didn't care because Lee Sang-hyeok's grades were good.

They're the kind of person who can get high scores even if they sleep in class.

After finally getting through the school day, Lee Sang-hyeok immediately perked up.

Kim Hyuk-kyu, with his backpack on, ran to Lee Sang-hyeok's classroom door, waved to him, and shouted, "Hurry up, the internet cafe is about to run out of computers!"

Faker and Deft, both future world champions, not only attended the same school but were also in the same grade.

Lee Sang-hyeok walked out of the classroom carrying his schoolbag.

Kim Hyuk-kyu said, "Did you know? The broadcast time for the League of Legends matches has been changed."

“I know,” Lee Sang-hyeok said.

Kim Hyuk-kyu said, "With the OE (Oracle Era) tournament being moved to prime time, this game is bound to become a huge hit. I plan to give up LOL and focus all my energy on climbing the ranks in OE; maybe I can even become a professional esports player!"

Lee Sang-hyeok said, "OE is definitely more fun."

Although they were in the same school and grade, they met through a game. League of Legends and Oracle Online entered the Korean market around the same time, each developing a player base, with many players playing both games.

Gradually, due to its more beautiful art style and more mature ranking system, Oracle Era has attracted more loyal players than League of Legends.

Faker and Deft both have computers at home, but they often go to internet cafes to play games.

Entering the internet cafe, Kim Hyuk-kyu whispered, "Have you noticed? There are clearly more people playing 'OE' now."

Lee Sang-hyeok nodded: "I saw it."

Last year, the most popular game in South Korean internet cafes was StarCraft II, which was played by more than 60% of internet cafe users at its peak.

The booming market gave Blizzard plenty of confidence, believing they could force KeSPA to make concessions.

But the KeSPA guys were thinking: What does the popularity of StarCraft 2 have to do with me? If you don't give up the profits from the competition, I'll boycott you to the end.

Under these circumstances, StarCraft 2's esports attention waned, allowing League of Legends and Oracle to seize the opportunity to enter the South Korean market.

"Ranked matches, let's team up and reach the King rank. Then we'll each play our own games," Kim Hyuk-kyu said, opening his computer.

Lee Sang-hyeok smiled and kept rubbing his fingers while waiting for the machine to boot up.

Before they even entered the game, they heard people arguing next to them.

Why don't you play League of Legends?

"This game is terrible. Don't you know? Last week during the OGN championship in League of Legends, the servers kept disconnecting. The League of Legends servers are rubbish."

"Someone is definitely up to something."

"Then why did you used to complain about how bad the League of Legends servers were?"

"Damn it, I've already reached 1600 MMR in League of Legends. Do you expect me to give up all those points?"

"This game is trash, just give up. A lot of my friends are playing OE now, and I heard they're going to update with a hero exclusive to Korean players."

"..."

Lee Sang-hyeok was listening to the players next to him when Kim Hyuk-kyu suddenly shouted, "A new hero has been added! He's a descendant of Admiral Yi Sun-sin!"

Lee Sang-hyeok quickly ran over to check, and after carefully reading the hero information, he said, "This hero seems to be positioned as a top laner. I wonder if he can be used as a mid laner or jungler. I can try playing him in the mid lane."

"It's a pity he's not an ADC." Kim Hyuk-kyu said with regret.

Lee Sang-hyeok said, "I'll familiarize myself with the new hero first. You go play ranked matches by yourself."

Suddenly, someone in the internet cafe shouted, "Yi Sun-sin's descendant, his ultimate skill is insanely powerful! Damn, this is a bugged hero!"

on purpose.

In order to attract Korean players, Yuke deliberately made the Korean-exclusive heroes extremely overpowered.

Let's lure the Koreans into the game first, then we can change the hero attributes back in two months.

They even created a Korean-style skin. If a player buys this skin, the hero's ultimate skill is a turtle ship that appears like a ghost, its sails billowing as it crashes across the battlefield, leaving behind a trail of cannon fire, thunder, and lightning.

In the following days, quite a few Korean players were indeed drawn to play Oracle Era because of this new hero and its cool skin effects.

The new hero's skin sales quickly soared to number one in South Korea.

With the broadcast of matches during prime time, "Oracle Era" has become increasingly known to players in South Korea.

Meanwhile, Youke's South Korean subsidiary spent a huge sum of money to hire Girls' Generation as its spokespeople.

Almost every internet cafe in South Korea has Girls' Generation's promotional posters on display. The advertising effect is off the charts!
They gave away all the tournament profits, gave away $500 million in sponsorship fees, and now they've hired Girls' Generation as their spokesperson and even paid to partner with internet cafes all over South Korea... The Korean subsidiary is spending money like water, and it's estimated that it will definitely suffer losses this year.

But it can quickly capture the market.

If Chen Guiliang hadn't personally instructed him, Wu Zhenhao, the CEO on the Korean side, certainly wouldn't have dared to do this. Because he had to be accountable for the performance.

The CEO of Riot Games' Korean subsidiary wasn't so extravagant; he'd been using conventional promotional methods. The result was obvious: they were utterly defeated by Yuuki Games.

By mid-May, Diablo III had been released in South Korea, immediately causing a sensation in the Korean market. This single-player game also supported online play, making it very popular in internet cafes.

So at the end of May, bizarre scenes appeared in South Korean internet cafes.

Walk into any internet cafe, and over 80% of the computers will be occupied by either Diablo 3 or Oracle.

Traditional large-scale MMO games seem to have been abandoned by Korean players.

Only a few games, such as Aion, still have a few players sporadically seen in Korean internet cafes.

Diablo 3 is ultimately a single-player game, and its popularity will gradually fade.

Meanwhile, "Oracle Era" is becoming increasingly popular.

KeSPA is delighted with this situation; they hate Blizzard for always being out of touch.

Faced with the enormous profits brought by "Oracle Era", the five major conglomerates actually shook hands and made peace to earn money together, and devoted themselves to operating and promoting "Oracle Era" tournaments.

In just a few months, Oracle Era became the new king of the Korean game market!
(End of this chapter)