As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 144 Dawn Cup

In the Lingka Club's business model, membership fees have never been the main source of profit.

Even for the gold card members of the Shattered Star Club, it is actually difficult to cover the high operating costs. It is a loss-making tactic to attract customers.

The real profit comes from the sales of spirit cards and the revenue from providing after-sales services.

Secondly, there's the rental of advertising space within the venue, as well as the naming rights and sponsorship fees for the esports teams.

Sealed cards are, after all, dangerous items that involve the spiritual world.

In this world ravaged by the past, ordinary people face various threats when they travel far from home, and the cost and difficulty of cross-regional rights protection are extremely high.

Many consumers have no trust in the spirit cards that are sealed with unknown remnants of souls, which are produced by small and medium-sized manufacturers far away.

Such spirit cards can only be sold by spirit card clubs that have been deeply rooted in the local area for decades and whose members can't simply disappear.

Many small and medium-sized spirit card manufacturers are genuinely willing to spend a lot of money to sponsor local club teams in order to enter a large, economically developed city with a large population, and to split the revenue 50/50 or even 30/70 with the local clubs to sell the sealed cards.

The problem is that Kuangtie Club is promoting a "card-free" strategy.

They don't sell cards, only inexpensive protein powder, brain tonics, and enhancement drugs.

The Kuangtie team also lacks a wealthy and powerful spirit card manufacturer to sponsor them; only a few pharmaceutical companies are willing to advertise and provide some support.

This year, Xiong Ruyue finally managed to attract a lucky charm.

It is a pharmaceutical company under DeepBlue Technology.

DeepBlue Technology is one of the four major smart card companies.

It possesses several echoing sites of the "Fourth Era, Strange Machine Civilization," storing the remnant souls of countless genius scientists and war machines.

If it were DeepBlue Technology's "Super AI" series of sealed cards, there would be no need for advertising; they would sell out immediately upon release.

However, after discovering several echo sites of "Second Era, Super-Martial Civilization," DeepBlue Technology launched several enhancement agents that claimed to "integrate nanomechanical technology and gene modulation technology," attempting to advance into the field of stimulating human potential and strengthening the physical body.

This touches upon the reservation of "Aurora Life Sciences", which is also one of the four major life sciences.

The two mega-corporations engaged in a fierce price war, commonly known as "burning money."

Backed by DeepBlue Technology and being the aggressor, DeepBlue Pharmaceutical Group is not afraid of burning money.

But they weren't fools; they knew that even when they were burning money, they wanted to make it worthwhile.

Originally, Xiong Ruyue and Shenlan Pharmaceutical agreed that the latter would provide Kuangtie Club with a high amount of sponsorship fees every year.

Kuangtie Club promised to reserve a luxurious advertising space for DeepBlue Pharmaceutical Group in the most prominent position inside the venue.

Meanwhile, they also printed the name of Deep Blue Pharmaceutical on the Kuangtie team's competition uniforms, used Deep Blue Pharmaceutical's enhancement drugs in their daily training, and launched a series of promotional activities in accordance with the opponent's rhythm.

Furthermore, in the upcoming "Dawn Cup," at least one player is expected to make it into the top eight.

These terms were originally tailor-made for Chu Zhifeng.

Chu Zhifeng has been in superb form for the past two years, making it into the top four of various types of spirit-taming competitions several times in a row, and even becoming a strong contender for the championship and runner-up.

The reason why DeepBlue Pharmaceuticals signed with Kuangtie Club was largely because of Chu Zhifeng, a "young prodigy and future star".

Logically speaking, making it into the quarterfinals should have been a sure thing.

Unexpectedly, Chu Zhifeng's "betrayal of his master" caused a great uproar.

Regular members can ignore these negative news stories.

DeepBlue Pharmaceuticals, the sponsor, was worried about being implicated in the scandal. Xiong Ruyue argued vehemently, speaking eloquently and passionately.

Fortunately, Deep Blue Pharmaceuticals recruited many experts in the no-card-playing style and believers of the Absolute God Path in order to develop enhancement drugs. They were all on their own and had good personal relationships with each other.

DeepBlue Pharmaceuticals has not yet made a name for itself in the border region.

They finally agreed to give her another chance and not withdraw the sponsorship for the time being.

But the condition remains the same: the Kuangtie team must have at least one member reach the quarterfinals of the "Dawn Cup".

Otherwise, it would be a breach of contract by Kuangtie Club, the sponsorship contract would be automatically terminated, and Kuangtie Club would also have to bear the corresponding losses of Shenlan Pharmaceutical.

After hanging up the phone, Xiong Ruyue's face, which had turned bright red from the argument, instantly turned deathly pale.

Even the bustling noise on the training field outside couldn't save her heart from the icy abyss.

Xu Yan is right.

She shouldn't have changed her father's business strategy in the first place, shouldn't have mortgaged the property, taken out bank loans, and poured a lot of money into what she called a comprehensive upgrade.

The problem is that what's done is done.

The renovations that have just been completed cannot be torn down for money.

Many advanced training devices that utilize a lot of old technology will incur significant costs even if they can be returned to the original manufacturer.

The membership fees alone are barely enough to cover the daily costs of utilities, wages, and wear and tear on training cards.

A bank loan is due soon.

The sponsorship contract with DeepBlue Pharmaceuticals must not be terminated.

The Crazy Iron Team must make it into the quarterfinals of the Dawn Cup!
"But how could that be?"

Xiong Ruyue was deeply troubled.

The Dawn Cup is one of the two traditional tournaments in Dawn City.

It is usually held in the spring of each year and is aimed at teenagers under the age of 22, with a focus on individual competition.

Although there was no exquisite teamwork or sharp tactical deployment.

But the passion and excitement unique to teenagers still attract countless viewers.

Moreover, compared to renowned veteran spirit masters, teenagers under the age of 22 have an advantage: they often do not have long-term contracts with employers, but at most have short-term training and competition contracts with their clubs, making recruitment costs relatively low.

Therefore, the Dawn Cup attracts major forces from Dawn City and several surrounding border cities every year to recruit new talents.

The major clubs are also happy to send their key players, who have been carefully nurtured for several years and are almost 22 years old, to high-quality employers. On the one hand, they earn transfer fees, and on the other hand, they expand their network and influence, forming a virtuous cycle.

In fact, the original "Dawn Cup" was a public recruitment challenge organized by Dawn Heavy Industry.

Many of Liming Heavy Industry's middle and senior management personnel emerged from the fierce competition of the Liming Cup.

To this day, Liming Heavy Industry remains the organizer of the Liming Cup.

In the past few years, Liming Heavy Industry has been busy with transformation and has no time to pay attention to the Liming Cup. It has not made any big moves for two consecutive years.

This year is different. It is said that Liming Heavy Industry has discovered a high-quality mineral vein with amazing reserves in the wilderness area. They plan to build a super mine with advanced facilities and also build a large-scale satellite town around the mine.

To recruit new talent, Liming Heavy Industry has invested heavily, with the champion's prize money being doubled compared to last year, along with various attractive recruitment conditions, striving to make this year's Liming Cup a spectacular and epic legendary showdown!
(End of this chapter)