League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 397 The Terrifying Contract Fee

June 22th, 10:00 AM.

Chen Dongqing woke up and immediately adjusted to the time difference. After washing up, she saw a bag of savory pancakes on the table.

Chen Dongqing stood up, put the savory pancake in the microwave to heat it for two minutes, then ate his breakfast with gusto. He quickly went to his computer, updated the games on it, and opened his email.

It is common knowledge that Chen Dongqing signed a 1+1 contract last year.

This year, Chen Dongqing could have exercised his player option and opted out of his contract at will.

This has led to teams all over the world casting their cards on him. His phone is practically exploding with messages today, with email notifications from various teams pouring in, forcing Chen Dongqing to turn off QQ Mail push notifications.

Now it's time to check the offers from the various teams.

Even if they don't sign a contract, they can still get a direct sense of their current market value from the offers they receive from various teams.

Chen Dongqing was genuinely surprised when he first saw the price.

That's an exaggeration.

The first thing you see is IG's offer. Principal Wang is truly wealthy and powerful, offering a terrifying price of 2200 million right off the bat, directly breaking the league's historical record!

What is the current record for annual salary in the league? It's still Chen Dongqing. Last year, he signed a 1+1 contract with QG for 10 million yuan per year, raising the value of a professional player to eight figures for the first time.

Now, with the rapid rise in LPL's commercial value, this price has doubled!

Moreover, this is not even the highest.

Below, JDG, a new team this year, also sent an email.

JDG's owner is JD.com. They saw that the LPL had canceled the promotion and relegation mechanism, so they decided to get a share of the pie. That's why they acquired GT and officially became a part of the LPL.

With such a huge company behind them, JDG is certainly not short of money. They directly offered a one-year contract worth 2800 million RMB, the highest amount among LPL teams!

Chen Dongqing couldn't help but smack his lips.

If anyone else saw this terrifying number, it would be hard not to be tempted.

Fortunately, Chen Dongqing is a reborn individual and has no shortage of ways to make money; he values ​​the team's strength more.

If it were JDG from S13, he might actually go, but for this one from S8, let's say...

Chen Dongqing continued scrolling down and, sure enough, found offers from foreign teams.

G2 Esports has sent an offer; they are willing to sign Chen Dongqing for one year for $439.6 million!

Is this price for real?

Chen Dongqing calculated the exchange rate, and the price was roughly a little over 30 million yuan.

Compared to the ten million he signed last year, this is three times more.

Westerners are really rich.

Even in later generations, the highly commercialized S13 of the League doesn't seem to cost 30 million a year!

In the future, someone once revealed that Zuo Shou's net worth was as high as 4500 million, but that was actually a gambling contract. He had to achieve certain results to reach the full amount. If he didn't perform well, he wouldn't even get half of that amount. It was just pure hype.

But this contract with Chen Dongqing is not just a bloated one; it's a no-liability 30 million, which he gets unconditionally!

Is this the greatest achievement of a two-time Finals MVP?

But Chen Dongqing wasn't in a hurry when he saw these quotes.

He knew QG would offer even more.

QG is not short of money right now. Chen Dongqing has been paying attention to QG's WeChat group recently and has some understanding of QG's recent situation.

It seems like the boss has changed?

Just then, Chen Dongqing's phone finally rang.

QG's offer has finally come in; this time it's Linko who made the call.

Linko has been quite busy during this transfer period. As we all know, since QG won two consecutive championships and the LPL abolished the promotion and relegation system, major investors have finally had no worries and have entered the market one after another!

But what followed were all sorts of problems.

First, since the alliance is now so commercially valuable, the first thing to do is to kick out all the smaller investors so that we can make more money.

Therefore, the league slot fee has skyrocketed, and now LPL teams must pay a deposit of 30 million.

In other words, if each LPL team wants to retain its LPL team spot, it has to spend 30 million upfront.

Moreover, this is the deposit price for established teams. If a team directly pays to join after the league expands this year, the deposit will be even higher!

This extremely high barrier to entry has resulted in the fact that only well-funded companies like Topsports, JD.com, and Bilibili have been able to enter the league this year. Smaller commercial leagues like QG simply cannot compete.

Furthermore, the league is also planning to implement a home-field system this year. QG, as a top LPL team, certainly cannot fall behind, but building a home venue is a considerable expense, and all of this requires money.

Even though QG has always been financially powerful, this year they have to hesitate because their cash reserves can no longer cover this level of expenditure.

The original intention of QG's owner was that they did not want to sell the team directly and leave the market. They wanted to secure sponsorships and sell club shares to maintain their control while obtaining operating funds.

Finding new sponsors and identifying potential equity buyers are all things Linko needs to do before the transfer window opens.

QG is currently the most famous e-sports club, and they have no shortage of sponsorships. Chen Dongqing has been looking at the WeChat group these past few days, and Linko has been giving all sorts of reports every day. Various sponsorships are pouring in, and they seem to want to cover the entire white team uniform of QG!

Of course, these are all minor issues and cannot solve the immediate problem.

But soon, the big one arrived.

Led by several investment firms, QG secured investment from Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets and co-founder of Alibaba.

Cai's team valued the QG club at $58 million USD, but after Chen Dongqing won the StarCraft championship in Anaheim a few days ago, the price rose to $60 million USD.

Mr. Cai ultimately decided to spend US$30.6 million, equivalent to RMB 214.2 million, to acquire 51% of QG's shares and become its largest shareholder.

QG's owner originally didn't want to relinquish control, but ultimately chose to compromise—there was no other way, he had given too much.

Just yesterday, the contract was officially signed, and the club is now under the Cai family's ownership.

Of course, this is a personal investment by Mr. Cai, purely for fun and because he is optimistic about QG's return on investment. He doesn't need QG's traffic at all, so QG will still be operated independently.

QG is still QG.

If he were to change the name, he would most likely want to name it something like Alibaba, which would be a direct challenge to Tencent, and Tencent would certainly not agree to that.

This is actually just a small amount of money. Just in the middle of this year, Joseph Tsai acquired 100% ownership of the Brooklyn Nets for $23.5 billion. That's a real big expenditure. What's 200 million RMB to him?

Of course, that's a lot of money for QG.

Although the 200 million RMB figure is based on the overall price of the club, only about half of that amount can actually be allocated to the LOL division. However, the QGLOL division also has sponsorships!

Including sponsorship fees, the League of Legends division this year can be described as having deep pockets, highlighting the phrase "I'm rich".

Anyway, Linko reassured Chen Dongqing yesterday, telling him not to worry about other teams' contracts, as QG would definitely offer the most.

Money talks!

Chen Dongqing answered the phone to see what Linko had to say.

But unexpectedly, Linko called with bad news.

"Chen Dongqing, something's happened!" Linko said anxiously, "Wei Zhen doesn't want to renew his contract!"

"What? What did he say?" Chen Dongqing was shocked. There were problems that money couldn't solve?

"He said he was tired and wanted to retire," Linko replied.

"Retire? Seriously?" Chen Dongqing was a little surprised. "Isn't that ridiculous?"

"I don't understand what he's thinking either. Why don't you go and talk to him?"

"Okay. I'll ask." Chen Dongqing hung up the phone and then called Gao Dewei.

"Feed," Godwin's voice rang out.

"Dude, what's going on?" Chen Dongqing asked. "Who retires right after winning a championship? Are you not making money anymore?"

"Why would I need to make money? I don't need it," Gao Dewei laughed. "I've earned enough over the past few years to last me a lifetime."

Although he didn't live to see a surge in salaries and was constantly exploited and penalized, GODWAY has maintained his position at the top of the LPL for so many years and has certainly earned enough money.

Including subsequent skin revenue, Godwin has at least 30 million in liquid funds, which truly makes him financially independent.

Chen Dongqing then asked, "So what are your plans for the future? Do you have any plans?"

"Yes," Godwin said. "I watched your StarCraft match the day before yesterday, and I'm also thinking of trying a different game."

"..." Chen Dongqing was somewhat surprised, not expecting this matter to be related to him. "You mean, you want to play PUBG?"

"Yes, League of Legends is too tiring for me, I want to switch to another game to relax."

"Have you thought it through? If you go, you might not have a chance to come back."

Gao Dewei replied without hesitation: "Yes, I've made up my mind. I plan to start my own team. PUBG teams aren't as extravagant as those in the LPL, and I can afford it all by myself."

"Alright then." Chen Dongqing knew the other party had made up their mind, so he didn't try to persuade him any further. "Then I wish you success in PUBG too."

"No problem," Godwin said with a smile. "If you want to try your hand at PUBG, come find me, and I'll give you a chance to play."

"That's great." Chen Dongqing smiled when he heard that, exchanged a few more pleasantries with his old friend, and finally hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Dongqing sighed inwardly.

He thought that after winning the championship, Godwin would take a different path than in his previous life.

In the end, they still ended up on the other side of the Jedi.

However, this will work too.

At least Godwin left after winning the LOL championship, so no one would call him a deserter. Moreover, with his talent, winning another championship in PUBG would be a great achievement.

At that time, many people will say: "No wonder he came from QG."

However, the question remains: who will fill the mid-lane position after Godve leaves?

Chen Dongqing mentally reviewed the candidates for mid-lane, then shook his head.

Let Linko go and search around first; he doesn't know which mid laner's contract has expired.

However, one thing is certain: there are actually many choices this year.

If he remembers correctly, both Toothpaste and Left Hand only joined the LPL this year?

Then, in LSPL, isn't there a little tiger? That's a real treasure.

Chen Dongqing dialed Linko's number again.

Linko cut to the chase: "How so?"

Chen Dongqing sighed and said, "He's very determined; he's decided to retire."

"Alright then, I'll look into the mid-lane situation again, but don't worry, the mid-laner we can find will be absolutely top-tier." Linko sighed, then added, "Okay, let's talk about you. Have any other clubs made offers to you?"

"Yes, there are," Chen Dongqing said with a smile. "They're quite tall."

"Very tall?" Linko raised an eyebrow. "How tall?"

"JD.com opened at 2,800, and G2 opened at 3,000."

After these words were spoken, there was a momentary silence on the other end of the phone.

In just one year, how did it increase from ten million to thirty million?

You have money but nowhere to spend it, huh!

Linko thought for a moment and said, "So what do you think?"

Chen Dongqing crossed his arms and laughed, "Didn't you say QG has money? I definitely need to see what you guys have to say. You know, what I value more is the team's overall strength. As long as the strength is there, I don't care about taking a pay cut."

In psychology, there is a motivational theory called Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which divides human needs into five levels in a pyramid structure, from bottom to top: physiological needs (food and clothing), safety needs (job security), social needs (friendship), esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

Chen Dongqing is a reborn individual, not short of money, and he has no problems with the deficiencies in the first four levels. What he needs to pursue now is the final growth need—self-actualization, which is to become a champion.

However, Gao Dewei did not have such lofty goals as Chen Dongqing. After winning the championship, he believed that he had already achieved self-realization, so he had shifted his self-realization goals to something new.

"That's not how it works," Linko shook his head. "You're the face of the league, the greatest player of all time. Your salary directly reflects the development level of the entire LOL esports industry. Therefore, we have to give you a higher salary than any other team."

It might sound a bit exaggerated, but Chen Dongqing's salary level directly reflects the development level of the LOL e-sports industry, and various investors will also use this figure to their advantage.

Therefore, Chen Dongqing's high contract fee is beneficial to the industry.

Upon hearing this, Chen Dongqing couldn't help but laugh.

If you insist on giving me money, then of course I'll accept it.

Chen Dongqing said cheerfully, "Then come on, tell me your offer."

Linko spoke first, saying, "First of all, I've already taken care of the rest of QG's players. Except for the mid-laner, the other three have a clear intention to renew their contracts and are in the final negotiation stage. There's no problem with the overall retention of the roster, so you don't need to worry about that."

"As for your contract, we actually prepared several tiers, but seeing the situation, we can only go for the highest tier. This time it's still a 1+1 contract, with a contract fee of 30 million before tax, plus a 5 million signing fee. You can get that 5 million directly after signing, is that alright?"

This contract, when converted to cash, amounts to 3500 million a year, even more than what G2 offered, which truly shows their sincerity.

Chen Dongqing nodded. "I'm fine."

"That's fine then." Linko nodded, then smiled and said, "How about we discuss another contract?"

Chen Dongqing smiled and said again, "State your offer."

Chen Dongqing has more than one identity as a League of Legends player.

He also won a championship in his secondary sport—StarCraft II.

Tsai Chung-hsin's team even raised the overall valuation of the QG club by two million US dollars because of their StarCraft II championship win.

This was earned by Chen Dongqing all by himself.

Therefore, even though Chen Dongqing has made it clear that he will not continue to participate in StarCraft competitions next year, the club still has to give Chen Dongqing a share of the profits.

"Five million a year, that's the club's offer for your interstellar division," Linko said. "Is that a reasonable price? The two contracts together total forty million."

Chen Dongqing's StarCraft contract was one million a year in 17, and it increased fivefold after winning the championship. Given the popularity of StarCraft, this five million is clearly a figure that the StarCraft league will never be able to surpass.

"No problem!" Chen Dongqing readily agreed, smiling as he said, "I hope we can win more championships in 2018."

After the phone discussion was over, Linko went to the legal department to draft the contract.

Chen Dongqing, on the other hand, enjoyed his vacation and spent an afternoon alone with his girlfriend.

The next day, Chen Dongqing went to the club and, with the lawyer's notarization, wrote his name on both contracts again and again.

Soon, the two contracts were successfully signed!

Linko picked up the contract, shook it slightly, and laughed, "This is quite a lot of money, Chen Dongqing. I hope you won't let the club down."

"Don't worry," Chen Dongqing said with a smile, "Our club will definitely grow bigger and stronger!"

(End of this chapter)