Chapter 383: Entering Asia and Olympics

Let’s put aside the tension between the two brothers for now. During this period when the playoffs in major conferences are in full swing, there are one or two small pieces of news in the international arena that are worthy of a little attention.

First of all, the controversial Paris Olympics has ended.

To be honest, I don't know if it was because the Chinese put too much effort and effort into hosting the 08 Olympics, which almost exhausted the good fortune of the Olympics.

Since then, each Olympic Games can be said to be worse than the previous one.

I thought the opening ceremony of the underworld organized by the Japanese in 21 years was weird enough, but I didn’t expect that three years later, there would be a master in Paris.

Even if we completely ignore the troublesome controversies surrounding LGBT issues, this Olympics can be said to be the worst of the worst.

Outside the venue, the opening ceremony was meaningless and its watchability was a mystery, South Korea and North Korea were confused, the Olympic flag was raised crookedly...all kinds of accidents occurred one after another.

On the field, there were controversies over refereeing fouls, controversies over urine tests...it was a hot topic from beginning to end.

All in all, this was definitely not a successful Olympics.

Coincidentally, the last Olympic Games held in Japan didn’t seem to be very successful either…

The Olympics are held every four years, and two unsuccessful Olympics would be eight years.

In this era of rapid information iteration, eight years of bad impressions are almost enough to change a generation's view of the Olympic Games, the highest sports event of mankind.

All in all, the situation of the Olympics is a little bit bad.

But when they are in a bad situation and need to change the status quo, there is some room for maneuver in some things.

Another piece of news that did not attract much attention was that an organization called the "Asian Electronic Sports Federation" was quietly established.

Among its members are e-sports organizations from various Asian countries where e-sports is relatively well developed, including KESPA.

The first president is Han Yong, and the chief founding partner of the federation is Tencent.

In other words, the attention of e-sports fans is basically attracted to the semi-finals and finals of their own country. Otherwise, anyone with a little bit of intelligence can basically guess what Tencent Esports is going to do.

E-sports will be included in the Asian Games and even the Olympics.

For Pei Yunteng and Tencent Esports, the development of e-sports has now entered a critical bottleneck period.

Most of the main audience group, "game players", have already been converted, and the basic base of e-sports has basically been stabilized.

If its ambitions were smaller, Tencent Esports could now just sit back and count the money.

But Pei Yunteng was willing to spend time and energy fighting against the glory that was at its peak and to reshape a deformed and saturated market, it couldn't have been just for the sake of making some dirty money.

In addition to taking advantage of the system, improving the social recognition of electronic games is also something Pei Yunteng has always been committed to doing.

As it stands now, the best channels are the Asian Games and the Olympic Games.

No matter how much prejudice and hostility mainstream society has towards e-sports, when the glittering gold medals and official congratulations are placed in front of them, they will probably follow suit and praise them.

As long as it can bring glory to the country and enhance the collective sense of honor, the social status of e-sports will not be low.

Our neighboring country, South Korea, which is also within the influence of Confucian culture, has also made e-sports a national industry, hasn’t it?

China is certainly not a deformed small country like South Korea, so there is no need to regard e-sports as a national sport.

But as long as the status of e-sports players and the e-sports industry can be improved to a certain extent, and it would be best if the life of e-sports can be extended, Pei Yunteng's goal will have been achieved.

So since the successful conclusion of MSi, which initially proved the influence of e-sports among young people and its huge market prospects, Tencent Esports has begun to intensively study the inclusion of e-sports in the Asian Games and the Olympics.

However, although Tenghai has been actively promoting the progress of this work, the process of entering Asia has not been so smooth, and it can be said to be full of twists and turns.

In the early days, the main resistance came from the World Esports Association, which was a dog-skin plaster.

Compared to simply organizing a competition, the process of getting the opportunity to enter Asia is much more complicated.

One thing that cannot be ignored is that the International Olympic Committee requires a management organization with global credibility to be responsible for coordinating the various matters related to the entry of e-sports into Asia.

(I didn’t make this up. You can find it by looking up the relevant news about e-sports entering Asia.)
So far, it seems that the only ones capable of this task are the unlucky guys at the World Esports Association.

At that time, the E-Sports Association was still competing with Tenghai wholeheartedly, so it was naturally impossible for it to give in easily.

So the matter remained at a stalemate until Kotick fell, and the attitudes of the old guys behind the World Electronic Sports Association began to change.

After a heated debate and exchange of interests, it took several months of arguments before both parties reached a preliminary consensus on their interests.

In addition to Tenghai's acquisition of the honor, the biggest cooperation reached by the two parties is to work together to ensure the inclusion of e-sports in the Asian Games and the Olympics, further expand the market, and make money together.

As a prelude and language for entering the Olympics, the Asian Esports Federation, which was established specifically to work for the inclusion of esports in Asia, was established.

Logically speaking, now that the two e-sports giants have reached an agreement, the entry of e-sports into Asia should be a natural thing.

But alas, that damn International Olympic Committee is starting to make mistakes again.

These old-fashioned people have maintained a reserved and even arrogant attitude towards e-sports from the very beginning, and watched the fierce dispute between Tencent Esports and the E-sports Association with ambiguity.

After the debate was over, their IOC President Bach said slowly:
"Some esports are actually contrary to the 'Olympic rules and spirit'. The committee is not 100% sure whether esports are really sports."

To put it bluntly, they dislike the fighting and killing in e-sports projects such as League of Legends, which have combat elements, and believe that it is not in line with the spirit of competitive sports.

In essence, it is still the social stereotype that questions e-sports as "corrupting children."

Maybe they are so old-fashioned and conservative that they cannot tolerate any new things, or maybe they simply feel that they are not making enough money. In short, the progress of entering Asia has once again come to a certain stagnation.

Originally, Tencent Esports reported this to Pei Yunteng, asking him whether he wanted to show more sincerity so that the Olympic Committee would give in.

As a result, Tenghai headquarters was busy with the operation on Honor, and this matter was not given high priority, so a specific plan was not worked out.

Until the IOC messed up the Paris Olympics.

As the saying goes, a small move can affect the entire body. The International Olympic Committee, which has once again become the object of ridicule around the world, begins to feel a chill down its spine when it thinks about the pressure it may face at the next Olympics.

Under such circumstances, when they turned around and looked at e-sports, which they had disliked in the past, they suddenly felt that it was handsome.

One of the biggest advantages of e-sports at present, namely its huge influence and market potential on young people, is exactly the patch they need most after not doing well in two consecutive Olympic Games.

Even if their reputation is bad, as long as they choose the right time to announce that e-sports will appear in the next competition, they will not have to worry about young people not coming to watch.

So, before Teng Hai even finished studying the next step of disgust, the Olympic Committee began to study the art of face-changing. "So they gave in?" Pei Yunteng was studying the speech materials for the next development meeting on Honor.

This project is indeed very powerful. He hasn't personally led a project in several years, but he couldn't hold back and took charge of it himself this time.

As a result, Feng Xianjun happily handed him the latest meeting documents from the Asian Esports Federation.

"Yes, their attitude suddenly improved, and they stopped talking about bloody violence being inappropriate for the Olympics."

"You really won't mention it at all?"

"…Not really. The Jedi Gun God blocked them. Talking about a battle royale is really not in line with the Olympic spirit." Feng Xianjun smiled.

It turns out that the concerns of traditional mainstream culture are so similar regardless of nationality.

Battle Royale is indeed top-notch in terms of playability, but in terms of meaning, it is indeed a bit disappointing.

Especially after being gamified, the original reflections of the battle royale game on society have been diluted, making it even more inconsistent with the mainstream society's arguments.

In addition to Jedi Gun God, there are many new foreign e-sports games that have made some progress and followed Tencent's lead, and they all have similar minor problems.

On the contrary, for Tenghai games, Pei Yunteng has to consider the acceptance level of Chinese society, so he has made some harmless processing to the backgrounds of all games.

In comparison, he suddenly looked more handsome.

"During this negotiation, the IOC has become much more relaxed," Feng Xianjun said with a smile.

"Not only did they no longer mention the old ideas they had insisted on, but they have also reached a preliminary consensus with us on several projects."

"Several? Besides the Asian Games exhibition matches and the Southeast Asian Games, what else is there?" Pei Yunteng raised his eyebrows.

The Asian Games and the Southeast Asian Games are events that he is determined to win.

Although the development of e-sports in Southeast Asia is not as good as that in East Asia, it is also pretty good. For example, in the League of Legends project, Vietnam can rank in the top six. Projects such as CS and Naraka are also very popular.

Tencent Esports will certainly not let go of this market easily.

"In the Middle East, the Saudis are trying to get involved and organize an e-sports World Cup. They are very sincere."

When Feng Xianjun thought of the figures put forward by the turbaned representative of Saudi Arabia at the joint meeting, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

He is indeed a wealthy man, and the bonus alone is extremely luxurious.

In other words, a project like LOL, which has a mature league structure and does not rely on prize money to survive, can barely remain calm in front of the oil guys.

These rich guys are not aiming to make e-sports events profitable, they just want to create a new brand for Middle East tourism or something. Essentially, they have the same idea as the Olympic Committee.

However, compared to the empty reputation given by the Olympic Committee, the oil guys are obviously more willing to use real money to attack people.

"Oil guy..." Pei Yunteng thought thoughtfully.

"Ask them if they need your technical support. If they do, try your best to help them. They are not short of money anyway," Pei Yunteng advised.

He didn't care about the oil man's little tricks, but he was afraid that the oil man would mess up.

If they were to give everyone a hard time at such an important time, it would be a disgrace to the e-sports industry.

Feng Xianjun received the order and left. Pei Yunteng was left alone in the office, and suddenly felt a little emotional.

"It can be said that the clouds have finally cleared and the moon is shining."

As early as when he just started to plan in the field of e-sports, he had talked with many people about the prospects of e-sports.

For example, the company’s senior executives, supportive leaders, and... Ye Xiu.

Time has passed, more than a year has passed, and perhaps even Ye Xiu himself has forgotten the heroic words Pei Yunteng said when they first met.

After all, as a veteran who has spent more than a decade in the field of e-sports, he knows best what kind of predicament e-sports is in.

Being able to have a certain reputation among young people and a certain degree of national recognition like he does now has already made him and countless veteran professional players satisfied.

Only Pei Yunteng himself knew that what he said at the beginning was not just empty talk.

And now, he has fulfilled part of his promise.

After thinking about it, Pei Yunteng picked up the phone: "Old Feng, I have something to add."

"After you guys have reached an agreement, release the news about the Asian Games."

"It's time to give them the last shot of stimulant."

……

So, on the day before the LPL Summer Finals, when all e-sports fans were boredly waiting for the release of the pre-Summer Finals promotional video to see how Yu Wenbo would speak harshly to his brother,
A piece of extremely bombshell news, without any warning, like a meteorite from outer space, instantly ignited the enthusiasm of the entire e-sports circle.

Even when the news was just released, everyone who saw it for the first time suspected whether it was a marketing account’s hype or just a joke.

It was not until the incident even appeared on CCTV's news channel that they woke up from their dreams and realized that all of this was actually true.

"Today, the International Asian Games Organizing Committee and the Asian Esports Federation jointly announced that esports will become an exhibition event at the 2025 Aichi Nagoya Asian Games."

"A total of six projects, including League of Legends, StarCraft, Street Fighter (Neon strongly requested it to be added), and Counter-Strike, will be added."

"Esports. Officially announced to enter Asia!"

Happy.

After seeing this breaking news, Ye Xiu, who was originally training Yu Wenbo, stood there in a daze for a long time. Then, under the puzzled gaze of Yu Wenbo who had not yet read the news, he climbed up to the rooftop of Xingxin alone.

Looking up at the sky, he suddenly had the urge to have one.

He felt his trouser pocket but couldn't find a cigarette case or lighter. Then he suddenly remembered that he had quit smoking long ago in order to break the stereotype of e-sports players and maintain his competitive form.

Although there was no cigarette, it did not affect Ye Xiu's surging mood. In the summer weather, the temperature was almost 40 degrees Celsius. He stood on the balcony and looked up at the sky for a long time before being driven back to the room by the scorching sunlight.

Before leaving, there was no pungent smell of cigarettes left in the wind, only a long sigh:

"He actually didn't lie to me at the beginning..."

(End of this chapter)