145: Professional competition?

After all, these games are highly entertaining.

If we're talking about making money, perhaps only games other than qq speed didn't earn as much in the initial stages.

Truthfully, the revenue from League of Legends only became substantial after the introduction of skin gacha during its mid-phase.

Especially when domestic and international teams compete, such as in the League of Legends World Championship—also known as the S-series—skin sales see a significant boost.

"Professional matches?"

A thought flashed through Xu Lian's mind.

Among these games, League of Legends' past tournaments were incredibly popular!

World-class events like the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational, League of Legends World Championship, and League of Legends All-Star Event made the game a sensation.

It attracted many loyal players both in Foreign countries and domestically.

For fans who love League of Legends, watching top-tier matches is simply a delight.

Xu Lian believed he could open up new horizons for players.

But it's important to realize that almost all games can have professional leagues; the key is how many people are interested and supportive.

However, in this world, there are many people passionate about games.

Xu Lian was full of confidence about this.

According to the data he understood, the annual profit generated by League of Legends events was astonishingly high.

The number of viewers for each match could reach hundreds of millions! Although this number might not seem large globally, attracting such a massive crowd to watch online at the same time is rare.

Besides League of Legends, almost no other game could achieve this.

"There's a knack to organizing professional tournaments," Xu Lian pondered.

Because in this process, not only can game visibility be increased, but profits can also be made by selling exclusive broadcasting rights.

For example, a certain live streaming platform might buy out exclusive broadcasting rights for traffic, forcing people who want to watch the matches to only watch through their platform.

Other live streaming platforms would naturally be unable to intervene.

Another important point is the advertising fees from sponsors.

This is another quite substantial source of income.

For new brands or companies looking to make a name for themselves in an industry, having more people recognize them means an increase in brand influence.

At this point, Xu Lian recalled the annoying things he encountered when playing other games before.

After downloading some top-ranked games, he was bombarded with various advertisements as soon as he entered.

Although he had also complained about this practice, now he could only understand and accept it.

However, unlike direct in-game placements, Xu Lian preferred to display these advertisements in prominent locations at the match venue.

Doing so is not only because organizing an event is not easy—venue rental, equipment purchase, organization, and planning are all very complex matters; more importantly, if there is no money to support operations, even the best ideas might fall by the wayside.

But if external funding is obtained, things will be much easier.

With the funding issue resolved, he only needs to focus on making the game tournament a success.

This will not only ensure players have a better viewing experience but also give veterans or newcomers the opportunity to learn advanced operating techniques, thereby promoting the development of the entire gaming industry.

Now, Xu Lian already had a plan in mind for how to implement this.

"System," he called out, preparing to check the data for the popular games he had just drawn.

The result surprised him: all four games included all data from the initial to the latest versions!

This five-thousand-point draw was worth it! Especially for League of Legends, the changes over the twelve years from S1 to S12 were so significant that even many veteran players would feel unaccustomed.

Having complete game version data was undoubtedly a valuable asset for Xu Lian.

This meant that he could proceed systematically, step by step, to earn the profits brought by each version of the game.

With a smile, Xu Lian leaned back on the sofa, arriving at the company early the next day.

He had stayed up all night thinking about the plan, only falling asleep late.

Xu Lian's physical fitness was excellent; after using the body strengthening fluid, he felt no discomfort whatsoever.

He arrived at the company early in the morning, as there were some things he wasn't entirely clear about himself.

If he was truly going to organize a tournament, he would naturally need to find someone more knowledgeable to plan it.

Clearly, Xu Lian was not an expert in this field.

So he arrived at the company early, wanting to discuss the plan with his employees.

As the saying goes, 'many hands make light work,' and this couldn't be more true.

While he was thinking last night, he also looked up some information about esports competitions in this world.

The results, however, greatly surprised him: in this world, professional leagues had almost never been held, and even slightly larger competitions were rare!

At most, there were some offline tournaments spontaneously organized by game players, and as for the rewards... he couldn't even bring himself to complain; they were usually just some in-game items, with no real value.

Perhaps it was because those game companies were too stingy, or perhaps no one had discovered the huge business opportunity within it.

Most importantly, in this world, there were very few games suitable for large-scale competitions to begin with, so people lacked the motivation to organize major events.

But for Xu Lian, this was an opportunity.

As long as others hadn't acted yet, becoming the first to 'eat the crab' alone would attract a lot of attention! At that time, generous prize money could be set for the winning teams, far exceeding those worthless in-game items.

When players saw that string of zeros after the prize money, who wouldn't be interested? With the hype building up like that, would it still be difficult to organize a large-scale professional league?

Xu Lian would therefore become the first to 'eat the crab'!

In the conference room, the team leaders from various departments sat exchanging glances, trying to find answers in each other's eyes.

However, everyone looked bewildered, completely unaware of why Xu Lian had called them for a meeting or what had happened.

Just as everyone was still guessing, Xu Lian pushed open the conference room door and walked in.

He looked at the people present, his face full of curiosity and anticipation.

Old employees familiar with Xu Lian knew that whenever he called a large meeting, something significant was definitely happening.

What excited them most was undoubtedly the development of a new game.

"Professional league, have you heard of it?" Xu Lian sat at the head of the table, getting straight to the point.

Upon hearing the term, everyone's faces showed confusion, not understanding what it meant.

Xu Lian had already guessed this would happen, so he continued to explain: "A 'professional league' is about making gaming a legitimate profession; we can call it 'esports.'"