Chapter 374: Honor
Before the tender conference began, the first World Electronic Sports Championship also officially kicked off from the qualifiers.
The main organizer was South Korea, and they funded the entire event just to create a sufficiently eye-catching electronic event.
This new form of competitive entertainment was seen as quite novel by many.
Street Fighter, Need for Speed, Street Basketball, StarCraft.
These games are all highly entertaining competitive events.
Countless people participated in the initial qualifiers.
Firstly, there were high cash rewards, and secondly, there was honor.
Many players initially didn't feel much sense of honor; they just found electronic games interesting.
However, competition is the easiest way to ignite human passion.
Regardless of the form of competition, victory or defeat is the most attractive aspect.
So, when each event produced one or more contestants from countless people, these individuals became stars in their own right.
Although they couldn't compare with real sports stars, they still gained their own fan base.
For these former gaming enthusiasts, this was a significant leap forward.
The finals officially began in September, with numerous players selected from the United States, Japan, and other scattered regions converging in Seoul, South Korea.
At this point, electronic product manufacturers who saw business opportunities suddenly realized the potential of electronic sports. Many of them regretted not investing in electronic sports from the beginning.
However, the initial investors, Japanese conglomerates, and South Korean conglomerates made substantial profits.
Some earned money and fame, while others took the opportunity to promote their products, leading to a slight increase in their sales figures.
Games like StarCraft are ideal for advertising peripherals such as headphones, mice, keyboards, and monitors.
As long as esports athletes use specific products, it's equivalent to advertising for the manufacturers.
Among them, several electronic companies from South Korea were the most prominent advertisers.
"Players from all over the world! Welcome to the first World Electronic Sports Championship. Here, you can find like-minded partners and formidable opponents. Here, there are passionate battles and unforgettable Korean culture. Enjoy this World Electronic Sports Championship to the fullest! Win your glory!"
In the largest stadium in Seoul, multiple electronic sports events officially began on the same day.
The broadcasting rights were handed over to Tokyo Television Station, which would be responsible for all broadcasting rights for the next five years. Gamestar Entertainment could just focus on counting money.
Of course, not all the money from broadcasting rights goes to Gamestar Entertainment and Tokyo Television Station.
About thirty percent of it is allocated for prize money incentives and club dividends.
This is the model learned from traditional sports events.
Sell the broadcasting rights and then distribute the money earned to multiple players' clubs under the esports umbrella.
In addition to the money from broadcasting rights, a portion of the advertising fees also goes to the clubs.
At present, these funds may not seem particularly substantial, but they already show signs of profitability for these esports clubs.
As long as esports can truly grow to the scale of traditional events like FIFA or the Super Bowl, these esports clubs will truly profit instead of merely surviving on passion.
This was also the promise made by Gamestar Entertainment from the beginning to the conglomerates that initially founded multiple clubs.
Their contributions will inevitably be rewarded handsomely in the near future.
Previously, the esports showdown between the United States and Japan had already allowed some esports clubs to make some money.
And this time, the scale of esports has once again risen to a new level.
Previously, it was just a small-scale event between local conglomerates and Gamestar Entertainment.
The so-called Japan-US showdown was just a gimmick.
But this time, when a country took the lead in hosting, the style immediately changed.
However, not all countries can do this. South Korea had no choice. Esports might be an opportunity for them to turn the tide, but other countries have better ways of development and simply look down on esports, let alone consider it a strategic national development plan.
It can be said that only the slightly quirky mindset of the Koreans, led by the government, can take on such tasks.
And the results have proved to be quite good.
On the day after the opening of the competition, Tokyo Television Station released the live broadcast statistics.
The number of online viewers was approximately one million.
These one million people were mainly concentrated in the United States and South Korea, with Japan ranking third.
As for television broadcasts, multiple TV stations jointly aired the event, but Japan's enthusiasm for esports still couldn't match that of South Korea and the United States, which slightly surprised Tokyo Television Station. They thought they could take a different path through this broadcast of the event.
It seems that the Japanese people are still somewhat conservative. Traditional sports events still dominate, and they temporarily cannot accept this new form of competition.
South Korea, on the other hand, had government support and the enthusiasm of young people, leading to good ratings.
And as for the United States, there's no need to say more.
In the United States, electronic games have become the trendiest thing, with almost all young people loving them. Moreover, Americans have a strong sense of competition, especially among young people who want to see the United States dominate in various competitive programs.
Then, the next month was a melee of various esports events.
First, Street Fighter crowned its champion, won by a player from Japan.
The American player took second place.
This was news worth promoting. The Japanese economic news printed the latest newspaper reports on the same day, filled with praise for the Street Fighter champion. The next day, there were all kinds of flattering words about the Street Fighter champion in the Japanese economic news. At the same time, the Japanese economic news also took the opportunity to praise Street Fighter, saying that the game effectively promoted Eastern culture and made martial arts the trendiest thing today.
Such promotion was actually because the Japanese economic news had shares in Gamestar Entertainment.
After years of hard work, a friend of Takayuki's father had already been promoted from a vice-director with practical power to the new director of the economic news.
Naturally, the assets and shares he controlled could be connected to the Japanese economic news company, so they would enthusiastically praise Gamestar Entertainment as a matter of course.
In this esports championship, Gamestar Entertainment also participated and personally presented the championship trophy to the first winner of the world championship.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone