Chapter 906: “Coming Out Of The Coc.o.o.n Without Becoming A b.u.t.terfly”
Meng Chang actually did not know much about E-Sports because it was a new industry and he was not too interested in it after all.
He did not watch E-Sports compet.i.tions or play related games.
However, Meng Chang was smart. He could look up information from various aspects in areas he did not understand.
E-Sports was a new industry that was filled with controversy from the beginning. There were many hot topics on the internet. It was extremely easy to find some dirt.
He did not have to understand it too deeply. After all, he only wanted to shoot an E-Sports promotional video.
It was just like shooting a promotional video for a racing car. There was no need for him to really run the racing track and understand the specifications of the car, right?
Thus, Meng Chang spent some time looking for some information online and collecting some material.
What surprised him was that Tengda’s Fei Huang Works.p.a.ce had even produced a doc.u.mentary about the e-sports industry previously. At that time, it had caused quite a good response.
The doc.u.mentary was called ‘Coming Out of the Coc.o.o.n as a b.u.t.terfly’. It mainly talked about the journey of a professional player who played Counter Strike.
He trained for at least 14 hours a day and rarely saw his friends and family. There were almost no holidays… His father locked him at home when he decided to play professionally. He was the one who kicked the door open and ran to Shanghai to start his career.
All in all, there was one thing that stood out: Hards.h.i.+p.
The entire doc.u.mentary was very realistic, including interviews by the relevant personnel, the training base, and the actual scenes of the professional players’ hometown. All the details were there.
Meng Chang believed in Fei Huang Works.p.a.ce’s professionalism. This doc.u.mentary was definitely realistic and the audience’s feedback proved that.
“Very good, this doc.u.mentary saved me a lot of trouble.”
“I don’t have to spend a few more weeks on field research with such a film that allows me to understand the E-Sports industry better.”
The Advertis.e.m.e.nt and marketing department had a lot of funds and was fully supportive of field inspection but Meng Chang was not interested in that.
It had nothing to do with him no matter how much money the department had!
He just wanted to finish this publicity project as soon as possible and get his commission. He did not care about anything else.
The doc.u.mentary was filmed in June 2010, about a year and a half ago.
Meng Chang felt that the E-Sports industry’s environment and ecology would not undergo any outrageous changes in just a year and a half, right?
After reading the relevant information, Meng Chang quickly locked onto the few key “black spots” of this publicity.
The current E-Sports industry was still in a state of chaos. For example, there were compet.i.tors’ salary disputes, clubs squeezing players, treatment of bottom tier players were too bad, and there was basically no good way out after entering the industry with difficulty. These were all objective problems.
He could easily find similar news.
However, he didn’t find much negative news about GPL. That made Meng Chang feel a little pity that he couldn’t include it in the film.
However, on further thought, this was normal. GPL involved too much capital. Even a big company like Shenhua Corporation had entered. Every sponsor was richer than the other. How could they let these negative news leak out and spread like wildfire on the internet?
They must have been removed by public relations.
However, this did not affect Meng Chang’s performance. In any case, the E-Sports industry was similar. Even if the GPL was done well, it should not be able to fundamentally change the characteristics of this industry fundamentally.
After much consideration, Meng Chang found a perfect entry point among these key “black spots”.
In the past, the promotional videos of the E-Sports industry had basically focused on the top of the pyramid. That was the small group of people who had won the world champions.h.i.+p and achieved success.
For example, Coming Out of the Coc.o.o.n as a b.u.t.terfly was a former professional gamer who won the world champions.h.i.+p in Counter Strike. Recently, there were also media outlets hoping to shoot a doc.u.mentary for FV Club to introduce the process of them winning the IOI global finals.
The content was easy to imagine: First, introduce the poor background of these professional players, how incomprehensible their families were when they chose to play E-Sports, how hardworking they were in pursuing their dreams, and what achievements they achieved in the end…
These were all basic tactics.
On the other hand, Meng Chang wanted to do the opposite. He did not want to film the small group of people at the top of the pyramid. Instead, he wanted to film those professional players who had poor results and were unknown. He wanted to film those internet addicts who had dreams of being a professional but could not enter the industry!
These people’s lives could be said to be very tragic.
He could find many similar reports searching online.
Many professional players had very low salaries when they entered the industry. They were happy if they could afford their meals. The training environment was also very bad. It might be called a training base, but it was actually a large internet cafe.
Meng Chang also found some photos of veteran clubs like H4 online. The living environment of the players was really not flattering.
What’s more, this was only a small group of people who could become professional players. What about those who could not become professional players?
It was said that the college entrance examination was like a huge army crossing a single wooden bridge. However, the E-Sports road was scarier than the college entrance examination because there were too few people needed in the entire industry.
Meng Chang had a rough idea and quickly wrote a general outline at that thought.
The other promotional videos were all about the successful stories of the teenager chasing his dreams. However, Meng Chang’s promotional video was about the failure of the teenager chasing his dreams!
…
The protagonist of the promotional video was a young man.
The first scene was him playing GOG with high concentration in a dark internet cafe. In the game, the enemy had already arrived. He operated crazily and fought the enemy on his own high ground. However, he was instantly killed by the opponent’s skills after a flashy operation. The bright red words ‘failure’ appeared on the screen.
The young man felt defeated. He took off his earphones and looked at the word ‘failure’ silently.
However, the young man mustered his courage and prepared to win right on the heels of the next game.
At that moment, a middle-aged man stood behind him and pulled him up from his seat.
“Dad?” The young man looked stunned.
The middle-aged man’s face was ashen as he dragged him home.
In the second scene, the young man was dragged home by his father. Their conditions were not too good from the environment at home.
The father and son burst into an intense argument. His father was so angry that his face turned red. He picked up a feather duster from the side and was about to hit him.
The young man was so angry that he shouted. “Kill me!”
However, his father raised his hand and slammed the feather duster onto the ground. Then, he knelt down with a thud.
“I’m begging you, alright? Go back to school and study hard. Don’t play games anymore…”
The young man did not say anything. He returned to his room and closed the door with a bang.
In the third scene, the young man came to the big city alone with a few hundred yuan that he had stolen from his family. He went to several clubs for training.
However, these clubs rejected him one after another. One of the managers said very sincerely. “I’m sorry, your strength cannot meet our club’s requirements. The E-Sports path might not be suitable for you. I suggest you reconsider.”
The young man was sleeping on a bench in the park. He looked at the starry sky with a determined expression.
In the fourth scene, there was finally a club that was willing to take him in as a budding player. He did not have a salary, but they took care of his food and accommodation. The young man was very happy. He trained hard every day and watched the main players play training compet.i.tions and discuss tactics. He was silently envious. He hoped that he could be like them one day and play compet.i.tions and win the champions.h.i.+p.
In the fifth scene, the young man went on stage as a subst.i.tute for the first time. However, he did not perform well and was the point of failure. Information about him being killed kept appearing on the screen.
After the compet.i.tion, he took the initiative to apologize to the manager, but the manager did not say anything. It was just that from then on, he did not get any chance to play.
Just like that, he waited by the water dispenser as his teammates changed wave after wave.
Finally, the manager found him and told him to find another path in life.
In the sixth scene, the desperate young man returned home. He thought that his father would beat him up in a rage, but his father did not say anything. He only quietly prepared the food and said that he would think of a way to find a job for him through connections the next day.
In the seventh scene, the young man was moving bricks on a construction site under the scorching sun.
His father came all the way here to deliver water and food. His heart ached. The young man wiped his sweat with his dirty hands and smiled, saying that he was not tired.
However, he looked at his father’s back as his father left. For some reason, he recalled the scenes in cla.s.s and tears flowed down his cheeks.
Those days that he did not cherish would never come back.
…
After writing the outline of the story, Meng Chang checked it from beginning to end and was very satisfied.
This was called high-end reverse marketing.
It would definitely not work if Meng Chang forcefully fabricated facts and filmed some content that smeared the E-Sports industry because such behavior was prohibited in the agreement he signed with Boss Pei.
However, what he was filming now was all real!
These scenes should have played out many times across the country.
Moreover, Meng Chang was very restrained.
Unlike many traditional media outlets, he did not mix E-Sports and gaming as one, nor did he turn gaming into an “internet addiction” or young gamers who liked gaming into a sick state.
He had only wanted to objectively film the hards.h.i.+ps of the E-Sports industry.
The young man’s father did not beat and scold him like his other parents did. He was very good to the young man. That kneeling scene would cause extreme heartache.
The young man’s stubbornness ultimately led him to realize that his father was right.
There were so many people who liked to play games. Only a small portion of them could be chosen by the club to become professional players. Among this group of people, only a small portion could become the main force and obtain the opportunity to play. Among the main players, only a small portion could become a celebrity player and be known by the audience. Among the celebrity players, only a small portion could win the compet.i.tion champions.h.i.+p and gain both fame and fortune.
In other words, the entire E-Sports Road was like a huge filter. Only one in ten thousand people could survive at every stage.
What would happen to those who were eliminated?
Just as the video had shown, they had chosen the wrong path. The most precious years of their lives had been wasted.
Of course, Meng Chang’s intention was not to discriminate against construction sites carrying bricks.
As long as they could feed themselves and support themselves, there was no distinction between cla.s.ses.
What Meng Chang wanted to express was that while they were both professionals, some chose voluntarily it and some accepted pa.s.sively. After failing to walk the E-Sports path, voluntarily choosing a profession basically became an impossibility and he could only be accepted pa.s.sively.
How miserable!
Moreover, Meng Chang would also give the audience sufficient hints in some details. For example, when filming the club’s training scene, they had to film the club’s conditions, including accommodation, meals, and so on.
No eSports Club would be happy to film it as this scene was equivalent to publicizing their family’s disgrace.
However, that did not matter. He just had to set up a setting based on the information he had found online.
The game graphics in the promotional video would all be from GOG because they did not have the copyrights of the other games. Only GOG’s graphics could be used freely.
What’s more, using GOG’s graphics could also create an AOE effect on GPL. It was killing two birds with one stone!
After carefully revising the outline of the promotional video a few times, Meng Chang stood up confidently and said to his colleagues who were slacking, watching dramas, playing games, and sleeping. “Everyone, put down what you have on hand and come back to life!”
Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over.
Meng Chang explained the new promotional video in detail.
“This film is called ‘Coming Out of the Coc.o.o.n Without Becoming A b.u.t.terfly’.”
The reason why it was called “Coming Out of the Coc.o.o.n Without Becoming A b.u.t.terfly” was mainly to have a corresponding effect with the doc.u.mentary “Coming Out of the Coc.o.o.n As a b.u.t.terfly”. It reminded all young people who wanted to walk the E-Sports path: You might not necessarily break out of the coc.o.o.n and become a b.u.t.terfly, you might become trapped in your own coc.o.o.n.
Whether one could become a b.u.t.terfly or not depended on whether one was a b.u.t.terfly or just a caterpillar.
“What do you think, everyone?” Meng Chang looked around at everyone.
On the surface, he wanted to ask for everyone’s opinions. In fact, Meng Chang had already thought about it. Even if someone objected, he would definitely continue with this plan.
However, no one raised any objections.
“Not bad, no objections!”
“I’ll start perfecting the details now.”
“I’ll look for the venue and choose the actors.”
The entire advertising and marketing department underwent a 180-degree turn in an instant. Previously, everyone was like a flock of sheep scattered on the green gra.s.s plains. At Meng Chang’s command, these sheep immediately had a formation and began to take proper steps!
Meng Chang still felt a little uncomfortable even though he had experienced something similar once.
In his opinion, these colleagues presented two completely different characteristics at the same time.
The people he had interacted with in the past could often be categorized into two types: workaholics and slackers.
The former was serious and responsible for their work, but they would never be able to finish the work on hand. One would definitely not be able to see them slacking during working hours. The other type of slacking monsters would seize all the time possible to slack. Even if they were given tasks, they would take a long time to complete them without any efficiency.
However, the colleagues in the advertising and marketing department were not workaholics or slackers. If you said they were hardworking but, they played games and slept when they were not working. They would never take the initiative to look for work. If you said they were lazy, but they were extremely efficient when they were really working.
However, Meng Chang did not have much objection.
These people were very efficient. They could quickly complete their tasks which would ensure that he would get a high commission. At the same time, they would not have any doubts about his plans. No matter how one thought about it, they were perfect subordinates.
At that thought, Meng Chang stopped harping on this matter and continued to look forward to his commission this month.
There was a wave of reverse publicity on Bunny Tail Live-Stream, and another wave of reverse publicity on GPL’s side. Wouldn’t the commission be directly maxed out if the two effects were stacked together?
The publicity plan for Tengda’s physical industry might have been a small failure at the beginning but the high commissions would be his in the latter two proposals!
Meng Chang could not wait.