On September 13, at the Yongsan Esports Stadium in Seoul, two "Eternal War" teams from China, ME and SOX teamed up to present the first "Eternal War" professional team match outside of China to Korean audiences.

Yongsan E-sports Stadium is currently the largest professional e-sports stadium in South Korea, and it is also the first one, located in Yongsan Electronic City, the largest electronics shopping center in South Korea, which has been completed in 2005.

Over the past three years, more than 400 e-sports competitions have been held, including various sports, and on average, one day every two days has been held, which can also reflect the enthusiasm of Koreans for e-sports competitions.

It can accommodate more than 600 spectators, but according to the current development trend of e-sports in South Korea, it should soon be no longer able to meet the market, and the South Korean government is also contacting major game manufacturers to prepare to build larger venues that can accommodate more spectators to meet the growing demand for e-sports competitions.

The ticket price for this game is 3,000 won, about 20 yuan, and the entire stadium is full on the day of the game.

Sometimes some national-level "Star Wars" competitions, if it is not the finals, or the collision between star-level players, there will be some vacant seats, which are difficult to fill.

It's just that this time it's different, the game has been very popular since its launch for a week, and it has sparked a lot of heated discussions among players in recent times, and Korean players are also very interested in seeing what the Eternal War, which represents the world's highest level so far, is like.

There are even some people who come to see the real faces of the characters in the exhibition.

Tracy was rightfully the star of the show.

At that time, in the "Eternal War" theme art exhibition, one of the most retweeted was the "guardian spirit" of Tracy and Cui Xiang......

At first, many Korean players thought that the painting at the exhibition was beautifying the image of the contestants, and everyone knew that the painting itself was not very beautiful.

"Will there be such a beautiful and cute female pro? I don't believe it, so why not make a movie? ”

Although South Korea's e-sports industry is developed, there are not many female professional players, relatively speaking, it should be much easier to develop in the entertainment industry.

"Prettier than Togirl? I don't believe it. ”

Tracy has been away from Warcraft War 3 for almost a year, but there are still some legends about her.

At last year's ESCL Global Offline Finals, she defeated Luna, a Korean national treasure, and her popularity skyrocketed for a while, attracting attention and attracting a large number of fans around the world.

However, after that, she directly withdrew from the circle of "Warcraft War 3", and did not appear in the field of vision of players around the world for a long time, and slowly the popularity subsided.

Some players still remember her, posting a video of Tracy at the Seattle Offline Finals on the forums, as well as photos of her later attending some public events in China, to educate these players who don't believe her.

However, there are still many people who don't believe it: "Don't lie to me, photos and videos sometimes can't be completely trusted, I'm going to see real people offline." ”

In this game, Ye Shenxi and Xia Qingyu were also on the scene.

The two teams played a BO5, and because it was an exhibition match, it was easier to play, and the victory or defeat was secondary.

All kinds of fancy skills show flying, making people dizzy, just feel that the game is exciting, explosive points appear frequently, although I don't understand it, but I just think it's very powerful, team competition compared with singles, it really has a charm.

Ye Shenxi and Xia Qingyu were also in the audience at that time, and Xia Qingyu asked: "Do you remember the ESCL China offline finals in Funan in August last year?" ”

Put it back in time, when they were also sitting in the audience, the little girl on the stage was on the stage, focusing on the computer screen, crazy ** vertical mouse and keyboard.

"Remember, what's wrong." Ye Shenxi could guess what she wanted to say, so she wasn't very weak-hearted.

"At that time, I was thinking, you probably want to make competitive games for your next project."

"At that time, the agent of "Immortal Dao" hadn't been found, so you thought about this?"

"Why else are you taking me to the game?"

"Isn't that your own going to watch the game, we've also been to the playground, I just want to be a "playground simulation tycoon", let's go to the haunted house, I don't want to make a "zero~zero~".

Xia Qingyu stared: "Raise the bar, isn't it?" ”

On the big screen, Tracy dodged one of the enemy's flying props with a flexible displacement skill, and then in the temple jungle, by predicting the opponent's position, he successfully escaped from the pursuit of the three by circumnavigating the field of vision, attracting applause from the audience.

"Beautiful~" Ye Shenxi applauded at the big screen.

Xia Qingyu was unmoved: "At that time, I was thinking that it is a very mainstream leisure way for audiences in European countries to go to the stadium to watch football every weekend, and we won't mention football, but it is also a good choice to come to the e-sports stadium to watch a game." It became a trendy fashion and then became a habit of life. ”

Ye Shenxi nodded and said, "It's not bad now." ”

"The Eternal War" has already appeared on the stage at the ESCL China offline finals in Huangpu in August this year, and the World Finals in Cologne, Germany, at the end of the year, will also be presented as an acting event.

This is also due to the popularity of this game in China, as well as the good cooperative relationship between Ji Qinlin and the South Korean organizers. Sansang also found it a burden for the company to continue to host such a large-scale comprehensive esports tournament, and they were also facing the transformation of the company.

Since 06, subject to the rise of the won and a series of company management shocks, Samsung Electronics' semiconductor, LCD, mobile phone profits began to continue to decline, in the first half of April, their chairman Lee Kun-hee and vice chairman Lee Hak-so announced their resignation from the company due to the Samsang Group bribery and corruption scandal, and now Samsang is also facing the transition to LED TV and Galaxy series mobile phones.

"Last month, people from Sansang sent an email asking for the opinions of several companies in Huangpu to set up next year's World Finals in Huangpu, and they felt that we really needed this competition to promote the appearance of the game."

"How did you reply?" Ye Shenxi remembered that it seemed that the 09 World Finals were indeed in China.

"I just said think about it, just deal with it, they want us to pay, but we have to do our own World Cup next year, alas...... Non-stop. Xia Qingyu said in annoyance.

She was referring to South Korea, which has just been tackled, and is going to face Europe and the United States.

Ye Shenxi was also very distressed: "There's no need to do it yourself." ”

"No one, now there is only one Yang Wei who can take charge alone."

"The girl who dug it up from Shengda? Europe or North America next? Just let her go. ”

"It's all together, that's why I have to run."

"So powerful?" He thought that he should deal with North America first, and then Europe, but he didn't expect this girl to have a really big heart.

"Yang Wei will go to Europe, I will go to North America, let's do it at the same time, at least set up a studio first, let the platform operate, the stand-alone game market there is larger than online games." Xia Qingyu said: "She is very capable, and with the experience of South Korea this time, she will be much more proficient and efficient in going to Europe and the United States, when is your new project expected to be completed?" ”

"November."

"That's fine."

"By the way, if you can get in touch with some competent technical teams in North America, let me know."

Xia Qingyu understood what Ye Shenxi meant, in terms of the current domestic game research and development technology, especially in stand-alone games, there is a big gap with Europe, America and Japan.

This kind of gap can only be said to be freezing three feet is not a day's cold, it is the result of years of accumulation.

"What you said before, core competitiveness." Xia Qingyu nodded.

What is the core competitiveness of the herring fish network, if you want to really confront EA, Yubi, Villefort, Juqiang, and even Sony and Ren Jile on the world battlefield, can the herring network only rely on works like "Survival" or "The Origin of Everything"?

It may be an excellent work that makes people shine, or it may have quite gratifying sales, but it can't meet greater expectations.

It can't fully carry the story that Ye Shenxi wants to tell and the emotions he expresses.

The most decisive thing about the game is not the technology, whether it is the interesting gameplay, the exquisite level design, the in-depth discussion of human nature and the core of the ideology can raise the game to the height of an art film, and all of this needs to be carried by technology, which is also the biggest bottleneck faced by the current herring network.

Even a product like "Warcraft", which has been online for more than three years, and the planning case is thrown to a domestic manufacturer, it may not be completely restored now. For example, the current version of "Wrath of the Lich King", which is officially launched in November, has now opened the test, and in this version, glass slag began to use a large number of "phase technology" to allow different players in the same server to see completely different scenes and NPCs, such a technology, no domestic manufacturer can do it.

Of course, Ye Shenxi will also establish a talent training institution to slowly cultivate, such as this year Shengda has established their innovation institute, with a first-class salary in China, recruited more than 200 Internet engineers from all over the country, gathered in Huangpu Zhangjiang Science and Technology Park.

The condition given by Chen Qiao is that they are allowed to completely rely on their own interests and strengths, and set up projects freely without interference.

Not to mention whether such a strategy is too idealistic, whether these people can produce valuable products, and how long it will take to produce them, these are all big question marks.

How many years will it take?

Even if he makes it first, and then slowly cultivates it.

Thinking of these things, Ye Shenxi let out a long sigh, and Xia Qingyu reached over and covered his hand.

She was thinking the same thing.

……

In the end, ME "narrowly beat" SOX with an aggregate score of 3-2, continuing their unbeaten record so far, and when it came to the tiebreaker, it was obvious that both sides were angry with the mentality of entertainment, and showed real skills, and everyone didn't want to lose the game in front of foreigners, and really showed their bayonets and punched to the flesh.

In the end, this game was very fierce, the heads of the two sides rose alternately, and the economy could not open up the gap, and finally in a big team battle, the winners and losers were divided through the personal abilities of the star players, which made the audience at the scene addicted.

Ye Shenxi even felt that it seemed to be a little better than the "Blue Fish Cup" finals, and there was no prize money today.

Almost immediately after the game, many players have already posted their thoughts on major social networking sites.

The most common feeling is that it is nervous, exciting, and deeply shocked.

"That's how the game is played."

"I don't think I'm playing the same game as them, I rarely lose in the game in the past two days, I think my skill level is already very high, and now I feel that even my two most skilled heroes have a lot of room for improvement."

"It was a textbook match, and even though I knew it was just an exhibition match, I still felt very nervous during the middle of the match, as if it was the last game of my qualification match."

"Soon everyone will be able to see the video of the game on Pandora (a well-known Korean video site) or youtube, and I'm sure you'll regret not going there."

……

"I saw Tracy, and it was even more beautiful than in the photo, and I announced that I was a fan of hers."

"Want more information about Tracy, can someone help with the removal from the Chinese website?"

"Did the female contestant named Tracy have plastic surgery? Otherwise, how could it be so beautiful. ”

……

There are also many players who have ignited the flames of war.

"I think give us a little bit of time, as long as we train hard, we won't lose to them."

"The game is really good, but after all, China has been playing half a year before us, which is a matter of course."

After the media reported on the game, they also made some analysis: "Blue Fish Network has already cooperated with KeSPA (Korean Professional E-sports Association) and CJ E&M (Korea's largest entertainment media company with a game division), and according to the current speed of the spread and expansion of the influence of "Eternal War" in our country, there should be a corresponding professional league soon." ”

"Maybe that's when we can really judge what kind of game it is."

……

In mid-September, major Korean media successively gave their evaluation reports on this game, and the general score was around 8 points.

Compared with the touting when the national service was launched, the local media in South Korea was a little more subtle, even if it was some review articles that were indeed praising and did not seem to be against their will, they would also mention several games from their own manufacturers to make comparisons, including the upcoming "Eternal Tower".

"It's a high-quality game, and it's the first time we've seen a Chinese game that has real potential to be successful in Korea. It has been online for two weeks, according to the latest news, the highest number of simultaneous online users of this game has reached 150,000, and it is still 70,000 short of the record of 220,000 simultaneous online created by "FIFA online2" in 07, according to its current development momentum, it can basically be asserted that it should be able to surpass "FIFA online2" and become the first foreign game operating in South Korea, but the specific time is difficult to say. ”

"Even so, Eternal War is still a long way from our home game, with 370,000 for MapleStory and 290,000 for The Raid, which is a very difficult record for this game." - Game portal "Game Korea", rating 8/10.

"I've been hearing a lot of news about Eternal War lately, and it's undoubtedly the most talky game in the whole month of September, and a lot of young people are talking about it, as if the game took the whole of Korea by storm overnight. In the second week of September (September 8-September 14), out of the more than 8,000 Internet cafes connected to the country, "Eternal War" landed in the top 10 (10th), surpassing "CS Online" with a share of 2.79%. On the list of new game popularity, it is ranked 2nd, second only to the upcoming "Eternal Tower", we checked the major game portals in South Korea, and it has only been less than 50 days since "Eternal War" first appeared in the promotional manuscript. ”

"It is a fact that cannot be ignored that the great success in China has indeed led to its success in Korea, because we want to believe that it has excellent quality, and after experiencing the game ourselves, we can only say that it did not disappoint us. For us in the media, we'd love to see it collide head-on with the other long-awaited Eternal Tower in October. It's a clash of two of the best games from China and South Korea. - Gametrics, South Korea's authoritative game statistics website, rating: 8.5/10.

On September 20th, a breaking news caused an uproar among the media and players, Bottle, a famous Star Wars player from KT Rolster Club, innocently missed the MBC Star League (MBC top Star League) that weekend, and neither the organizers nor the club were notified in advance.

Bottle was directly judged to lose the game, and the club quickly contacted the player after the game, and Bottle calmly stated that he did not want to continue the Star Wars project and wanted to join the Eternal War.

As soon as this remark came out, the whole country was in an uproar.

Bottle's popularity and appeal are quite high, and he is almost known as the most talented Zerg player in the younger generation of players, and has won 4 professional league championships at all levels in the past six months, with a winning rate of 67.3%, a rising star of hope.

In the minds of Koreans, it should be the next generation of people who will shoulder the hope of the people of the whole country to compete in the world arena and continue to write the interstellar myth of Korea.

Now it's about playing a game that has just been launched, or a team competitive game.

Regardless of the punishment that this young talent will receive, there is no club in South Korea that has set up a "Eternal War" division at all.